Thursday 8th September: Weather: 7°C to 16°C:
Day 23 St Rhemy to Rifugio Frasati: 10.9k: 6hrs: 8.45am to 2.45pm: 1 x 30min stop
Ascent/Descent: Ascent 1,271m, Descent 348m, Total up and down 1,619m
Accommodation: Rifugio Frassati
TdG St Rhemy to Rifugio Frassati
Wonderful view leaving St Rhemy
Motorway to San Bernado Tunnel
Magical balcony walk above 2,000m
Alpine scenery all around
Morning Coffee Merdeux 2,250m
Desolate valley with us and cows
Stunning day on way to Frassati
Rifugio Frassati in the distance
Day 23 last night at Rifugio Frassati
Washing line with a view
Our hero Alessandro TdG runner
Lunchtime view twirling hay
And lunchtime view to River Lech
Day 23 was an amazing day in the Alps with clear view as far as the eye could see with a few fluffy white clouds. Highlight was getting to Rifugio Frassati and meeting Alessandro, one of the volunteers at the charity owned Rifugio, who is actually going to run in the Tor des Geants Ultra Trail as number 1453. He’s had his heart set on this race for 12 years and is one of the lucky 1,000 selected for the race.
Not an early start as it’s a short day, 10.9k with ascent of almost 1,300 meters but not much downhill. Breakfast is at 8am, and the table is set for just the two of us near the fire and it seems we were the only ones staying last night. Breakfast is muesli and yoghurt, home made cake, bread, croissant and jam with a hot earl grey cup of tea for me and Ian has a coffee. We leave at 8.45am and our host offers us two of her home grown tomatoes for lunch - yum!
It’s a cool morning as we leave St Rhemy along an old road through many small hamlets of only two or three old stone houses with clear views to the alps in the distance and down to the busy main motorway to the Gran San Bernado Tunnel. As we pass under the motorway, the old mostly level road turns into steeper track winding up the valley on a good gradient - certainly not as steep as yesterday’s Col Champillon.
It’s such a beautiful morning as we gently climb higher on good tracks, sometimes as level as a balcony walk. Then up to Alp Merdeaux at 2,250 metres where we find a good morning tea spot behind a rock - it’s a bit windy and cool now and we’ve been walking for 3hrs and it’s almost 12pm. Morning tea is two Spicy Fruit Rolls biscuits with a coffee.
We can see the Rifugio way up high in the distance, a bright shining metallic building sitting just below Col Malatra which we’ll be climbing tomorrow. It’s a desolate but peaceful valley with cows scattered on the sides of the mountains, and only 2 or 3 farms. It’s another 300 metres ascent and takes us one and a half hours to reach the Rifugio which is run by a charity assisting the poor in Peru and other South American countries. At 2.45pm, we roll in the door to be greeted by Alessandro and shown to our small room of 4 which we have to ourselves.
We’re soon having a shower which costs 3 euro each, doing a bit of washing, then down to tables outside to hang out the washing and have lunch of stale bread and the most beautiful tomatoes. There’s an English couple there with large back packs including camping hear, who have done part of the GR5 from Landry, a few days on the Tour du Mont Blanc, and now a few days on the Alt Via 1. The beer is warm but welcome, almost celebratory to be at Frassati, our last stop on our 24 day hike. We chat to the English couple and we’re joined by Alessandro, who wants to know where we’ve been and where we’re going, and then tells us he is actually doing the Tor des Geants 330 (the 350k classic) starting on Sunday in Courmayeur. We ask his name and race number 1453 so we can watch out for him on Sunday when we watch the start - his wave will be at 12pm.
It’s too cold to stay outside so we move our beer and lunch inside, together with our washing, and sit by the fire. We continues the conversation with Alessandro who has asked us what time we would like dinner - 6.30pm please. Then someone comes and presents us with the menu. They are all young happy volunteers here as part of Operazione Mato Grosso.
A Tourette bottle of wine at 6pm is a good way to start dinner which arrives at 6.30. I have polenta and Ian has pasta, followed by thinly sliced beef with more pasta, and a dessert of chocolate mousse. A small shot of genepi finishes the meal and we’re off to bed, making sure we each have 3 doonas - one underneath and two on top of our sleeping sheet.