Hiking to Refugio Bonatti

After our wonderful rest day in Courmayeur, we woke up ready to hike to the Refugio Bonatti. We took a “hike start” photo in a plaza that overlooks what we would be ascending. 

The first part of the hike was a gradual ascent up through the streets in Courmayeur which gave way to a meadow with the familiar TMB yellow signs pointing to various locations. Shortly after this photo a was taken, we began “a steep and wearisome climb of 3900 vertical feet out of Courmayeur.” (Trekking The Tour of Mont Blanc guidebook by Kev Reynolds)

Here, if you look closely, you can see Courmayeur through the trees as we made our way up the series of steep switchbacks.

We all bought TMB hiking shirts in Courmayeur and our “team” is wearing our shirts today!

Once we broke out of the trees, we got a first glimpse of the magnificent views of Mont Blanc we would enjoy for the rest of the day.

One of the best parts of hiking is the other hikers you meet along the way. When we were in Les Contamines, we met Dave and Patti from California. We had so much fun hanging out and hiking with them for a few days!

After the initial climb, the rest of the day was what is referred to as a “balcony” walk - a lovely walk overlooking a beautiful vista replete with flowers, cows, etc.

At one point, we crossed a rushing mountain stream where someone had built a rock cairn.

At the end of our hike for the day we had one more steep climb up to the Refugio Bonatti (it appears that almost all the refuges involve a steep climb up 😀 My guess is that they are placed high up off the trail for the most spectacular views!)

We enjoyed relaxing on the patio overlooking the mountain range and glaciers - I was able to get a cool photo that is a reflection of the scene in the window at Refugio Bonatti.

Beers outside were followed by coffee inside as well as settling into our “private room” for six. We’ve all agreed we’re now like family 😀 - and certainly, we could have been in a room for 20!

A photo of one part of the large dormitory room - our private room for six was a luxury!

We finished our day with a wonderful dinner with Patti and Dave. Tomorrow we will be parting ways as we are heading back to Courmayeur and they are continuing onto TMB Stage 6 which will take them into Switzerland.

Rest Day in Courmayeur!

Courmayeur is a beautiful town to have a layover day! 

We started our day sleeping in later and then heading down to the breakfast buffet offered by our hotel. We’ve been joking about when does “the taper” begin? Because we have some knowledgeable medical folks on our hiking team, the concept of a drug taper seemed like a good analogy of what it will be like when we are no longer hiking and eating croissants and all the foods that we don’t normally eat. So all day, we joked that “I guess the taper isn’t starting yet!”

After breakfast, we went exploring! Courmayeur has a whole pedestrian section where you can walk from shop to shop or to some plazas the make for wonderful photographic opportunities.

We broke into some “teams” - with Kevin, Greg, and Tom doing some people watching periodically while Chanda, Kris, and Betsy spent more time in the actual shops.

Because we worked up an appetite from our morning meandering and “the taper” wasn’t starting yet, we found a quaint place to stop and have lunch. 

After lunch, Chanda discovered a wonderful little bakery and we bought an apple torte for eating later in the day.

We then did some shopping for lunch for the next day as well as just hanging outside by our hotel relaxing and reading.

We found a dinner spot close to our hotel and were joined by Patti and Dave, two other hikers from California that we met along the way.

As we were perusing the Italian menu, we had to laugh about the one item that was definitely not on “the taper.”

Luckily, none of us ordered the Smoked Lard! 😀

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and served up the apple torte for everyone. We all thoroughly enjoyed our rest day in Courmayeur!

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!