28th – Courmayeur – Rifugio Bonatti

With breakfast being served at 0800-1000 the decision was to leave at 0900, relatively late compared to the previous days. This was probably a good idea as last night’s food festival ended up being a street party and half the group – including the guide – wasn’t back at the hotel until close to 0100. The wooden plate was a glorified ticket; you presented it at a stall, they wrote the stall number on its back (so you could only go to a place once) and you were handed a plate with food. There were 11 stalls and we ended up trying 8 of them; cold cuts, sausage with ratatouille, cheese & potatoes, minestrone, tartar on bread, blue cheese risotto (which was delicious and heavy and you were given a huge portion!), ice cream with liquor and pie. After the stalls starting closing multiple DJs played music throughout the center of the town, though the later it got the music turned more and more into Italian pop.

Leaving a bit past 0900 this morning we walked through Courmayeur and we soon started ascending – steeply. 800 meters of ascent later we reached Rifugio Bertone. They don’t start serving lunch until 1230 so we had half an hour or so of relaxation and enjoying the view before being able to order. Service was slow, but the food was good, so it took almost 2 hours before we were on our way again.

Quick group photo before lunch.

Relaxing with a view.

Leaving Bertone, we traversed with generally gentle small ups and downs on our way until we app. 2 hours after departure arrived at Rifugio Bonatti with a great view of the massif.

The lone walker. 

The rest of the day is/was shower and doing very little.

The relaxing view from Bonatti.

The light at around sunset.