At this point, we’ve got the daily routine down: Eat breakfast at the hotel, transfer to the starting point of our day’s hike, climb up a mountain, eat a picnic lunch on said mountain, go down the mountain (and, try to stay upright). Rinse and repeat.
That’s not to say that our days are boring or redundant. Quite the opposite. The terrain of the trail and the scenery are so different each day. Today was “Glacier Day.”
Our day started with a public bus transfer to La Visaille, Italy where our hike began at the bottom of the debris-covered Miage glacier. The terrain was a combination of paved and gravel roads uphill to the first refuge in the Lee Blanche valley.
It was a peaceful walk to Lac Combal, as we walked next to a glacial stream with a view of where we are headed looming in front of us.
A small shelter located next to the lake. Look closely to see the USB charging station!
I really enjoyed the scenery of this part of the hike with water on one side and mountains and glaciers on the other side of us. The easy terrain was a nice relief.
Of course, this wouldn’t be TMB without some rocks and step ups. Our guide offered us a “shortcut” off the gravel road for the final ascent to the refuge (Rifugio Elisabetta). Since it was uphill rather than downhill, I felt comfortable enough to take it. But, it was definitely not an “easy” shortcut!
I enjoyed my usual Coke Zero at the refuge, feeling good that there was still more climbing ahead. But, wait, why are we going back downhill? Ugh. To my surprise, we had to descend a small technical section in order to get back to the gravel road before we continued onward and upward.
Since the rest of the uphill wasn’t a technical section, our guide allowed us to continue climbing up ahead of the group if we wanted to. Ron and I waited for the group at the wooden bridge, then our guide selected a spot that was relatively shielded from the wind for lunch.
After lunch, we climbed the remaining trail up to the pass (with a brief stop at la Casermetta al Col de La Seigne to see the informational exhibit about Mont Blanc).
As we ascended the top of the Seigne pass (8,254 feet), we re-entered France (Kurt is still in Italy, and I’m in France)!
Now, it was time to go down! Thankfully, the downhill was not steep or technical today. My right quad felt fatigued from the descent though, but overall my legs felt fine.
Per usual, we stopped at a refuge near the bottom of our descent for drinks and snacks (Refuge des Mottets). Each step brings me closer to the end of the downhill for the day!
We completed the final part of the descent to La Ville des Glaciers, where we were greeted by goats waiting to get milked (our guide bought some Beaufort cheese here for tomorrow’s picnic that turned out to be delicious!).
A private bus took us to our hotel in Bourg Saint Maurice, France.
Our group had a late evening dinner on the patio of the hotel. And, I finally got the pizza that I wanted last night when we were in Italy.
Four days complete (today’s hike was approximately 16k with an elevation gain/loss of +2,953 feet/-1,608 feet). Tomorrow will be the Queen Stage, our longest hiking day with significant elevation. With rain forecast, I’m just hoping to get down safely.