Le Tour du Mont Blanc: Days 5 - 7

Date: le 27 juillet
Route: Courmayeur - Rifugio Elena
Distance: 19 km (12 mi)
Start altitude: 1,226 m (4,087 ft)
Height gain: 1,138 m (3,793 ft)
Height loss: 939 m (3,130 ft)

Date: le 28 juillet
Route: Rifugio Elena - Champex
Distance: 28 km (17.7 mi)
Start altitude: 2,062 m (6,873 ft)
Height gain: 1,037 m (3,457 ft)
Height loss: 1,734 m (5,780 ft)

Date: le 29 juillet (rain, some thunder)
Route: Champex - Col de la Forclaz
Distance: 16 km (10.1 mi)
Start altitude: 1,466 m (4,887 ft)
Height gain: 742m (2,473 ft)
Height loss: 682m (2,273 ft)

The rest day in Courmayeur was lovely, but we still need to figure out how to squeeze the remaining seven stages into six days. We find an opportunity between Courmayeur and Champex. Per the Kev Reynolds guide: stage 5 between Courmayeur and Rifugio Bonatti is a short stage between Courmayeur and Rifugio Bonatti that starts off with a quick ascent, but flattens out; stage 6 between Rifugio Bonatti and La Fouly has a significant climb in the middle, but once at the peak at the Italian/Switzerland border, the trail eases into a comfortable descent; stage 7 between La Fouly and Champex is relatively short and supposedly the easiest stage of the tour in spite of the final ascent over the last 4.5 km (2.8 mi).

We decide to squeeze these three stages into two days by pushing through Rifugio Bonatti and staying at Rifugio Elena which has the benefit of breaking the stage 6 ascent in half. This leaves the rest of stage 6 and the entire stage 7 for the following day. While the route from Rifugion Elena to Champex is very long, there aren't really any better options of lodging and we figured we've done worse with our ambitious push on Day 3 from Les Chapieux to Courmayeur. We also purchased a pair of hiking poles in Courmayeur which should help a bit!

We get a late start out of Courmayeur. For some reason, we just can't seem to get going early in the morning! We see one of the British couples we befriended in the Courmayeur city center. Unfortunately, one of them had an achiles tendon injury during the leg between Rifguio Elisabetta and Courmayeur and had to hobble for a few hours before finding a cable car down into Courmayeur (at least he was able to get a cable car; that descent would be nasty on an injured person). The couple had to end their tour here and will return back to London. Really felt bad for them, especially as some of the best views on the tour have yet to come.

Italy really holds gorgeous views of Mont Blanc and we were blessed with great weather. The views of the massif really keeps you going for miles. We try to soak it all in as we've read that Mont Blanc cannot be seen in the Swiss portion of the tour. The hike to Elena goes smoothly. A heard of cows made a mess of the trail along the way and trudging through the mud makes everything feel heavier, but still, the views really keeps you going.

Resting up at Rifugio Elena, our last night in Italy:


Switzerland! The hills are alive! Sam has gone all Fraulein Maria and is belting "The Sound of Music" and, especially as we muscled our way through the final ascent of the 28 km (17.7 mi) day into Champex, "Climb Every Mountain".


A silver ball in the centre of the lake at Champex Lac is part of an exhibition of sculptures and installations by Etienne Krähenbühl at the Jardin Flore-Alpe which is on until 3 October 2010.
We actually deliberately left later on day 7 because of the weather. We woke up to rain and although the forecast was not very promising all day, we waited for a break in the weather before leaving Champex. It only bought us about an hour of no rain at the start. The trudge through the mud from Plan de l'Au to Alp Bovine, a 657 m (2,190 ft) climb over 5km seemed endless in the mud, rain and cow paths. It also became troubling when we heard thunder in the distance. Fortunately it was distant enough and we weren't at the local high point, but it was still troubling, especially when gripping newly bought hiking poles. We were freezing by the time we reached Alp Bovine where we took refuge in a dingy place which looked straight out of a fantasy novel. Hot water is a precious commodity in these parts where a teacup refill can go for 2 Swiss francs per cup. Still the small bowl of vegetable soup and two cups of Ovaltines at 12 francs were life-giving as we waited the storm out in the refuge. Fortunately, the hard part of the day was finally behind us and the rest of the trek to Col de la Forclaz goes smoothly.