Saturday 25th August: Weather 8°C to 12°C except for last hour 18°C in the valley at Eaux Rousses
Rifugio Vittorio Sella to Eaux Rousses DAY 6: 17.5k: 7.30am to 3.30pm: 8hrs 45m: 712m Ascent 1630m Descent
Accommodation: Hotel Camping Grivola at Altitude of 1666 metres
A cold 8°C start from Rifugio Sella
Up the grassy Valley
Up towards Col Lauson
Track becomes rugged moonscape
Back to Matterhorn and Monte Rosa
A steep climb to the top
Col Lauson (Loson) - loose shale
Cuppa at the top in the sun
A selfie at the top
The track ahead
Trail runner coming up
2 Ibex 50 metres away in gully
2 Ibex 50 metres away in gully
A marmot poses for teh cvamera
Herd of chamois on the meadow
Lunch at Levonaz
Down through pine forest
Eaux Roussess in valley below
Another fantastic day in the Italian Alps. Highlights were climbing to Col Lausen at 3299 metres, the highest pass in our Gran Paradiso circuit, and on the descent, seeing a pair of Ibex at close range. Makes up for our dud walk last night.
There’s noises in the Rifugio at 5am. Hikers rustling around getting ready for an early start. We lie in til 6am before packing and going down to breakfast of fresh bread, jam butter and milk chocolate from the automatic machine. There’s no phone or internet connection to call home, so we’re out the door at 7.30am. It’s a cold 8°C as we head up the grassy valley on a well graded track, compliments of King Vittorio Emanuele. It doesn’t warm up at all as we soon reach a rugged lunar landscape and head up on a narrow track of loose shale towards Col Lausen - so named because of the loose shale. The track becomes steeper and looser as it zig zags it’s way to Col Lausen (3299 metres).
We find a spot in the sun at the col out of the wind for a cup of tea. The view back from where we came is stunning and we’re high enough to see over the tops of several ridges of alps all the way to the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa. It’s been a 2 hour slog and I’m still cold. It’s now only 10.30am, we’ve made good time thanks to an early start, so there’s no hurry to leave as it’s even colder and windier down the other side.
It’s a 1600 metre descent to Eaux Rousses in the valley below and the first section is steep, but not as slippery as the ascent up the other side. After an hour of carefully descending I spy two Ibex grazing less than 50 metres from us in the gully. We had been on the lookout for them the whole way up to the col, with several false alarms that turned out to be chamois on closer inspection. But here they were, oblivious to our presence, sunning them selves and grazing within camera range of Ian who promptly takes a myriad of photos. Seeing ibex made our day. Not to be outdone, a marmot pops up as if to say take a photo of me, I live here too.
It’s still only 8°C as we descend 1000 metres to Levionaz, a cluster of old huts converted to a rangers residence. There’s a water fountain and table and chairs outside - perfect for our lunch in the sun at 1pm. Lunch is a fruit and nut mix that we decided to use up, having lugged it all the way from Oz, plus a hot cup of tea.
There’s still another 600 metres to descend, and it takes us two hours to zig zag down through the forest into Eaux Rousses. Another 1k down the road to Hotel/Camping Grivola, our home for the night - we’re not camping but in the Hotel. It’s 3.30pm when we check in and our room is lovely warm and comfy. There’s plenty of time to shower, do our washing and hang it out to dry on our little balcony. Then there’s time to sort photos, blog and rest while waiting for the camping shop to open at 5.30pm.
At 6pm it’s just a 20 metre walk to the camp shop to buy beer, ham, cheese, butter, tomato and bread, which we then have in our room, spread on a towel of the bed. Tonight we won’t be going to bed like stuffed pigs.