Tour du Mont Blanc 6

We got up at silly o’clock for today’s dreaded 24 km 10-hour monster of a walk.

Leaving at 5.36 AM, we walked up to the Col de la Seigne in the dark and in light rain and fog, using our head torches. No pretty sunrise rewarding us for our efforts. I felt like an idiot, skipping breakfast for this.

On the top at 8 AM, we also didn’t see a thing, hardly managed to even find the marker of the border, and then the correct path down on the other side. Mr W did an impressive bit of navigation (he made me write that) to make sure we’d hit the right path down eventually and steered clear of the dangerously wrong path. And we almost came down where we had wanted to come down. We only missed the main path by a few hundred meters, identifying it by the visitor centre which, when the fog lifted a bit, we saw in the distance to our right on a different spur.

We were now in Italy. A large group of inquisitive cows first followed us but then closed in on a couple walking behind us, which shouldn’t have made me laugh, but I was just glad it wasn’t us. It started to rain properly, and pleased with ourselves, we put our new ponchos on for the first time. They make us look like bright yellow walking tents, but they did do a great job. A group of young walkers had come our way, but turned around before they reached us, discouraged by the weather.

We shortly arrived at Rifugio Elisabetta. It was still morning, and the overnight guests were still checking out. We were very grateful that we were let in at such a time, where the staff was busy with turn-around. Mr W ordered breakfast, and what arrived must have been an Italian breakfast - or Mr W’s Italian was rusty: two espressi and nothing else! We did manage to order some butterless sandwiches, too, eventually. It wasn’t quite what we had expected, but sitting down in the warm with coffee was very good.

On leaving the refuge, Mr W slipped and fell on his arse. The skies had brightened a bit, and we walked down Val Veny on an old cobbled army road, with a view of the great moraine coming down from the Glacier du Miage. We now needed to climb up and over a spur once more to then walk along the side of the ridge opposite the Mont Blanc massif almost all the way to Courmayeur, and with great views of Mont Blanc, le Dent du Geants, Glacier du Miage, and Rifugio Monzino. The final miles were downhill and by now, I was in considerable pain on every other hobble. Just above Courmayeur was a large skiing complex, and most TMB walkers stopped at Maison Vieille, but we had to walk a little bit further to Le Randonneur, a huge empty dorm and restaurant with us the only guests. Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce, then some pork or beef roast with extra creamy mashed potatoes, and ice cream for afters.

I was looking forward to a few rest days in Courmayeur. The original plan had been to have two rest days, then do the next stage of the walk as a day walk, returning to Courmayeur for the night, and on the fourth day, take the bus to the starting point of the next leg, walking into Switzerland. However, I couldn’t see myself doing anything other than putting my leg up for three days and drinking something cold while lying in the sun.

Cabane du Combal at Lago di Combal in Val Veny

Old military road in Val Veny