Day 5: Courmayeur to Rifugio Elena (July 23)
22.2 km, 1,425.3 m ascent, 679.1 m descent
This was a long day. And we were just tired. This happens, even with rest days. It’s hard to keep going day after day. Some days are just hard, and it’s even harder if the tired days coincide with long days. As this one did.
The walk NEVER got easy.
As we walked out of Courmayeur and ascended toward Rifugio Bertone, we remembered the same climb the previous year, when we hadn’t known what to expect and were full of fear that the climbing would be too hard and that we didn’t have all the things we’d need. We were more relaxed about logistics this time – you don’t really run into real wilderness or solitude anywhere on the TMB – but our legs definitely felt the uphill. A long afternoon in town apparently wasn’t enough for full recovery.
Last year we’d hit Bertone so early in the day that we went ahead and did the gorgeous, high Mont de la Saxe variant, which took us through the most gorgeous Alpine scenery. Last year we’d spent our first night in Rifugio Bonatti, a classic accommodation on that stage, but this year it was was fully booked. Alpine Exploratory had booked us into the next realistic accommodation, Rifugio Elena. This made today’s hike … longer.
We thought we could make the walk easy by taking the Via Armina balcony path from Rifugio Bertone to Rifugio Bonatti instead of the high climb over Mont de la Saxe. Ha! The the TMB is NEVER not hard. It was a slog.
As we dragged ourselves along, we were passed by numerous guys RUNNING the damn thing, presumably training for the UTMB later in the season. (Winners clock in at 22 hours….)
The worst moment was when we’d basically arrived at Bonatti but were still 100 meters below the refuge. Never have I felt so heavy or my legs so leaden.
After lunch, we continued. For hours. In my recollection, it only took us about two hours to walk to Elena from Bonatti, but this walk felt endless, especially the final climb to the refuge.
Rifugio Elena is a large, popular refuge with large dorms. If they had private rooms, those were not available to us. All the toilets are squatty potties, and the bathroom floors are contiguous – showers and toilet splashes all drain into the same central drain, at least as far as I can tell.
Like all alpine refuges, Elena has an extensive bar and common areas. Reluctant to make new “friends,” I sought refuge in Game of Thrones on my phone. Also in Genepy.
