Route: Les Chapieux - Courmayeur
Distance: 33 km (20.9 mi)
Start altitude: 3,749 m (12,497 ft)
Height Gain: 1,464 m (4,880 ft)
Height Loss: 1,818 m (6,060 ft)
Date: le 26 juillet
(Day off in Courmayeur)
As mentioned during the kickoff, the Kev Reynold's guide has the tour divided into ten stages in the clockwise direction and eleven stages in the counter-clockwise direction. While we have ten days set aside for this trip, we decided to go into the counter-clockwise direction as we were based out of Chamonix (near Les Houches)and a stage one of Les Houches clockwise to La Flegere
(which is supposed to be one of the most steep and scenic) in the rain did not seem appealing. We decided to take our chances with getting better weather later and end our trip with what was supposed to be the best views of Mont Blanc.This meant we had to figure out how to squash the eleven counter-clockwise stages into ten days.
Also, since we were playing the route be ear, it meant we didn't make dortoir reservations very much in advance and learned the Rifugio Elisabetta (the end point of stage 3 in the Kev Reynold's guide) was full. This didn't really bother us too much because the hike from Les Chapieux to Rifugio Elisabetta was only 15 km (9.5 mi) and we were able to reach that point by early afternoon even though we always seem to be the last people out of the dortoir in the morning!
The trouble with pushing through Elisabetta however, is that the next refuge is not for another 3.5 - 4 hours which is about an hour short of Courmayeur and if we're going to try to go that much distance already, why not push all the way to a major town where we could relax in perhaps a real room??Turns out, it was probably a good idea we didn't actually figure out that the full route to Courmayeur was 33 km (almost 21 miles) and that we managed to feel merely tired, but still enthusiastic about an hour before Courmayeur or we probably wouldn't have pushed all the way through. The final hour into Courmayeur ended up taking much longer as it was a very steep, windy, nauseating descent. This would turn out to be the most difficult descent for us (fortunately!) the whole trip. We were surprised to have some mild ear popping on this trip (I mean, how quickly does air pressure change on foot?) and we were surprised that I could get so nauseous with a turn-heavy descent.
Anyhow, we finally made it and stumbled into a cute bed and breakfast in town going for cheaper than the Rifugio and wolfed down some lasagna and pasta bolognese- our first meal in Italy! We could only think of meat and pasta after a draining day. We decided to take the next dayw off to explore Courmayeur as we've crammed two stages into one today.Lessons learned/confirmed so far:
1. The money spent on technical clothing is worth it! Priciest purchase: Gortex-lined, Vibram-soled backpacking boots great for all sorts of terrain (rocks, mud, snow, stream-crossings). Light-weight hiking pants with millions of pockets and which can be converted into shorts was the favorite purchase. Smartwool hiking socks, waterproof shell, technical shirts, technical underwear and technical towel all great too. Cheapest purchase: $2 foam flip flops from Chinatown perfect for use in dortoir, showers and resting feet.
2. Nothing dries reliably overnight in a cold dortoir. The occasional extra money spent on a room is good for that.3. 30+ km of hiking in a day is tough! And there are people who actually run/race the entire 160km loop! Granted, they're not lugging a backpack packed for a week and a half trek, but still! :P
4. There are enough potable water sources along the way to not need to carry more than 2L at a time.
Here's Towel enjoying an ice cream in Courmayeur. This ski town is super cute and very relaxing. Many people here are bilingual Italian and French. There was some English here and there, but we were able to get around in French. We could not eat enough pasta here which was always perfectly al dente (though our liking of the sauces varied from meal to meal).
Loving the day off in scenic Courmayeur!
Potato chips in Italy
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