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After that great dinner from Refugio Elisabetta the night before, I was hoping for an equally impressive breakfast. I was disappointed - breakfast was just bread & spread, juice and cookies. We ate and got out on the trail quite early - it wasn't even 7:30 A.M. when we left the Refugio. In the morning light, the peaks and glaciers to the north were lit with a warm golden glow. It was the start of another beautiful day. From Refugio Elisabetta, the trail quickly drops down to the floor of Val Veni, and from there it follows an arrow-straight road down the length of the valley. Ahead of us loomed a huge morraine from the Glacier du Miage - the stones and gravel shoved aside by the glacial ice creates a large wall that forms a barricade across most of the width of Val Veni. This wall causes the water draining down Val Veni to back up, creating a small pond called Lac Combal. Lac Combal provided some ideal reflections of the mountains. Beyond the morraine, the road crosses the river and runs down to Courmayeur. On days with bad weather, following the road is the advisable choice. But we had beautiful weather, and so we followed the TMB trail as it left the road and climbed up a series of switchbacks on the southern flank of the Val Veni. The trail took us above some ruined alpine huts, and then higher until we reached the high point of the day. This high point was unnamed, perhaps because it wasn't as high as the Cols we had climbed on previous days, but from that high point we had some tremendous views. Mont Blanc di Courmayeur stood directly north of us, clearly visible in its mountainous glory. (I am not sure why Mont Blanc is called Mont Blanc di Courmayeur, but it is the same mountain.) From there, it was down hill all the way to Courmayeur. It was an easy gradual descent above Val Veni - we walked in open meadows (which are used for skiing in winter) until we reached Col Chécrouit, where we ate lunch. From this point, there are two options to reach Courmayeur - there is a straight descent to the east, or a trail that arcs to the north before descending to Courmayeur. The second option brings the you closer to the Glacier de la Brenva - it is 2 km of extra hiking (which brought our total up to 20 km for the day), but I was hoping that it would reward us with extra scenery. In the end, I am not sure that was a good choice, because we ended up walking down to Courmayeur on roads without shoulders, and there was some noticeable amount of traffic on those roads. In Courmayeur, we got James and Stephen checked at le Vieux Pommier, which is right in the heart of Courmayeur. Melanie and I had reservations at a place called Maison Lo Campagnar, which was in the town of Dollone, across the river from Courmayeur. This was the only stop where James and Stephen stayed in different lodging than Melanie and I - I had already booked all our rooms for this trip when Stephen and James expressed interest in joining us. By that time Maison Lo Campagnar was full, so I had to find a different room for them in Courmayeur. It turned out that Maison Lo Campagnar ruined our reservation. When we arrived, the manager told us that she had cancelled our reservation from Expedia, because the price was too low (I had booked it for $120/night). Of course, no one told us that the reservation was cancelled, and when I contacted Expedia after our trip, they said they never heard anything about a cancellation. I think the manager was lying, because despite the fact that our reservation was "cancelled", she actually did have a room for us - in a hotel run by the same owners. This other hotel was 5 miles to the north, in the town of Enterves. So we ended up there, which meant we were unable to spend the evening with James and Stephen, and we missed out on touring Courmayeur. Unfortunately, Enterves does not have any gelato shops - good thing we had one serving back in Courmayeur when we dropped off James and Stephen! The hotel we stayed in was called La Grange, and it was a nice place. Fortunately, we only had to paid the $120 per night charge of our original booking. We exchanged some emails with James and Stephen to explain what happened, and told them we would see them in the morning. Tomorrow was our rest day, we planned to ride the cable cars up to the Mont Blanc glaciers. Unfortunately, the forecast called for rain. Panorama Photos
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Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph TMB Stage 5
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