Hiking to Courmayeur

Our hiking crew of six has done a good job of getting up each day, eating breakfast, re-packing our packs, and getting “on the road” by 8 am. This morning was the first day a few of us pulled out hats for the start of our hike. Notice how as the day progresses, we strip down, put more layers on again, add even warmer layers at the top, followed by removing layers again as we make a final descent. Lest you think we are carrying vast wardrobes, we’re not. In fact we’ve been joking this week that we’re either wearing “Pete” or “Repete.” 😀

The first part of our journey was hiking down the same steep slope we had ascended to the Refugio Elisabetta the afternoon before. Once we got back down, the trail followed the Val Venty valley for a long ways. Along the way was a beautiful reflecting pond that is perfect for capturing some great photos.

Alas, all flat trails come to an end - when we got to the end of the valley, our trail began a sharp ascent to Courmayeur. 

This part of the trail brought us into some very close encounters with a group of cows/bulls. We decided it was prudent to give them a wide berth as we were definitely invading their territory.

At one point, Greg had a “stare down” with a bull on the path - the bull eventually “blinked” and moved off the path so the rest of us could continue.

A good part of the rest of the hike is what is referred to as a “balcony hike” which means you are transversing the mountain on an undulating path all the while viewing magnificent mountain vistas like the above photo.

Later in the afternoon fashion choices to keep warm in the cool wind.

Eventually we hit a refugio high above Courmayeur where we had something to drink and put on even warmer clothes before starting the big hike down. Because the cable car was no longer running (due to end of season), we had no choice but to hike down almost 5000 feet. We gave out knees a pep talk with promises of a rest day in Courmayeur 😀

It’s a long ways down - notice the shedding of hats and jackets along the way.

Part way down, we can see the goal and begin to talk about what things we were anticipating in Courmayeur - not setting an alarm in the morning, a hot shower, an Italian meal 😀

Once we finally reached Courmayeur, we wound our way through the streets to our hotel - we were SO HAPPY to finally arrive and begin enjoying our “Italian mini vacation.”

Cleaned up and feeling good, we found a place for our Italian dinner (Kris is taking the photo - she was with us 😀).

Stats from today’s hike - Hiked for 8.5 hours. 1791 vertical ft up and 4800 ft descent. 10.84 miles.

An image from Tom’s Garmin of today’s hike gives you a visual for our descent - our knees were all hurting by the end!