Tour de Mont Blanc - Day 5
Day 5 _ Sunday 14 July
Walk from Col Checrouit to Bivio Rifugio Bonatti, and bus to Courmayeur
17 kms - Ascent/Descent: 1134m/983m
Courmayeur was a beautiful little skiing town which had many little boutiques and shops to choose from if that was our gig but it wasn’t so we bypassed
Our day began with a steep descent to the Italian village of Courmayeur by a pretty forest path. We were told that it was the tough descent but we found it pretty easy.
We could have followed the forest path but we found ourselves off the trail and chatting on a very easy path down. R&R took the cable car to meet us at the bottom.
We met at the bottom and found this absolutely gorgeous deli that upsold all the way. Do you want bread with that, do you want cheese with that, do you want fruit with that ……. wicked business skills. We grabbed ourselves a delicious salad and carried on walking.
It is said in good weather, the walk to Refugio Bonatti is guaranteed to be one of the most memorable of your Tour du Mont Blanc. Lets just say we had bloody incredible weather and got the best panoramic photo of us and the mountains. the walk up was very hard and up hill all the way but the views were indescribable as we made it to the top of the mountain.
This was one of the incredible views my eyes had seen.
The variants via Col Sapin or Mont de la Saxe include more climbing but the views are arguably better. We chose Col Sapin because our legs couldn’t do any more climbing that day but whatever route we choose, Rifugio Bonatti, is the crème de la crème of alpine refuges and we needed to see this and complete out walk knowing we had finished all hikes.
Once at the top and a very cold beer at Rifugio Bonatti which I must say might have been the sweetest beer I needed on our journey, we walked back down to the bus where I found a rushing stream to put my very weary legs in ….. let call it an ice bath on the run.
This I would say was my down day and needed to sleep or rest my legs. Feeling a little grumpy today. Rocks, twisted ankles, sore legs but healing.
Once in Courmayeur, we made our way up to the Refuge Bertone before taking the main route around the flank of de la Saxe on an undulating path giving you plenty of time to take in the dramatic icy panorama of the Mont Blanc Massif and Grand Jorasses across the valley. This was ALOT longer than we expected but made it in the end.
We found our very authentic Italian restaurant that didn’t look much from the outside with faded signs and dated decor but wow the food. We had basic tomato and mushroom pasta with house wine and fabulous combination of authentic cuisine. R&R had 8 eurs pizza, easy fun and no fuss. tired but heaps of easy relaxed fun.
We met the brits later for wine and football in a sport bar that night. We wanted to watch the the tennis but our walk took us too long and didn’t get back in time.
We stayed in Hotel Bouton D’Or - Courmayeur which was SO comfortable and felt SO luxurious. We had space and dried our washing on our little balcony equipped with a small line and pegs. Hotel Bouton D’Or had a lovely calm garden and terrace and was only a few short minutes from the centre of Courmayeur. The breakfast was so fancy. No backpack or bags were allowed in the breakfast area so we needed to find our lunch for the next day. The upsell deli was on. Salads all round.
Another amazing mountain!
Thoughts of the day:
● tough up hard walk
● up hill all the way
● crazy hot weather
● non stop chat was starting to grow thin
● lets stay on the route
● coke?
● the best views ever!
Catherine, Rob, RIchard and Connie. our British friends.
● salads on the rock
● rocks on the way down to the bus
● not buying bread lets find something better
● sitting in the hills
● stumbling
● F*** this lets go straight up
● Im now over this lets go straight down
● Day 5 was incredible but our bodies were feeling it.