Couermayeur to Refuge Bonatti

9 September – Couermayeur (1202 meters or 3944 feet) to Refuge Bonatti (2025 meters or 6644 feet) : 12.61 km

The first 2.5 hours out of Couermayeur you climb, climb and climb some more and steeply at times. Along the way you get nice views of Courmayeur. 

Refuge Bertoni at the top of the climb is very pleasant enjoying great views and has great coffee. It seems many people make it a day hike from Couermayeur – have lunch and go back down.

 The remainder of the hike is fairly easy and picturesque, across wildflower filled meadows.

Although every step you take through here has beautiful scenery it is good to finally arrive at Refuge Bonatti. The place was packed but clean and well designed and the food and service were good - all one can ask for. 

(http://www.rifugiobonatti.it/?lang=en). Actually this was another last minute deal. For days before there were no vacancies in the Refuge Bonatti which is the only accommodation around there. It was only the same morning leaving Courmayeur we got the “good news” that they have 2 available beds (reservations of which had just been cancelled) in the dorm. Our stay in the dorm worked out fine. No one snored too loud!

Cabane du Combal to Couermayeur

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). 

After a little break we began our descent down towards the refuge Maison Vieille where we ate our sandwiches and had the usual coffee and relaxed a bit. 

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.