Crossing into Italy

We woke up after a good night’s sleep ready to start another stage. Just outside the Auberge du la Nova, we found a pretty stucco wall to serve as a backdrop for a photo. We also saw a burrow that was loaded up with hikers’ gear - some hikers choose to have their belongings transported and only carry day packs with rain gear, water, and lunch. It is a frequent question that hikers ask each other - How heavy is your pack? For those of us who are carrying our packs, every bit of weight makes a difference and it’s a challenge to see how you can reduce your pack weight.

The first part of our hike was up a winding road that we shared with a goat herder who, along with his herding dog, was bringing about 70 goats up to the pasture.

In addition to goats, we shared the path with lots of cows often having to step off the path around a cow or over a huge “cow pie.”

Soon, we moved out of the shade and back into another gloriously sunny day as we wound around the mountain through a series of switchbacks.

We had a lovely mid morning break at Les Mottets, a privately owned refuge. We had gotten the word from our friends Cady and Sheryl, who are a couple of days ahead of us on the TMB tail, that a “second breakfast” at Les Mottets was not to be missed! We decided we would be expending significant calories with our hike into Italy, so we ordered up some crepes and eggs. Note - Greg was an outlier who also ordered a morning beer with his crepes 😀 In one word - DELICIOUS!

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You can see that the weather and the view made the stop even more enjoyable.

After our break, we had some serious climbing up to the Col de la Seigne which marks the border between France and Italy. The official TMB guidebook says “the Col de la Seigne is among the most scenic.” Greg and I were particularly excited to see the view as we missed it completely last year. In fact, we had reached the top right in the middle of an electrical storm and had to scramble down to sit under some rocks to wait out the lightening.

We reached the col in time for a late lunch. The views of both France and Italy were fantastic and we enjoyed another hikers’ lunch of French bread/crackers, salami, cheese, and peanut M&Ms. We decided we’re getting a little tired of the hikers’ lunch . . . except for the peanut M&Ms. 😀

After lunch and photos, we geared up for our descent down into Italy - our destination was the Refugio Elisabetta. In the above photo, half of us are in France and half of us are in Italy 😀

The descent was relatively easy compared to some other descents and we enjoyed a walk through a valley filled with purple flowers. At the end of our hike, we had to make one last steep ascent to get to Elisabetta which sits on the mountainside next to Glacier d’Estellette and Glacier de la Lee Blanche.

After arriving and finding our bunks, we enjoyed an  hour of relaxation outside overlooking the glaciers before a delicious dinner - believe me, everything tastes delicious when you’ve been hiking all day!

Thankful for another good day!