8 September – Cabane du Combal (1970 meters
or 6460 feet) to Courmayeur (1202 meters or 3944 feet) : 14.35 km
The sunrise showed the mountain tops behind
the refuge off quite well – great to see. The first few hundred meters (yards)
of trail were flat and then it started up and the rest of the morning was spent
climbing.
As we climbed on the ridge we were
impressed by the views of the Glacier de Miage and then the immense rock walls
of the Mont Blanc massif with the valley down below.
You can see across the valley where several
mountain lodges are very high up the slopes – apparently for climbers. One in
particular looked like you had to be an expert climber just to get to the lodge.
We climbed upto the highest point of the
day which was 2430 meters (or 7970 feet).
From here to Courmayeur ski lifts cover the mountainsides.
After leaving the refuge the trail was all
downhill. We continued to descent through the woods for quite some time. The
slope was quite steep all the way and at points very steep.
Our booking.com lodging for the night was on the trail out of the far side of town
so even after reaching Courmayeur we had a ways to go. (http://www.hoteldelviale.com)
(The hotel location turned out to be an advantage to get on the trail shortly
while leaving the town next morning.)
Couermayeur is a very pretty small town –
everything is centered on tourism and skiing in particular.
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