30th – La Fouly – Trient

We left the refuge around 0800 to take a bus to Champex (with a change in Orsiere). The second leg of the trip was a steep ascent, obviously saving us from walking that part. At around 0930 we were ready to start today’s walk.

Last time I did this we only took a bus to Praz de Fort (app. half way to Orsiere) after which we walked the long ascent to Champex and continued where we started the day’s walk and the rest of the day identical. I would like to point out that we were not the only trekkers taking the bus on this leg of the trip. While part of me feels like we cheated taking the bus this far there were another part of me screaming “Oh thank [deity]!”. Because not only was that part steep, until we reached our lunch stop we were not doing much else than ascending and ascending some more – and that lunch break was not far after reaching Champex.

So due to the long bus ride we only had a couple of hours of ascent before we came out of the trees and out on the open, traversing with a view that was a bit marred by clouds, heavy ones, even. At around 1300 we reached a small farm, Bovine, where we had an amazing rösti with cheese and bacon followed by delicious pie. Our guide said that it wasn’t nearly as busy as usual (there were plenty of benches and tables outside that should have been occupied but were empty) which might explain the huge portions of potatoes/cheese we had. It was fantastic and also very heavy, but luckily the rest of the day would be mostly downhill. When leaving the place there were not many who weren’t burping potatoes and cheese.

From here we spent around 3 hours descending to Trient, the town with the pink church. Rain had been promised for the afternoon and we did get quite the occasional drizzle. Not enough to drown us but enough to be inconvenient and make most of us don waterproofs. 

It’s obvious this place is in a town; plenty of very hot water and wifi though some people seem unhappy with the pillows in the room. Fortunately, it seems we are alone in a 16 bed room (being a group of 8 that’s not bad) so it’s possible to sneak an extra pillow to your bed. Because, I’ll admit, the pillows are a bit thin.