DAY 36: Saturday July 7th: Walter Bonatti to Maison Vieille: 22.0k, 8hrs 45mins: 10°C to 23°C blue skies, light cloud,
How's this for a start to he day
Leaving Walter Bonatti - 8°C
By my Thermometer - still 8°C
Meadows and wildflowers
Time to check the GPS tracker
Looking back - Col de Grand Ferret
Mont Blanc peeping through clouds
Looks good- but on the wrong track
In the jungle - still on wrong track
Closed track - took 1hr to find out
Coffee on a rock near La Pallud
Telecabina - La Palud to Chamonix
Entrance to Mont Blanc Tunnel
Courmayeur for lunch - 23°C
Looking down the Aosta Valley
1/2 way up - looking back down on Courmayeur and Dolonne
It's really hard walking up - but they're on bikes riding down
Time to look up at the view
Maison Vieille - home for the night
Just another fabulous day in the Alps. It's cool and clear with light fluffy clouds. A saunter down the valley (getting lost twice) to Courmayeur then the afternoon climbing the Col de Checrouit (1956 metres) to our refuge Maison Vielle 750 metres above Courmayeur.
We're up at 6am, no shower - just a cold splash - time to pack and breakfast at 7am. The dining room is only 1/4 full - all the young ones have slept in. Breakfast is nice for a refuge - yoghurt, reasonably hot tea, almost fresh bread, with jams and butter. We collect our washing and shoes from the drying room and by 7.30am we're out teh door. Today we're doing a stroll down the Val Ferret, instead of going the higher route through the Col de Sapin at 2436 metres which we've done twice before.
It's an easy stroll around the contours, but quite cold at 8°C - gloves weather - as the sun has not rolled onto our side of the valley. We look back to the Col de Grand Ferret that we climbed yesterday - not a cloud in the sky. There's wild flowers all around - and though it's a blue sky, there's a ring of fluffy white cloud around the top of Mont Blanc.
The GPS send us up a very newly paved road but half way up we realise we've missed the turn off to the track - that's 2k extra. We go back and find a sort of a track that leads to a forested jungle - according to the GPS we're on the right track but at best it's a cow path through high grass. We go back - that's another 2k extra - lucky it's just a fabulous day and being a Saturday, we've seen lots of day walkers around the mountain tracks - but not this one - there's just us. We decide to go back to the valley road - that's a total of 4k extra. We head down he road towards La Palud, following the stream and come to teh bridge where the track we were trying to find should have come out - yes it did at some stage many moons ago - but there's a sign - Ferme (French), Chiuso (Italian), Closed - We can guess why - there has been signs of avalanches down the mountainside for the last few kilometres so they've probably decided not to repair the track if it continually happens - pity there wasn't a sign at our approach end.
Time for a offe on a rock - we're very close to a fast flowing torrent so we're both careful to not let our cups roll away - but just as we're getting up to leave, and I'm putting Blistex on my lips, I drop the small tub and it's immediately on it's way to the Mediterranean. We walk on down to La Palud, where the telecabina strung high above the Mont Blanc Massif to the Aguile de Midi near Chamonix - we've been on this trip before from the Chamonix side as far as the Helbronner stop just above La Palud - an amazing trip across the Alps. Just below La Palud is the Mont Blanc Tunnel - it was closed when we were last here because of a terrible truck fire that claimed 9 lives.
Down the road towards Courmayeur - It's already 12.15pm and the shops will be closed, but we had planned to have lunch, wait for the shops to open at 2pm, then climb the Col de Checrouit after. But we see a discount style Aldi supermarket that's still open, and Ian pops in to just get some powdered milk, then we'll go to the cheese shop in Courmayeur. But he's soon out again saying that everything is dirt cheap - we've just come from Switzerland where things are very expensive but here in Italy, it's even cheaper than France. We stock up one everything - we're about to do cross country for the next 3 days with no shops except for a cheese place we know of near Les Chapieux.
With packed food bags, we get to Courmayeur and have lunch in the park, just opposite the Hotel Walser where we have stayed twice before. It's such a beautiful day - teh temperature has reached 23°C and the Alps around us are just imposing. We have a 2 hr climb to Col Checrouit after lunch so we're both careful not to eat too much (Mountain rule 2 - don't eat before a climb) but we're starving after an early breakfast of just bread at 7am. We leave to cross the stream to Dolonne - there's a lot of weary walkers coming down from the top - it's a steep descent, and I'd rathe climb up than down any day - so would Ian.
We're mentally prepared for the long slog up - and it's steep - head down bum up but just a steady pace and every now and then we get to look up at the fabulous views that are revealed through the gaps in the forest. We can also look back down at Courmayeur and Dolonne down in the valley - the villages look so close. We continue slogging up - then we come across 2 cyclists riding down - just crazy.
After 2 hours of relentless climbing up a dusty steep track, we reach the Col de Checrouit and see the Maison Vieille, the refuge where we are staying tonight. We've been here before so we know the place well - we shower, do the washing, and hang it on the line out the back in the sun and breeze - but not near the horses (3 years ago one ate Graham's shirt off the clothes line). That's all done in 20 minutes and we rush down to the bar to see tha last of the Tour de France - Bradley Wiggins just wins the medium mountain stage with Cadel second. Time to blog for a few hours while waiting for dinner.
7pm is dinner, and we're sitting with 2 American ladies who are in the hotel business. It's nice to chat about the day's events - they had come from Les Chapieux today. Dinner is the hugest plate of Spag Bog - mostly spag, not much bog - enough to feed 10 people. But it's hot on this cold night. Main is sliced roast pork covered with 6 tins of peas. I don't care if it's tinned peas - anything green is good. Dessert is a small very delicate cream/tart/chocolate that's nice to finish with.
Back to the dorm, and it's another sleeping sheet night. I load up my bed with 3 heavy weight blankets that I scunge from other vacant beds. Lights are all out at 9.30pm