Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 5

We were expecting today's terrain to be relatively easy, because to get to our next rifugio it would only take us 14 km and from the map, it looked like there was just one straightforward descent to Courmayeur then another straightforward ascent to Rifugio Bertone. At this point, we had gotten used to one descent and one ascent per day so this was not surprising anymore. I also felt some kind of shift in my mindset: instead of lowkey freaking out at the thought of a steep climb, it seems my brain and legs (plus shoulders and back, who had been doing a great job at carrying my backpack) were already used to the rhythm, and suddenly climbing didn't require much thought anymore. I knew I needed to push through, and I would get there in the end anyway, so it's no big deal. This is also a pattern I had seen in my previous hikes: usually Day 5 is the day where I eventually settled into the rhythm, and this is when hikes didn't feel like just another day instead of a chore.

It was a bit sad for me to leave Gite le Randonneur behind, because I had such a relaxing, beautiful memory of the area and the day yesterday. I was also sad about leaving our friends Pedro and Pedra behind, but I knew that there would be another stream of hikers later in the day that they would get to meet, and hopefully would also treat them well and play with them too even if it's just for a bit.

Yesterday, Anish and Sloane had been talking about how they really dreaded the descent to Courmayeur, and how they had been hoping the ski lift was running so they could skip it. Alas, the ski lift wasn't running so today was our turn to deal with the knee-jerking descent. At least, we had the opportunity to do it while our legs were still fresh after a full night's sleep. While it wasn't as precarious as the descent from Col du Tricot from our first day, it was still a steep descent that wouldn't bode well for anyone with knee issues. Lucky for me that I hadn't injured my knees thus far like I did on my last day on Alta Via 1; otherwise, this would have been an extremely painful section to go through.

I must say it was one of the least impressive sections so far, mainly because for the entire time, we had to climb down this forest and we didn't get to see a lot of view of the Courmayeur valley until we actually reached the bottom. The tree shades would have been a great refuge if it was a hot, sunny day like yesterday, but today was gloomy and grey and we were even worried that it was going to rain at some point in the day.

We reached Courmayeur way before lunchtime, so we were much quicker than we thought. We would be meeting up with Anish and Sloane around lunchtime so we still had a few hours to kill, so we explored the city a bit, got some more cash and extra Compeeds, and went to a cafe to enjoy some hot chocolate and sketch. For lunch, we decided to go to a pizza restaurant and we enjoyed some pizza with sheep cheese and pasta. This would be the last time we see our friends, since they were staying in Courmayeur for two extra days, and later on they would be taking two rest days in Champex-Lac, something I wish I had the opportunity to do if only I wasn't restricted by the number of paid time off days I could take per year.

A big lunch and a few selfies together later, we left the town of Courmayeur and headed into the forest where gravel roads soon turned into dirt paths. Just before we entered the forest, we heard another hiker that we haven't seen before ask us if we are headed to Rifugio Bertone. We said yes and then we continued walking without giving it much thought as I was eager to get to the next rifugio.

Today was supposed to be easy, or so I thought, but the climb to Rifugio Bertone was just... never-ending. There was "only" an ascent of roughly 900 meters, which wasn't even the highest we have managed to climb so far in one day, but this ascent was just constant climbing without even a small square of a flat terrain for us to take a short break. It was about to rain soon and there was barely any view to cheer us up. There were multiple signs throughout the trail, telling is how far away is Rifugio Bertone: "Rifugio Bertone, 30 minutes to go". Every time I saw the sign, I felt like I was off by 15 minutes or so, and we were still further away than I thought it would be.

We eventually made it to Rifugio Bertone and as soon as we stepped into the rifugio area, the downpour started, and I thanked my lucky stars that we arrived before a single droplet fell! Otherwise the dirt path would have been completely wet and it would have been a miserable ascent. We immediately crammed ourselves into the tent where there were many other hikers who had arrived before us, where were all still waiting for the check in time. Some of them were faces we recognized. There were the three Dutch hikers whom we met on the first rifugio and we hadn't seen again until now; they recognized us and made space for us. I had to grab a queue number tag from the receptionist, and every hiker or group would take turns checking in since the reception area was quite cramped and it was impossible for everyone to queue inside.

In the tent, we chatted with a hiker from California who had just started from Courmayeur. Since the TMB trail is a loop, technically you can start from any of the village that lies on the trail instead of starting in Les Houches and Chamonix. He mentioned how he had done similar treks in the States and how doing these kinds of long walks helps him to reflect and think, and he even had invented things along the way that ended up patenting. This conversation was a good timing for us, because we too had been talking about creating things and brainstorming various things along the way to kill time on the trail. I'm not sure if any of the things we talked about creating would end up being patented someday but one can hope!

Today is the first day we had a room to ourselves which was pretty much welcome after four nights sleeping in dormitories. Dinner was served in the dining hall and something I looked forward to was to see who we would be getting to know during dinner time. This time we were seated neither with the Dutch hikers nor the Californian hiker, instead we sat together with a South African couple who were fastpacking the trail for four days - they started from Les Houches and this is is their second day, it was unbelievable how we were on the same trail! - and the hiker who asked us about the direction to Bertone before we started the uphill climb. Her name is Sophie and she is French, and she wasn't hiking alone but she was hiking... with her manager, Pascale. Working in one of the biggest airlines in the world, they are both avid travelers and hikers and runners. In fact, we later found out that everyone in the table except myself and Dylan had run multiple marathons - Sophie even said that she had just qualified for the Boston Marathon, which was such an impressive feat. Sitting in a table with such amazing people was intimidating but at the same time it was also one of the reasons why I went on these hikes, to be inspired and to remind myself that there was a life outside of the screens out there, outside of LLMs and whatever tech hype cycle we are currently stuck with.

The food in Rifugio Bertone was amazing and probably some of our favorites to date: a big bowl of Italian minestrone, a generous serving of polenta with fontina cheese that comes from the nearby Aosta Valley that we share with the table, sausage, and for dessert we had chocolate mousse with biscotti. Sophie really knew her food especially since her husband in Italian so we also trusted her judgment when she said that all of the food was really good. We spent the rest of the evening talking about the various animals we had seen throughout the hike, and Pascale taught us a lot about these alpine animals - ibex, chamois, mouflon, and what their differences are. Chamois apparently have shorter horns, but from afar it could be a bit difficult to tell if an animal is an ibex or a chamois, and according to Pascale at least it was debatable which one we actually saw on our second day near Col du Bonhomme, it could be a chamois for all we know. The night went on and even though everyone had finished their dessert, it seems not just my table, but other tables too, wanted to continue and keep talking but tiredness eventually got to the best of us and we had to call it a night. I went to sleep with a full stomach and a very excited brain, absorbing all of these knowledge and stories that I received from everyone around me.