Friday 31st August: Weather 4°C to 14°C misty morning overcast afternoon, cold all day
Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele to Rifugio Savoia DAY 12: 13k: 7h but 2h internet in Pont. Descent 700m Ascent 600m
Accommodation: Rifugio Savoia at Altitude of 2534m
Descending through mist to Pont
Breakfast from shop on seat
Phone connection and catch up time
More peaches and apple strudel
Looking down on Pont
Up through the boulders
Boulders, grass and pine trees
La Croix de L’Arolley 2310 metres
Chamois on the hill side
On the the Piano di Nivolet
Lunch at the trout stream
Feeding crumbs to the trout
Pretty streams through valley
Flowers in the English Garden
Flowers in the English Garden
Flowers in the English Garden
A relaxing easier day with very different weather. Very misty in the morning, overcast later but still amazing views with mist hanging deep in the valley. We had internet for the first time in 4 days and spent two hours in Pont catching up. Then then the pretty 300m climb up to La Croix de L’Arolley, before walking back along the same track as yesterday through the Piano di Nivolet to Rifugio Savoia.
There’s rustling in the middle of the night as the climbers get up between 2am and 4am for breakfast before attempting the ascent of the mountain Gran Paradiso perched behind the Rifugio. It’s 4061 metres high and takes about 4 to 5 hours to get to the top and 3 to 4 hours to descend. And the best time to go is very early morning before the wind gets up. We noodle off back to sleep and awake at 6.30am to pack and go downstairs to breakfast at 7am. It’s not worth having. The bread is stale and the tea/coffee is almost cold - probably made at 3am for the climbers breakfast.
It’s 4°C when we leave at 7.30am, really pleased we’ve been to Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele to experience the climbing culture, but pleased to leave too. The descent 700 metres to Pont is easy but eerie as we walk down through the mist hanging in the valley. e’re at Pont by 9.30am and first stop is the little shop that services mostly the camp ground next door. We walk out with yoghurt, bread, cheese, tomatoes, peaches and 2 apple strudels. There’s a seat near a mini tourist office selling canyoning trips, where we sit and have a real breakfast with a very hot cup of tea. It hasn’t warmed up much. It’s still only 9°C but the good news is that we get a strong phone signal from the tower way above us. I use Ian’s phone as a hot spot and together we sit and catch up on emails and blog for 2 hours because we won’t have internet for the next 2 days.
By 11.30am, the sun comes out and it’s a little warmer at 14°C. Time to leave, but not before going back to buy more peaches and apple strudel. The climb up the gorge through pine trees and huge slabs of granite to La Croix de L’Arolley (2310m) is very pretty. It takes us less than an hour to ascend the 300 metres from Pont. We pass a group from the UK who have stopped for a break near the top. They are going to teh same Rifugio as us so we’ll catch up again later.
The track winds through more granite boulders interspersed with grassy patches. Seems like chamois country and as soon as we say this, sure enough, a threesome appear on the hillside. Through more boulders and at 1pm we come across a little stream with a few logs - perfect for a lunch spot - bread, cheese, jam, apple strudel and a hot cup of coffee. There’s a few trout in the stream where the water is banked up to form a little pond. I throw a few bread crumbs to clean up after our crust bread and inadvertently create a feeding frenzy.
After lunch, it’s still bouldery and grassy until we arrive at Piano de Nivolet and we’re back on teh same track we walked down yesterday. The Rifugio is still an hour’s walk away and there’s a storm brewing in exactly the same place as we were caught in a snow/hailstorm 2 days ago. We pick up teh pace. It’s getting colder and the temperature has dropped to 10°C. We’re glad to get to the Rifugio, and pleasantly surprised to find we have been “upgraded” to a room with a double bed in ensuite shower. The shared toilet is outside but that’s OK the room is great.
First up, we have a hot shower to warm up, then wash everything and hang it on a clothes line strung across the room before crawling under the doona sorting photos and blogging today’s events. We turned the knob to the central heating as high as it would go to warm up the room. At 6pm, it’s time for a drink at the bar with the UK group who are doing some of our walk in reverse. They are from Birmingham and organise their own siz day trip somewhere in the alps each year.
Dinner at 7pm is superb. Thick potato soup followed by the main course of roast pork, baked carrots, tomatoes and green bean mix. Dessert is jam tart or creme caramel. We go to our room stuffed - again. We’ve finished our routine of photo sorting and blogging, so decide to watch a couple of episodes of Doc Martin I have on my computer. At 10pm, it’s much easier to go to sleep once dinner has settled for a few hours.