Tour du Mont Blanc Day 6

We woke after a night of heavy rain. Blue skies, fresh renewed air, legs and a picturesque view of Chamois grazing out the window greeted us. Magical.

The forecasted rain had been pushed back, as it seemed to daily, but the big groups had not changed their plan to reroute, so I think my suspicion about the guides dislike for the group holds true.

We bravely broke our tradition of leaving at dawns crack and hung around for the 7am breakfast, and boy are we glad we did. It consisted of stale bread, one tiny jam, one postage stamp sized butter, a bowl of coffee and a packet of cracker breads. If nothing else, it was better than dinner.

We departed at 7.30 immediately after breakfast as we had a stinker of a climb ahead and rain was coming (but was it really though?). We began by descending 800m off the mountain and into the popular rest stop or start point of Courmayeur. It’s described as Italy’s Chamonix but I would argumentatively suggest it’s better.

We were at the valley floor, strolling through Courmayuer by 8.30, we made a quick resupply for lunch, then continued on, across town and started the big fat ugly climb up the other side of the valley. Almost 1300 metres straight up. Now, I’ve been comparing every ascent to Mount Snowdon, thinking, its like doing a bit more than that. Snakes reliably reminded me that most attempts up Snowdon start at around 300m.

The climb was a decent challenge. The first part: a big sweaty beginning, mostly through the shaded woods with short sharp switchbacks (zig zags) up the mountain , before briefly levelling out at the top of the (first) gondola station (which we could have ((should have)) just got on).

Just at our final switchback before this first quarter of the climb levelled off, a bike came flying through the air spinning 306° degrees, closely followed by the rider, who also flipped though the air and landed on the trail in front of me. What a nob. The relatively young t☆@t had tried to cut the switchback at the corner, riding down a 5m section of vertical cliff (no path), which, met the trail at a blind corner (which I was then walking around) and continued down the mountain for around 500m of vertical abyss. This guy was a total moron. But naturally my concern for the fact that he might be dead overtook my feelings of disapproving anger toward him for almost possibly killing me. He was fine. Other than being a nob.

We treated ourselves to a lengthy 10 minute sit on a bench and a bar, completely lacking nutrition, (mostly just air) as they were cheap and a baby food fruit pouch (divine). We were now in a ski area and proceeded up a dirt road, also drippingly steep. At this point we could have got on the chair lift. Like the guy that was hiking the first bit behind us did. Sensible man.

We soon reached the top of the col, about half way up the climb, and stupidly walked straight past the cafe of cold beverages and niceties, due to me having a complex about stopping before the top of a climb (and the impending thunder/not wanting to be on an exposed ridge still going uphill if this storm actually happened).

Onward to our third quater of the climb, where we smugly overtook all the day hikers who just got off the chair lift, up more vertical single track, a few kilometres to a depressingly shallow lake. We’d planned another 10 minute treat stop here too, but it wasn’t a swimable lake and was crowded with people so we moved on.

Snakes ran out of water and we were both running out of energy. The clouds were closing in. We pushed on, leaving the day-tripper crowds arriving at a river where we filled up and agreed to eat lunch, but, noticing we were a mere 500m (distance) from the top, we carried on through, arriving there at 12.30 completely out of puff after a 3.5 hour continuous climb. It was also a much better lunch stop than anywhere else. And a much better lunch.

My uncle came to visit before we left for France. Unfortunately he had some COVID so we couldn’t see him, but he did deliver a MIGHTY FINE package of COMBOS as the most perfect treat for the journey (CDT fans will know about these.) Thanks Unk.

We could see our accommodation, our second night in a hut, 500m below. We took our time over lunch and bimbled the last 3km to the valley floor. The scenery reminiscent of Lord of the Rings.

Our hut, Caban du Combal, houses a proper coffee machine and we had our 3rd amazing coffee of the trip. Things had also become a lot cheaper! Hoorah. We sat and looked at people, as is a favourite past time, for quite some time. By 4pm we could check in and had a lengthy tour of all the minute rules of the Refuge. It was pristine and we shared our dorm with two Italians.

We drank Aperol, again, and thought a couple of Canadians how to play shit head, before the best dinner yet, though a very odd combination of food… Pasta, followed by cheese omelette with mashed potato, then tinned peaches with whipped cream and chocolate buttons.

I slept horribly. Stupid sleep.

Bertone to Caban du Combal. 7.30 to 14.00 ish. 16.6km 1279m up 1285 down