2022 Tor des Geants Italy

Saturday 20th August:  Weather: 9°C to 20°C: Very Cold from Bonne  to Col Fenetre then warmer

Day 4: Bonne to Rifugio Delle Marmotte:  Walk 20.0k: 10 hrs:  8am to 6pm 2 x 20min breaks, 1  x 5min shop

Ascent/Descent:  Ascent 1,813m, Descent 1,350m: Total up and Down 3,163m

Accommodation: Rifugio Delle Marmotte

Day 4 highlight was reaching the top of the Col Fenetra at 2,840 metres. Coming down the other side of teh col was a memorable highlight too, only because we had to descend on the ropes with almost no foothold, hanging on for dear life. This was our longest day so far taking 10 hrs to walk the 20k from Bonne to Rifugio Marmotte, past the ill-fated Beauregard Dam wall, then up to Rifugio L'Epee before ascending the Col Fenetra at 2,840 metres.  It was a long 1,100 metre descent into Rhemes Notre Dame before ascending another 500 metres to the delightful Rifugio Marmott set on a high plateau just below the Col Entrelor which we’ll climb tomorrow. 

We’re awake at 6am and our apartment Grenier Barrel was so warm and cosy last night.  All the doona covers and soft lace trimmed sheets have probably been made by the older Italian lady who welcomed us yesterday.  The central heating was so good for drying all our washing. Breakfast was a bit spartan - a yoghurt each with a crusty Italian bread roll with butter.  We clean up teh apartment good as new before leaving at 8am.  

We’re not sure which way to go from Bonne as we’ve had and read conflicting advice on whether it is possible to cross the dam wall, but as e walk down the road, we see people walking on the wall so guess it is OK. After walking down a small track to the dam wall, we see hundreds of hikers/trail runners/dogs walking along the trail on the other side of the dam wall.  Not only is it Saturday with the usual weekend crowd, but there’s a special event on for trail runners around the dam including Epee and Bezzie. We’re going to pass by Rifugio L’Epee on our way to the Col Fenetra, so we decide to follow the crowd along a beautiful lake walk to Ulisses, the village at the end of the lake where the Ultra Trail event starts. By this time, there’s even more runners going in all directions.  We spy a take-away van selling cakes and coffee and I buy a fancy croissant with a doughnut to have for morning tea later on.  By this time it’s almost 10am and we’ve been walking for 2 hrs.  We can tell it’s going to be another long day.  

Up the path following a procession of families, runners and dogs. It’s a long slog to Rifugio L’Epee which is busy with day hikers. We find a spot to have coffee with our doughnut and croissant before taking off up to the Col Fenetra. It’s such a beautiful high Valley and the walk is a good grade.  We arrive at 12.30 but there’s no time for lunch.  It’s cold and we still have a long way to go.  It’s steep. Very steep.  And soon we encounter the ropes which we had forgotten about from our 2018 hike - we weren’t sure which Col they were on.  And believe me it was worse going down that when we did this same walk in reverse going up.  The ropes are very secure but the footing is washed away so we’re tip toeing across thin air hanging on to the ropes.  There’s no time to take a photo.  The track is steep for more than an hour and we need a lunch break.  At 2.30 we find a spot behind a few stones out of teh breeze.  Three day old grain bread, with two day old ham with a dash of Mayonnaise washed down with a cup of tea. No time to waste so we move on, only to find that 100 metres further on is an old shack with a verandah out of teh wind where we could have/should have had lunch.  The couple that passed us on teh way down were sitting there happily having lunch.

Onward down the last 500 metres descent, and looking across teh valley on the opposite side we can see our home for the night teh Rifugio Dell Marmotte.  It’s 4.30pm when we get tp Rhemes Notre Dame and find the only shop in the village to buy some bread and biscuits for tomorrow.  Then through the village to find the signs to Col Entrelor where we will find teh Rifugio Delle Marmotte 1/4 of teh way up to the 3007 Col.  It will make for a shorter day tomorrow - we hope (Ian hopes).  The yellow signs says 1hr 10 mins to Rifugio Delle Marmotte and up we go through the pine forest.  After an hour of climbing, we emerge from the pine forests to a plateau and follow the signs to Rifugio Delle Marmotte.  It’s 6pm.  

We’re shown to a dormitory with two other people and claim the bottom two bunks in a corner.  There’s a bathroom in the other corner and quickly we have a shower, wash out our shirts, and sit down to a cold beer at the outside table where the air is getting colder quickly.  Time to blog for a bit before one of the assistants at teh Refugio, Guiseppi,  comes and sits down to ask us where we’ve been and where we’er going.  But he also tells us the story of Rifugio Delle Marmotte and how it was built with volunteer labour in 2014 by a group supporting a charity in Peru.  Coincidentally I had already booked Refugio Frassati near Courmayeur for our last night on or Tor des Geants, also run by the same organisation but I had no idea they operated Delle Marmotte as well. It’s such a lovely friendly place perched at 2,142 metres high in the Alps.

The Rifugio is built on private land rent free for 10 years, and all the materials to build the hut were brought up on back packs . It’s now operated solely by volunteers who rotate weekly.  Volunteers also lug the food and essentials up the 500 metres ascent from Bruil in Rhemes Notre Dame, often carrying 40kg each trip, and doing 4 trips per day. 

Dinner is in a warm communal dining room.  Thick hot soup, possibly beans, followed by mashed polenta, but it could be potato, with three thin slices of pork, then a beautiful bowl of fresh fruit - a special dessert as the fresh fruit had to be carried up the mountain - no helicopters of mule trains.  We hear more about the charity from Giuseppe and how they run many refuges in Italy and Peru for the benefit of Children in Peru, Building Schools etc.  I buy a special technological T Shirt - light enough at 70gms to be an extra shirt which I probably didn’t need - but it was all for a good cause. 

The bed and pillows wis really comfortable and we use our own sleeping sheets and pillow case, but use the supplied super warm blankets.  We sleep from 9pm to 7 am after a long 10 hr day.