Walk down via Lake Miage, bus to Courmayeur and another bus to Arpa Nuova then walk to Elena.
 | We had breakfast at 7.30 and set off by 8.30. We walked down the track along the Vallon of Lex Blanche towards Val Veni, passing a waterfall. We saw lots of marmots here - they weren't very shy and large numbers of them emerged below the path, playing amongst the rocks. But it was still hard to get a good photo - the marmot can just be seen in the photo on the left. However, George did take the panorama of Mont Blanc below. |
As we went along we saw a ridge ahead which was a morrain, a huge pile of rocky debris at the edge of the glacier de Miage - which was itself covered in stones. We turned off by a small bar and went up to look at Lake Miage. The water in lake Miage is a whitey gray, the colour caused by its being glacier melt water which includes a good mix of crushed stone. The glacier itself forms a wall of the lake. Pieces of ice and big stones are continually dropping off noisily into the water. The ice also runs under the lake. Diego told us that the ice sometimes cracks and the lake quickly empties or causes a mini-tsunami. On one such occasion in recent memory several people standing near the lake were drowned.
We didn't follow the official TMB route along the balcony path because it involves a steep descent into Courmayeur and the ski lift isn't currently working. (The classique group who set of earlier did take that route and had a 1000m descent). Instead, we set off along the floor of Val Veni, passing a rather attractive blue lake, eventually reaching the Chalet del Miage - we sat in a field opposite and had a picnic.
We took the 1.15 bus into Courmeyer where we spent an hour or so enjoying italian ice cream and looking around the peaceful pedestrian area. We took the 3.15 bus up Val Ferret as far as Arp Nuova, above La Vachey arriving at 4 pm. From the bus we had good views of Mont Blanc.
After getting off the bus we continued the walk up Val Ferret, seeing some Lys Martagon in flower. We have been watching out for these pink lilies with their spotted petals for several years and were pleased to see them in full flower and we saw several again later on in the walk.
It's a pity that the rather attractive path through woodland is also used by cars trying to park. Eventually we reached a peaceful part of the track which wound steeply up to the refuge.
At 5pm we reached Rifugio Elena. This is a spectacular new refuge with a copper roof and has amazingly smart double rooms - first time we've encountered double rooms in a refuge; and what's more they had en suite facilities. The refuge is directly opposite the big Glacier Pré de Bar with its collection of débris below it.
We had a good meal: pasta, veal and mash, cheese and tart. But the happy atmosphere was somewhat shaken when the cooks told us they had an announcement: 'Italy won the match on Sunday, 6;4'. This seemed rather tactless in the presence of so many French people, particularly when they won on penalties.
Diego asked us to assemble after the meal for a meeting. It turned out that we were to be treated to Grola: a mix of grappa, coffee, lemon, sugar in a round pottery dish with 8 holes round the edge. It was brought to the table and set alight. Eventually a lid was put on. It was passed round - each person in turn had to use three holes, covering the two outside ones with their thumbs and drinking from the middle one. The name Grola refers both to the pot and to the drink in it. The Grola must not be put down - after about 5 or 6 rounds it was consumed. The taste was strong from the grappa - not all of it can have evaporated. Some said they slept well and others not at all.
Video of the Grola ceremony:
| Diary of second day |