backpacking | 2sparrows

Breakfast at Maison La Saxe was great, but we couldn’t stick around too long as we had 13-14 miles and over 5000′ of climb in front of us, to get to Refuge Elena in Val Ferret, Italy. This was also the one day we wouldn’t have luggage service, so we did have to pack enough for the hike, the stay in the Refugio, and next day’s hike, which definitely filled our day packs to the max! ( I think we all had 18-20L packs, though maybe Scott just had a Salomon running pack.)

We started in town and the B&B host took us on a few roads to a side trail which led us to the TMB. Cade Tischer (Jase’s son) was running a shorter race that stared in the morning. We hit the single track climb before the race leaders, but before long, all the runners were passing us. I’d jump in with a group here and there and try to hang, but I did have more weight in my pack than most of them! Towards the top, though, I was able to settle in with a pack of runners. Eventually Cade came along, and we also took some photos up top.

The next few show how many runners there were – and how steep it was!

And here’s Cade:

We eventually came upon a Refugio/restaurant (Rifugio Walter Bonatti) that was quite busy with day hikers. I had a beer while waiting for the rest of the gang, and Kelly had a coke when she got there.

I also saw this sign advertising a cool new family game:

Then we had a beautiful rolling hike for a few miles before a final short climb to the Refugio.

The rules here were a bit strict with where you could unload gear, what gear could come to the dorm style room, water/showers, etc. And the instructions were in Italian so I had trouble understanding the hosts first round. But another hiker was able to help us out.

Kelly was unfortunately the “victim” of almost no water in her shower — the signs that warn against running the water before you put your token in, to ensure the last person used all of theirs, were in Italian! So kelly only got a few seconds. I had a nice warm shower with tons of pressure but it was only about 3 – 4 minutes. I later learned the duration of the shower is based on how much water you are using, not how long you are using it, so it’s best to turn the pressure way down!

This was really the only communal dorm style Refugio we had on the trip — the other two we were fortunate enough to have rooms for 4, so the 4 of us were a bit more separated. There were probably at least 30 people in this room, and of course some stayed up late, and some got up very early — including one guy who had his headlight on as early as 4:30 getting his gear packed!

I stayed in a top bunk, with Kelly below, and Scott just a small divider away on the other side.

We had an early shuttle from Bourg St Maurice back to the trail at Les Chapiuex, because we had a big day in front of us to get all the way to Courmayeur – 19-20 miles and 5500’ of climb! We grabbed some breakfast on the way to the shuttle from a local cafe, but I found later my chocolate croissant was missing! 😦

I grabbed a quick coffee in Les Chapiuex, as well as a chocolate croissant to replace the missing one, while the others started out. But after I finished, I jogged to catch Kelly and Kelly and we hiked the 1st few miles together.

Some photos on the road and trail up to Refuge des Mottets, where we’d start our 1st big climb.

The climb to Col de la Segne, the border between France and Italy, had amazing mountain views the entire way. On the way down to the valley, I couldn’t find the water source — in hindsight it must have been up the side trail to a Refugio a bit. But I kept on going, which would later come back to hurt me a bit.

Our friend Jase was going to be in Courmayeur to run the GrandTrail Courmayeur 100k that night, and I started seeing these flags on the 2nd big climb… So I texted Jase to see if we were on his race course and we were!

I also caught up with Scott at the top, so we did the rest of the hike together… down a big drop to a Refugio which thankfully had some water – I had been low for far too long! I Ddrank a lot of water here, and then headed down down down. The ladies would end up taking the chairlift and gondola down from here, as it was an extremely steep 2-3 miles without any views.

We had a couple miles to hike through town to get to our bed and breakfast – Maison La Saxe, which was very nice, though not so easy to find! (All those little streets were a maze and google maps was not very helpful.)