- We woke up around 5 AM to make sure no one found us wild camping. Ugh. Still tired.
Packed up and started hiking. BTW we are now in Italy. Same mountains but different. All fantastic.
Walked about 1 km and decided to make a hot coffee on trail. So we set up our stove but the piezo ignition did not work. MSR will be hearing from me. So we drank cold instant coffee. Not bad.
We quickly hit 2450 meters and again felt the thin air. We were still tired from the day before and had thin air, so again about 50 steps then a short 30 second rest to catch our breath.
Lots of marmots running around and a ton of alpine flowers. Mostly small but all very charming. I didn’t really take pictures because it had clouded over and started to rain. We quickly covered up.
Today’s walk was a little over 6 1/2 hours but 2 of those hours were walking down to courmayeur. It was maybe 1/2 a km. lol.
But unbelievably steep with tiny switchbacks. Had to rebalance on the turns. Sharp turns turn the backpack and if u r not careful u can lose balance a bit. Jeff dropped his water bottle and had to retrieve it 50 yards away. Knees and thighs were/ are burning.
I prepared alot for this walk by walking up and down a fairly steep dirt road. Steep enough that pickup truck tires spin. When I first started training there I started with 1 lap. Worked my way up to 20 laps over 4 hours. It helped: BUT: theses mountains are mush steeper and we walk up 6 hours so it’s quite an endurance.
That said some young athletes run the whole thing. The level of fitness on the trail is quite high. All ages walk as well. Very nice to see.
Finally reached courmayeur and got a hotel. We will rest here tomorrow. Showers w hot water, electricity, and internet and great food. Feel human again.