Italy/France 6/23/08 - 7/05/08


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Refuge Valmasque

We had originally planned to hike over the Refuge Pagari on this day, but we were told there was too much snow on the pass. We decided instead to take a day hike up to another nearby pass. The trail started out as a steep ascent through a skree field. There wasn't much of a trail, just a series of cairns. We came to a mountain stream that was frozen over higher up. The cairns crossed just below the frozen part. This part of the trail was very steep and exposed; we ended up crawling/climbing up a short distance before deciding that between my mom's broken wrist and my fear of heights, this probably wasn't the best idea. Climbing back down was even trickier, but in the end we all made it safely. Ben and I hiked up a little way on the other side of the stream to see if we could find a way, but it appeared to be a dead end. Despite not making it up very far, we did have a great view of the three lakes we'd hiked past the day before, as well as, the pass from the previous day. Disappointed we decided to head back down. On the way we passed a guy from the refuge who had the day off. He was hiking up to a little lake before the pass. We watched him and discovered that the trail crossed higher up in the snow. It looked a lot easier and safer than the path marked by the cairns. However it was getting late, so we continued our descent back to the refuge. Hanging around the refuge proved to be fruitful -- we saw an ibex and a fox that evening. The next day we hiked out. It was an easy hike past two beautiful waterfalls.

Day Hike Refuge Valmasque Three Lakes Frozen Stream
Ibex Waterfall Waterfall

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