Day 1/5 : 06 September 2021
- My front door to Refuge du Mont Pourri
- Distance: 21.83 km
- Vertical up: 1,683 m
- Vertical down: 834 m
With everything packed and a large hearty breakfast consumed, I locked the door to my chalet and excitedly set off for five days of hiking, camping and exploring in the remotest parts of the French Alps.
This was the view of Mont Pourri from the balcony of Chalet Nido just before I left.
At the end of the large carpark in Sainte Foy, I dropped into the forest and made my way along the trails down to La Thuile. My good friend Anne waved from her garden to wish me good luck on my adventure as I made my way down to the Isère river, which at 1,134 m would be the lowest altitude point of the whole hike. I crossed the bridge and strode along the shady path to Villaroger where I would meet up with Lucie, who would be my hiking companion for the next five days.
Bathed in sunshine at 1,134 m the pasture around the river at La Thuile felt like lowland plains compared to what lay ahead.
Our decision to hike and camp for five days was born partly from the requirement to do so as part of our training for our ‘AMM’ Mountain Leader qualification. We have to plan our own route and after much deliberating, we decided to create our own version of a Tour de Mont Pourri, starting and finishing at our respective front doors.
Our goal for today was to hike to, and camp at the Refuge de Mont Pourri (see lead photo), but we had many rivers to cross before we got there.
It was a long hike in the late summer sun today, so we took advantage of the opportunity to cool off in the Lac de Moutons.
This is the Refuge de Mont Pourri at 2,378 m looking north.
Looking south from the refuge you can see the ‘loo with a view’ and the fabulous views on which nobody ever shuts the door!
We had decided to buy the evening ‘repas du soir’ evening meal at the refuge where we staying each evening, but I was nervous about the quality we could expect. I needn’t have been. The meals are prepared by the refuge guardian, and after asking us if we had any food preferences or allergies, Laurent knocked up a fabulous boeuf bourguignon with dauphinoise potatoes. This was preceded by a home made vegetable soup and followed by cheese and chocolate cake. (More about this later.)
Things I learned today
18 kg is a lot more than 10kg in your backpack, especially when going downhill. To protect your knees, it’s best not to jump down the slope with the extra weight on your back.
Hiking poles are essential. I had considered doing this trip without poles, but thankfully Lucie wouldn’t let me. The slight nod towards being a quadruped reaped much benefit on both the up and downhill, and I’m sure it has saved my knees already.
Read about the other days of our hiking trip here:
- Day 2/5 – Refuge du Mont Pourri to Refuge de Plaisance
- Day 3/5 – Refuge de Plaisance to Refuge du Col du Palet
- Day 4/5 – Refuge du Col du Palet to Refuge de la Martin
- Day 5/5 – Refuge de la Martin to my front door
You will also find other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
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