Sabbatical - 8/17 - Val Ferret
We only spent two nights in Italy. All of our time in Italy was spent hiking along the Val Ferret, a long skinny valley running between the pass from France we had crossed the day before and the pass to Switzerland we would cross the day after.
After a solid breakfast, we walked through the streets of Courmayeur. After passing the guild hall for the Courmayeur branch of the mountain guides union, the city streets went straight up a street hill. When we left town, we kept climbing. Our plan was follow the balcony trail that runs high along the southern side of the valley. This trail afforded a fantastic view of the Italian side of the Mount Blanc Massif as it lead to the our lodgings for the night, the Rifugio Alpino Walter Bonatti. Our views were improved by the fantastic sunny blue skies, with occasionally white fluffy clouds floating by. It was arguably the most gorgeous day we were to have the entire trip.
The climb was steep right up until it wasn't. After a brief stop at another chalet (the Rifugio Alpino G. Bertino), we started walking along the balcony trail, which had comparatively little altitude change for the rest of the day. If we looked down, we saw the river running along the bottom of Val Ferret. If we looked left, we saw the peaks of the Mount Blanc Massif. If we looked to the right, we could see the green hills rising above our balcony trail. Behind us we could see the pass to France off in the distance, and far ahead was the pass to Switzerland.
We stopped and ate our picnic lunch in an alpine meadow that felt like a really good location scout had found the perfect place to film a remake of Heidi. We wandered far off the trail, sprawled out in the grass and watched the clouds blow by the mountains. Fortunately, at that altitude there are relatively few bugs, which is a significant improvement over most of the places I've gone camping. This was also the first time that anyone broke out the inevitable Sound of Music jokes. We were of course not anywhere near Austria (or the cantons that Heidi was from, for that matter), but no matter. Our guides had clearly heard all of those jokes before, but were remarkably tolerant.
We passed several small farms (some working, some long abandoned) throughout the day. There were also numerous bridges over small fast moving mountain streams. On the massif across from us we could occasionally see small dots who were mountain climbers moving into position to assault various peaks and needles along the way.
Our destination for the night was named after one of the most famous mountain climbers, Walter Bonatti, who had many first ascents in the Alps and around the world, perhaps most famously the ascent of Grand Capucin off of Mt Blanc. He spent many of his last years in the refuge, and they ultimately named it after them.
We reached the Bonatti Refuge, which was called a hut on a map. That was completely misleading; you should have a house as large and as nice as this hut. You weren't allowed to wear your boots inside, instead having to swap them for very comfortable fuzzy slipper. The showers were coin op (one token = 3 minute of hot water). Most distressing to the shy were the communal sleeping quarters. Our group had one large room with seven sleeping pads on each side. Roll over and you'd hit the person next to you. Fortunately, I can sleep through basically any amount of snoring, because there was a lot of it. I'm pretty sure that the REI group size was capped at 14 because that's how many people the largest room in the Bonatti could accommodate. The three guides slept elsewhere in the room reserved for the guides guild.
Three members of our group who were not feeling well on this day met us there, having been driven to this end of the valley and climbing up separately on the supply trail. Yes, supplies came up a trail, usually on mule back, including all of the food, which was excellent. We had a large and delicious communal dinner featuring a hearty bean soup. We also each had a small drink of the local apertif, which is called génépy and is made from a flower that is somewhat related to absinthe. I found it to be quite terrible, which didn't stop me from having a second one. I would go out like a light that night.
After dinner I went outside and watched the sun set over the mountains and talked to a young Israeli who was doing a portion of the Tour. Then I went to bed. May all yours days be so good.
Photos eighteen through forty of this set are from August 17.
After a solid breakfast, we walked through the streets of Courmayeur. After passing the guild hall for the Courmayeur branch of the mountain guides union, the city streets went straight up a street hill. When we left town, we kept climbing. Our plan was follow the balcony trail that runs high along the southern side of the valley. This trail afforded a fantastic view of the Italian side of the Mount Blanc Massif as it lead to the our lodgings for the night, the Rifugio Alpino Walter Bonatti. Our views were improved by the fantastic sunny blue skies, with occasionally white fluffy clouds floating by. It was arguably the most gorgeous day we were to have the entire trip.
The climb was steep right up until it wasn't. After a brief stop at another chalet (the Rifugio Alpino G. Bertino), we started walking along the balcony trail, which had comparatively little altitude change for the rest of the day. If we looked down, we saw the river running along the bottom of Val Ferret. If we looked left, we saw the peaks of the Mount Blanc Massif. If we looked to the right, we could see the green hills rising above our balcony trail. Behind us we could see the pass to France off in the distance, and far ahead was the pass to Switzerland.
We stopped and ate our picnic lunch in an alpine meadow that felt like a really good location scout had found the perfect place to film a remake of Heidi. We wandered far off the trail, sprawled out in the grass and watched the clouds blow by the mountains. Fortunately, at that altitude there are relatively few bugs, which is a significant improvement over most of the places I've gone camping. This was also the first time that anyone broke out the inevitable Sound of Music jokes. We were of course not anywhere near Austria (or the cantons that Heidi was from, for that matter), but no matter. Our guides had clearly heard all of those jokes before, but were remarkably tolerant.
We passed several small farms (some working, some long abandoned) throughout the day. There were also numerous bridges over small fast moving mountain streams. On the massif across from us we could occasionally see small dots who were mountain climbers moving into position to assault various peaks and needles along the way.
Our destination for the night was named after one of the most famous mountain climbers, Walter Bonatti, who had many first ascents in the Alps and around the world, perhaps most famously the ascent of Grand Capucin off of Mt Blanc. He spent many of his last years in the refuge, and they ultimately named it after them.
We reached the Bonatti Refuge, which was called a hut on a map. That was completely misleading; you should have a house as large and as nice as this hut. You weren't allowed to wear your boots inside, instead having to swap them for very comfortable fuzzy slipper. The showers were coin op (one token = 3 minute of hot water). Most distressing to the shy were the communal sleeping quarters. Our group had one large room with seven sleeping pads on each side. Roll over and you'd hit the person next to you. Fortunately, I can sleep through basically any amount of snoring, because there was a lot of it. I'm pretty sure that the REI group size was capped at 14 because that's how many people the largest room in the Bonatti could accommodate. The three guides slept elsewhere in the room reserved for the guides guild.
Three members of our group who were not feeling well on this day met us there, having been driven to this end of the valley and climbing up separately on the supply trail. Yes, supplies came up a trail, usually on mule back, including all of the food, which was excellent. We had a large and delicious communal dinner featuring a hearty bean soup. We also each had a small drink of the local apertif, which is called génépy and is made from a flower that is somewhat related to absinthe. I found it to be quite terrible, which didn't stop me from having a second one. I would go out like a light that night.
After dinner I went outside and watched the sun set over the mountains and talked to a young Israeli who was doing a portion of the Tour. Then I went to bed. May all yours days be so good.
Photos eighteen through forty of this set are from August 17.