We woke up after our wonderful stay a Cabane du Mont Fort refreshed from some rest, good food, and fellowship with fellow hikers ready to tackle what we knew would be a challenging day. We were hoping to see a better view than we had the previous day, but the mountains were still mostly socked in by clouds when we left.
As we began our ascent, however, we began to get some beautiful views of the mountsin tops with occasional glimpses of the valley below.
We really enjoyed this part of the hike (probably until about 9 am) - soon, however, the trail would become a lot more punishing and we weren't spending as much time looking at the views or taking photos - we had to concentrate on each place we took our next step.
Okay, so I've learned a little more about mountaineering terminology during this trip. The term "col" refers to the "saddle" or pass between two moutains. In layman's terms, that means you have to do a really steep ascent to the "top of the col" and then an equally steep descent down the otherside. The fact that this day's hike had 3 cols initally meant nothing to this inexperienced hiker - believe me, after completing the first col,I was suddenly sobered on what was ahead. And this time, there was no cable car option!
In my naivity, I envisioned crossing these mountain passes on trails like you see at the end of the movie The Sound of Music - trails like we has taken up to this point, only higher. WRONG! No, what we found was huge boulder fields you had to pick your way up, down, or across while balancing a heavy pack or steep sides of scree - broken rock that you are cross all the while trying to find each next step of sure footing. Oh, let's just throw in crossing some mountain steams, too, all while balancing your pack on slippery rocks!
Here is where "Captain Kevin" played a huge role. He (and Greg, too) understood much more clearly the challenge ahead of us and he kept pushing us to keep moving. We'd beg, "we have to stop just for a few minutes" - it seemed like I had just taken my pack off and had a handful of gorp, and then our Captain would say, "it's time to get moving again." At certain points of this day, Kevin would go up ahead drop his pack and then come back take ours while Kris and I struggled up the steep rocks. Greg ended up taking stuff out of my pack just to lighten my load. I, in particular found the huge bolders daunting - I was so intent on trying to find a safe place to step, and then trying to lift my body and heavy pack up or down that I definitely slowed our group down.
After crossing 3 cols during this hike, our final "punishment" after a long descent was to finally see the next mountain hut where we would stay - up a steep ascent! Note in photo Greg gearing up for one last climb and the hut up the steep ascent on the left just under the peaks.
When we finally dragged our bodies into the hut after 11 hours of hiking, all our fellow hikers ( who had arrived earlier than us) were relieved to see us. We ate some dinner and then went straight to bed.
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