26th – Les Chapieux – Courmayeur

Lunch was bought in the shape of sandwiches near the refuge before getting a ride at 0740 to skip a long piece of road and getting dropped off, starting today’s walk. The ride saved us from what would have been a 1½ hours of walking. The drop-off happened around La Ville des Glaciers.

The problem with getting up early is getting up early. 

On the other hand you get to see something like this.

Not long after the start we passed Refuge des Mottes, the place we stayed at my last trip instead of Les Chapieux, and started ascending towards Col de la Seigne at 2516m. While the view was nice the place was also noteworthy for being the point where we exited France and entered Italy. The sun was high though the wind was fairly cold, but with a bit of walking around on the col we found a spot out of the wind and we managed to have a nice break enjoying the view.

Coming down to Rifugio Elisabetta we had our lunch. Luckily we didn’t spend the night here; looking into the dorms the very high capacity they boasted of (narrow beds in a row in 3 bunks) made it feel like a prison camp.

Instead of riding them up they dragged them as it was too heavy. 

Instead of riding them down the dragged them as they didn't feel comfortable.

We continued downwards, reaching a roman road in the bottom of the valley and continued descending for 1½ hours on road. Finally, at the end, we got a bus for 20 minutes which took us to the center of Courmayeur.

  

After having ice cream, we went to our hotel and checked in. Relaxing for a few hours before going out for dinner and returning to the hotel for a drink.