In which the biggest threat yet to the H3H is overcome, I get us lost for a while, it hails on us, and we have the longest day yet.
The night at the refuge at the Alpe Vannino was not as restful as it could have been. For one thing, the mattresses in the bumkrooms were very thin... even doubled up one felt the hard boards underneath. For another, I was worried. You see, my ankle had started to hurt during the previous hike, at times enough so as to affect my gait, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hike the next day. In addition, Russ had developed some chafing and it wasn't clear if he'd be able to continue. So I tossed and turned.
Apart from the thin mattresses, and the Turkish toilets, the refuge was actually quite nice. The food was very good and copious, the hut manager friendly and helpful, and since there were only 12 people there we had a bunkroom to ourselves. But I was worried.
The next morning, however, Russell's chafe had subsided and my ankle felt much better... so off we went (leaving at 7:40AM). First a descent of some 800m along a long valley, then a climb of some 1200m past a 145m high waterfall (interrupted by a nice lunch in a restaurant... whose only drawback was that it took an hour and a half).
It was during this climb that I got us lost... well, not exactly lost, since I knew where we were, but I took the wrong trail and instead of turning back persisted thinking that it would meet up with the right trail again. Which it did not. So we spent roughly 30 minutes extra bushwhacking across a rolling high meadow to the right trail... NOT appreciated by my fellow hikers given that it was already a long day.
Around 3:30PM we arrived at the 2660m pass, which was quite rugged, and hardly were we over it than it started hailing on us (up until that point the weather had been a mixture of sun and clouds, despite a forecast calling for showers all day). It wasn't big hail, nor particularly hard, nor did it last very long (as we descended it became light rain), but it did make the rocks and trails quite slippery, so we had to pay great attention.
As an aside, a few days ago I added up how much time I've spent hiking over the last 10 years... and it comes to about a year (yup, over 360 days!). Most of that time has been spent hiking with others, at least two others on average. So that makes over three hiking man years... without anyone having an accident that required first aid or even that caused them to miss a day of hiking. That is pretty impressive, I find, particularly given the high Alpine terrain through which much of the hiking has been done... and also a tribute to how fit and careful my hiking partners have been.
All of which is a propos of nothing... there were no accidents today :-).
We arrived at our hotel around 6PM, walking through clouds, and very tired. My ankle had held up well (it felt much better than the previous day), but unfortunately Russell's chafe had gotten worse... it looks like he won't be hiking tomorrow ;-(.
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