TMB Day 4

Breakfast was almost as nice as the weather.  Meet with Luca and Ivo after breakfast before parting ways.  Their company was enjoyable and before setting off again we exchanged emails.  Along the trail I ran into Jean Luc, a French hiker who I shared a dinner table with at Refuge Mottets the day before last.  His English is about as good as my French, leaving most our conversations with broken Spanish and hand signals.  Oddly, Jean Luc didn't get my first Star Trek reference any more than the twentieth; we have all day, I'm sure he'll come around.

Jean Luc

All along the trail to the next shelter ultra marathon racers were heading the opposite direction to the finish line at Courymayer, where I had left that morning.  I can't be certain of the race position, but at one point a female racer tough as nails passed me and was someplace in the top ten.

Made good time to Rifuge Bonatti where I had lunch and an extremely thick chocolate liquid called coco.  I witnessed a fly land inside my partially empty cup to never emerge again.  As far as shelters go, this was the most beautiful and I partially regretted not staying the night.  There were too many hours of sun light left and the concern of losing good views due to bad weather was a possibility.  My body was aching and looking forward to getting off my feet at the next Rifuge Elena (Italy), when low and behold the shelter closed for the season literally as I walked in the door.  If I hadn't been drunk from mountain gazing shit would have hit the fan.  Apparently Italy only has 26 days in their September.  Nine hard hours and 15 miles hiked, my alternatives at this point in the day were to either hike back two hours to Bonatti or go forward into Switzerland up and over Grand Col Ferret.  Hellooo Switzerland!

It was an additional two hours to the shelter in Switzerland named La Peule.  Of the one hundred and twenty minutes it took me to get to the shelter, about one hundred of them were full of aingst and melodramatics.  I managed to remain calm, but the reality of my situation was I was limping, under dressed with shorts, walking through 3" snow drifts and on an exposed saddle in less than favorable weather conditions.  Once there, I immediately appreciated the circumstance that lead me to this place, where I would have other wise hiked passed.  Hands down the best food and drinks on the hike to date.  Dinner was some sort of baked twice bread with cheese, ham, sunny side up egg, and pickled stuff.  To warm up I asked for hot wine, something Luca introduced me to at Refuge Elisabetta and received a piping hot mug filled with chunks of fruit and a bitter sweet fluid.  As this shelter is a working dairy farm in the summer, they also offer straw tent camping.  My adventure tank happened to be tapped out, also I'm allergic to straw or I would like to have enjoyed trying a night in a straw house.

Turns out the timing of this trip will either be genius or tragically epic.  Most shelters on the trail where I planned to sleep and eat meals close mid September.  Having been turned away from a shelter that should have been opened makes me slightly concerned about the remainder of the hike.  Not that I'll loose sleep over it tonight, I'm sure it'll work out for the better.  Tonights shelter is almost empty, I was the first to arrive followed by three others including Captain Pichard.  I'm going to try and get a picture of him doing the Vulcon farewell hand sign.

One of my ankles isn't at 100%, I'm hoping the easier day of hiking I have planned for tomorrow will help out with my physical ailments.  I revised the rest of my hiking schedule today, was a bit sad having reached the half way mark but have read I still have the best ahead.

Link to TMB Day 4 pics, via Picasa.