Short summary: big day, fine weather, shrapnel and rock piles.
Given the favorable forecast I didn't push for a quick departure, so we left around 7:30AM. The first part of the hike was a bit of a slog, first up steep forest roads, then up steep forest paths. After a couple of hours, however, the sun burned off the low clouds and we came out into an area of high meadows and, later, alpine pastures. Beautiful views back across the valley, and imposing rock walls on both sides, with streams flowing down from snowfields and glaciers on the upper slopes of the Vanoise mountains.
The only somewhat incongruous thing was the shrapnel lying around -- second world war vintage, I'd guess, from various sizes of ordinance. Apparently there was no area so remote that it was not fought over.
The hike itself consisted of a long climb of almost 1800m to a pass at 2800m, followed by a less formidable descent to a refuge at around 1900m. Our new hikers did pretty well. Sofia was as advertized: fit and fast. Ioana gave her best effort, but she doesn't seem to have regained that indefatigability that she had before her operation last year. In addition she was carrying her customary pack -- almost as large as she was -- filled with various necessities (;-) such as a dozen plums and a pack of endives. She assured me that it had weighed only 8kg prior to the addition of food and water... but I'd guess that it was around 14kg once those were added. And that was simply too much.
As we worked our way higher Ioana got slower and stopped more and more frequently. I was playing sweep (hiking last) and observing what was happening I suggested to her that I could carry her pack at some point if it became too much for her. Not something she was particularly happy to contemplate... but at some point it just became the sensible thing to do: she was having to stop for breath every 40 paces. So I carried two packs up the last couple of hundred vertical meters to the pass. It was actually quite difficult because the ascent was steep and rocky... and you can't see your feet when carrying a pack in front of you. I was pretty tired by the time I got to the top... and glad that Ioana had persevered as far as she did!
From the pass we could see, in the distance and partially obscured by clouds, a very large and high mountain. With lots of snow on it. Was it Mont Blanc? I think so. The end of this section of the H3H is finally in sight!
On the way down we went through an area of artistic cairns -- sort of like a field of hoodoos or stalagmites (for those who know either) -- surrounded by many large areas of snow left over from the past winter.
Another lovely hike....
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