TRAIL: TOUR DU MONT BLANC – DAY 3

DAY THREE – July 5
Had a terrible sleep and then god-awful coffee for breakfast but it turned out to be one of my favourite days on the TMB. Started the day in France, ended in Italy, ascended and descended two cols (one snow-covered), had to wait for a marmot to cross the road, and had our first true Italian meal.

What a beautiful day it was going to be despite the horrific breakfast. It was a make-your-own-porridge kind of breakfast. It wasn’t edible. But again, you can’t expect freshly backed croissants flown in by helicopter!

In any case, this breakfast was a good reminder to always have a stash of granola bars or other snacks in your pack.

We chose to do the variant trail instead of going by way of Les Chapieux and headed up the Col des Fours (2,665 meters above sea level). This ascent side of the Col doesn’t seem to get enough sunlight to melt the snow so the trail was very icy. Other hikers had carved out path and the only option was to follow in their footsteps.

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It wasn’t a race to the top, let’s just say that. Slow and steady wins the race gets there just like everyone else. As beautiful and challenging as it was the ascent on this Col isn’t what it’s about. ​It’s the descent that takes your breath away. This is what you see when you get to the top:

I will fully admit I didn’t really like that I couldn’t see where the trail disappeared to. Other hikers just disappeared from this vantage point. Not really a confidence booster.

But there was no other option but to go forward {Insert analogy here about how in life sometimes you don’t know where something might lead to but you must keep going forward}.
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Some hikers chose the option to slide down the col on their tush. We opted not to do that. Our friend Jaime, rather our fearless friend Jaime, lead the way down by stepping forcefully to essentially make a staircase for us. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t thought to do that. Yay Jaime!

​Underneath the snow were rocks and mud, which was actually quite slippery and rather difficult to walk on because it would catch your boots.

I love this shot looking back at the Col. The arrow at the top points to the top to Col. The other arrow points to some hikers. Looks how small they look!
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And then the landscape turns green as you enter the valley. We encountered a few small stream crossings, which was kind of fun and broke up the rhythm of the trail.
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TIP: Waterproof boots are essential because you’ll hike through snow and across streams. Don’t skimp on boots!
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You might recall at the end of my post about Day 2, I said we need new adjectives to describe the beauty that surrounds us. It’s easy to see why when you look up and catch your hiking companions in a frame-worthy photo like this:

The crazy thing is that by this time in the day we hadn’t even stopped for lunch yet. We were barely a couple hours in. It’s easy to see why this would become one of my favourite days on the trail.

Speaking of lunch, we stopped in Ville des Glaciers to eat our bagged lunches and rest a bit. There isn’t much there except for some farm buildings but there is a public washroom by the parking lot. Yay! A toilet – a real toilet!

While bagged lunches are lovely, we were quite happy to take a pit stop at Refuge Des Mottets for a coffee – a GOOD coffee. This turned out to be a grand idea because the Col de la Seigne was 800 meters up – just 800 meters to the Italian border!
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Ever wonder how they make the trails? It’s not just hundreds of hikers but machines that dig it out and groom it. We came across this spider-like backhoe machine. It was so fascinating to watch it navigate the narrow trail at such heights!

From this point the Col wasn’t much farther but it was straight up hill. I think it’s fair to say that we were all using our own ways to get there. I started counting my steps. At every 100 step I take a breather. The cool thing that that the Queen – Mont Blanc –  was always in sight. Amazing!

​Here we are at the Col – all of us, even the Queen herself:

As we started to descend the Col, found ourselves in prime marmot territory. Marmots are very cute and also very hard to take pictures of because they blend into the grass and rocks. They are playful and curious. If you stay still and just watch them, you’ll be entertained and if you’re really lucky, you’ll have a moment like this:

Our accommodation for the evening was the family-run Rifugio Elisabetta. This was day 3 without showers and we would have to wait one more day. But that’s okay – so did everyone else.

We had a really nice meal (with wine!) and sat with a couple from France who had just got engaged on the trail the day before – so sweet. We also met a guy from Utah, who we then called Utah for the rest of the trip.

And, how lucky were we? They assigned us to sleeping mats right next to a door that we could leave open. And that was delightful because outside was a rushing stream and that made for a really nice sleep. What a lovely way to end a fabulous day!
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Next: Day 4
​Go back: Day 2