In which we fail to see the Matterhorn and head of to Torino for a few days rest and reflection.
Rifugio Barmasse, was, except for its lack of showers, a nice place, well-heated, and with pleasant small bunkrooms. I, for one, slept well... and long, falling asleep around 9:30PM and getting up around 6:45. The day dawned grey and rainy, and with the forecast suggesting no improvement before lunch (by which time we hoped to be in Breuil-Cervinia), we set off without much enthusiasm around 8:30.
As it turned out, the weather cleared up by mid-morning, and we were able to do the second half of the hike without raingear. The clouds remained low, so we were not able to see the Matterhorn, but they were high enough for us to see the waterfalls pouring down from the mountains on all sides. At one point I counted 20 separate waterfalls along one cliff face. Those were small, but there were some larger spectacular ones as well.
We wandered into Breuil-Cervinia, our destination for the day, around noon, at the same time as Beatrice arrived by car (her knees being in the meantime a cartilage-free zone, she doesn't do big hikes any more). Having spent the last couple of days being pampered at the Maison d'Antan... she looked (and smelled :-) far better than our unwashed and scruffy selves :-). Nevertheless she and Arnulf offered to take Russ, Glen and I down to Turin with them, saving us a longer bus/train journey, which was very nice of them... and particularly of Arnulf, who sat in the back with Glen and I, and with two backpacks spread out across our three sets of knees.
Before we left, however, we had a pizza together in a nice local restaurant, and then said a temporary goodbye to Kristof, Corinna, and Benni (aka the Energizer Benni), who were heading off up high to get some altitude acclimatization (for an upcoming climb of Kilimanjaro), as well as to cross glaciers while climbing Pollux -- a 4000+m peak to the east of the Matterhorn. Clearly our hikes of the last few days had been insufficiently challenging! We'll see them again Monday night at Lidia's birthday, and we are looking forward to hearing how things went.
After an hour and a half drive down to Turin we checked into the very nice Hotel Victoria in the middle of the city, and all, except for Beatrice, made beelines for baths and showers. The first third of the second part of the H3H was over.
So, how has it been so far? In a word: very good. We haven't had the best weather (at times we have had to remind ourselves that it is summer :-), but the number of hours spent hiking in the rain has probably been only around 20% of the total, which is pretty average for the Alps. And given the amount of up and down we have been doing, cooler temperatures are far preferable to hot ones (we've been drinking 2-3 liters a day while hiking despite average temps in the low teens celsius).
From the perspective of condition, I have probably been the least fit... but not by much, so I haven't held the group up. Frankly I've been surprised that I have done as well as I have -- three hikes in 10 months prior to starting in Courmayeur is not really adequate preparation for the hikes we have been doing! Russell arrived in very good shape, and has suffered far less than his wont (although he has added armpit rashes to his list of hiking ailments... poor fellow). And both Jean-Paul and Glen have an excellent basic level of fitness that meant that although they found the hikes hard, they had no serious difficulties. Of the hyper-fit Nast-Kolb family, the less said the better (for the egos of the rest of us :-).
And the landscapes and trails have been superb -- great variety and stunning vistas: it is a lovely part of the Alps. And so it is somewhat suprising that, despite it being August, we have seen so few other hikers (after the first day along the Tour du Mont Blanc, which always has hordes). We've seen perhaps a half a dozen other hikers a day on the high trails... which is really not much. Perhaps it is because of the weather forecasts, which have been gloomy -- worse than the weather actually turned out to be. Or perhaps it is because this is a pretty remote part of the Alps unless you are coming from Italy... and I don't have the impression that the Italians hike as much as the French or the inhabitants of the Germanic countries (Switzerland, Germany, Austria) do. Whatever the reason, we have felt as if we have had the mountains and, to a large extent, the huts more or less to ourselves.
But I'm nevertheless glad to have a break. My ankle has been swelling a little more these last couple of days and I think it will do it good to keep it elevated and largely unused for a bit. And of course it will be nice to enjoy the comforts of a fine hotel, the pleasures of fine dining, and to spend some time with Lidia and Madeleine!
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