This morning we woke up and the entire mountain was socked in with clouds. Our hike today was going to entail a little more than a mile (5300 feet) of elevation gain. We all had some sore muscles still after our initial 3 days of hiking - in addition, we knew that, after today, we would have no choice in hiking two very challenging hikes (in distance and elevation gain/loss). So after much discussion, we decided to take the cable car part way up the mountain. Our rationale was we could rest our muscles some and that we wouldn't be able to see much of the view anyway due to the low clouds.
We took the the cable car up about 2/3 of the mountain and then started our hike to our first mountain hut, Cabane du Mont Fort. When we got off the cable car, it was still really cloudy but we could see the path.
Luckily, the climb was fairly moderate for most of our hike - the only steep part was the ascent to the actual hut. Along the way, we once again saw lots of cows with cow bells ringing. We had fun taking a little video of the cows to capture the sound.
Once we arrived at the beautiful mountain hut and got settled in our room at the hut at around 12:30 pm, we decided that we had made the "best decison ever!" We had the chance to eat lunch, relax, take a short nap, visit with other people from Australia, England, Germany, etc. as well as enjoy the periodic times when the cloud cover disapated briefly revealing stunning views. During those brief moments when the sun poked through, it was warm enough to be out on the patio.
When the clouds parted, we enhjoyed the views; when the clouds came back, we moved back inside and enjoyed the warmth of the lodge along with the company of people from all over the world.
Knowing that tomorrow, we will be leaving early and hiking 14 km (about 9 miles with huge ascents and descents) to the next mountain hut, we decided we made "the best decision ever" to take the cable car part way up the mountain!
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