Monday 25th August: Sunny and Overcast - 12°C all day
Albergo del Ponte to Rifugio Alpenzu: 13.4k: 9.30am to 3.30pm: 6hrs ( Including 1hr lunch)
Accommodation: Rifugio Alpenzu
Bye Bye Albergo del Ponte
Highlight of the day was finding my glasses having lost them for 2 hours. That story later. The real highlight was the valley of Gressoney, a beautiful valley between high alps with the Italian villages of Gressony la Trinite and Gressony St Jean deep on the floor. We also walked part of the beautiful Grand Sentier Walser (GSW) along the contour above this valley to the Rifugio Alpenzu where we stayed for the night. The GSW is a designated walking track in northern Italy that follows the path of the Walsers, a Germanic/Italian group who inhabited this area several hundred years ago. It's a variant of the Tour de Monte Rosa in the southern section, that is much prettier because it avoids the barren ski fields of the Betta Forca.
The Alps are just so spectacular
Lake Gabiet is a picture
Down to Gressoney there's some up
Following the disused railway line
Vertical train line is unbelievable
Too good to not take a photo
Gressony la Trinite in valley below
Lunch near church built 1637
The only Alimentari in town
Pretty flowers beside river
Alpenzu Grande. Difficulty E is not for Easy. Italian for bloody hard!
Someone likes Marmots
Gressony St Jean from the GSW
Hikers at Rifugio Alpenzu
Rifugio Alpenzu, home for tonight
We sleep in because we can. It's a 10k day. Breakfast is a beautiful spread of fruit, yoghurt, meats and croissants. But we're not hungry. We stuffed ourselves last night on Bambi and Polenta. It's a bit sunny and a bit overcast as we leave Albergo del Ponte and walk the 500 metres to Lake Gabiet, via Refuge Gabiet where Fran's group stayed the night. We won't see them again as they are continuing to cut across directly to the Theodule Hut without doing the GSW.
Lake Gabiet is a dam, and we walk high above the lake on Track 5 which follows an old railway line. We follow this level trainline but after 1k it comes to an abrupt halt and takes a vertical dive. Clearly the train line was to help build the dam wall and this 45° line down was probably a cog line. But it's so steep we can’t walk down it. Track 5 does zig zag across this vertical line. It takes two and a half hours to descend into the valley. We arrive on the dot of midday and hear the old Trinite Church bells chime 12. We're wondering if the shop in town closes for midday siesta. We're in luck. There's an Alimenari with a line of people spilling out the door. We join the queue and buy mortadella, fiontina cheese, green leaves, some apple strudel, butter, tomatoes, nectarine and a 1kg hunk of nutty. There's tables and chairs outside, so we have a leisurely picnic lunch. We're half way to Alpenzu so we should get there well before 4pm.
We leave stuffed. Big mistake. There's still a 300 metre climb up to the GSW trail. There’s a cluster of stone houses left by the Walsers who terraced much of the high country to grow vegetables and tend cows. Passing between the houses, we're not sure if we should take Track 7, Track W, or Track 10a. After 10 minutes of more climbing we realise we're on the wrong track, and back track to the missed turn. Soon, the Refuge Alpenzu appears on a grassy knoll overlooking Gressony St Jean in the valley below.
Our twin room has a shower and toilet. After showering, washing we go down to blog, and I realise my computer glasses are missing. No, not back in the room!. Visualising our steps over the last hour, I'm thinking they must have fallen out of my pocket when I got out the maps to check our position after taking a wrong turn. It's 1.5k back and still only 4.30pm. I assure Ian I'll be ok and head off with trekking poles and a jumper. I run quickly without a pack. It makes me realise how important weight is.
It takes 20 minutes to get back to where we checked the map. Nothing. Ok, where else did I stop. Then I remember stopping at the “ladies” (Behind the big tree near a little rock near the mud) and sure enough there they were. It only takes me 15 minutes to dash back to Alpenzu and Ian is waiting with a beer.
The restaurant has a fireplace. It's cold outside. Dinner is at 7pm and we're kindly asked what we would like. No pasta thanks. So a plate of cold meats arrives, followed by Italian sausages with grilled eggplant and zucchini - really nice. Then a slab of chocolate mousse. There's two Danes sitting at the table next to us. It's amazing how the Scandinavians speak such good English. They've also followed the book Tour de Monte Rosa by Hillary Sharp and they too were caught out with distances. We made a pact to write to Cicerone and/or Hillary and set them straight on the distances around the Monte Rosa! It's so cold we're in bed at 8.30pm but first we hang our shopping haul on the door handle outside our room