Total descent, 1204m.
Tuesday, 28th July.
Up up up up down down up up down.
A two col day! The only one in fact, and the climb began straight out of the hotel doors. Today was the best day for weather so far; hardly any clouds, a little breeze and sensible temperatures. Usually cloud builds up during the afternoon, but not today. However from the forecasts I've seen things are about to change for tomorrow.
I've been using 3 main apps for weather forecasting all together, two of which I mentioned before. In order of uselessness the Met Office is the worst. It may be my app of choice for UK weather but over here it's hopeless. Next is Accuweather, which isn't great either. Their default mode is to predict storms, so when they don't happen I guess we're supposed to be delighted. Best is Weather Underground, which after a shaky start has actually done a pretty good job, and the interface is decent too. But for once all three agree that tomorrow the weather will be poor. This may mean a drastic move from Plan A to Plan B (oh yes!), but we'll see when the time comes.
The first two thirds of today's walk, that is the first ascent and descent, were wonderful. For some reason I'd got it into my head that the best of the scenery was over as I'd left the Gran Paradiso, but I'd managed to forget about Mont Blanc. So when I arrived at the top of Col de la Crosatie (2838m) and it was just there in the not very far distance, looking enormous, it was quite a moment (yes, another moment!). The descent from the col was unbelievable, an incredibly well engineered path down a seemingly impossible cliff. At the bottom I had lunch under a tree and thought that this could challenge for best day of the trip if the final ascent to Passo Alto Haut Pas (2856m) and descent to Rifugio Deffeyes could match it.
After an initial 300m climb through pleasant pasture, what followed was probably the least pleasant 500m ascent I have ever had to do, up the middle of a hideous, bowl shaped valley full of rocks. My guide book, which to be fair is very good indeed, made no mention of a 'God-forsaken hellhole', or of the climb being 'seemingly endless', or even of the valley's resemblance to the 'early stages of a Redrow housing estate'. It was so awful I half-expected to bump into Sisyphus, and because I kept stopping and stamping my feet and refusing to take a step further it took an hour and a half before I finally (finally!) peered over the top of the col to see a very similar scene on the other side. It was a relief to find that the descent was quite easy, and that the hut was out of the rubble and back in the grass.
I've been thinking about how the scenery here changes at different altitudes, and who out of all the people I know would like the different levels. I know plenty who would love the beautiful valley floors, though there is little to do and see without climbing out of them. To climb out involves the forests, which are cool and lush but very steep. The most popular areas I think would be the high level pastures, as that's where all the flowers, butterflies and animals are, but it's quite an effort to get there. Which leaves the very high ground and glaciers. And I can only think of a few people who would enjoy these. These areas can be hugely different though, and whereas today was just hideous, the equivalent areas in the Gran Paradiso are much grander and awe-inspiring.
Rifugio Deffeyes is my fourth hut and the smallest and quirkiest. The protocol here is: take off boots and put in plastic shed, put on a pair of old, furry slippers from same shed, go to other big shed and take out what you need for the night from your rucksack, put rucksack on shelf in place of a numbered plastic bin, put items you need into plastic bin and take into hut.
Strangely this works very well, and I quite enjoyed living out of a bin for the night (beats a suitcase any day). I was pretty exhausted after the amount of ascent (7008ft) and descent done today, so revived myself with very large glasses of beer and a fine meal. I was sitting with a Dutch man and a Swiss lady, and it was good to have a long conversation, though this only happened because their English was so good. It was also good to meet other people who really enjoy walking alone, as I don't come across that many. Mind you I felt the Dutchman was taking things to extremes as he had only come into the hut for a meal, before he went into the mountains to find somewhere to sleep in his bivi bag for the night. As the wind was up and the cloud was thickening I didn't envy him.
-- Posted from Kev's iPhone
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