Day 5/5 : 07 September 2021
- Refuge de la Martin to my front door
- Distance: 13.11 km
- Vertical up: 442 m
- Vertical down: 1,072 m
It’s the final day of our tour de Mont Pourri and we wake up grateful for the comfort of a more traditional mattress and the shelter provided by a solid roof. In fairness, our self-inflating Thermorest mattresses are really comfortable, (from a previous camping trip on a glacier, they provide complete insulation against cold ground), and our tents are a match for the most inclement of weather.
It is just that taking down you tent and packing up your rucksack is a lot more comfortable in the dry! Also, eating breakfast sat at a table inside, knowing that our boots and wet clothing had been dried and warmed in front of the log burner, was a decadent luxury we felt was suitably appropriate for our last morning on the trail.
We started off with a steep decent over some rugged and rocky terrain. This is the steepest side of Mont Pourri and it was a good time to let loose our inner bouquetin!
Pascal and Julia, the guardians at the refuge, and Julia’s schoolfriend Mathilde joined us on the route this morning. The refuge officially closes for the summer in two days time and they are taking some of their stuff down to where they have stored their car.
Pascal has built himself a special backpack for bringing up supplies to the refuge.
We were pleased to see a bridge on this stream. Stepping stones are fun, but slipping would have serious consequences here.
There is plenty of water around here. Glacial meltwater feed the streams and for much of last night we heard the rain pelting down on the roof. I had been reassuringly warm and dry whilst stretched out in my sleeping bag on the eleven-person wide, lower level of the bunk bed.
But besides the rain, my sleep was also broken by the heavy pattering of mice running around in the wall cavity. September is the month when mountain mice start looking for somewhere warm to hold up for the winter, and buildings are a great option for them!
The Refuge de la Martin, (named after the huge Glacier de la Martina few hundred metres above), is a small, cozy refuge and due to the limited space inside, our rucksacks spent the night next door in the boot / storage room. Lucie and I both carry water bladders in our backpacks, which have a long tube extending from them, on the end of which is a nozzle from which we drink as we are hiking. They are very practical and we use them for both hiking and trail running. During the night, the mice had taken a liking to Lucie’s nozzle, chewing the end off it and guzzling what water she had left!
Our descent down to La Gurraz (pronounced La Goo-ra) was slowed down by us helping ourselves to the holy trilogy of mountain fruits, myrtilles, framboises et fraises, blueberries, raspberries and Alpine strawberries. These fruits are their best in September when they’ve benefitted from plenty of late summer sun to leave them bursting with ripeness and intensity of flavour – ‘miam, miam’, yum yum!
La Gurraz was the perfect village to greet us after our week in the wilderness. It is a small mountain village for the locals who live there and look after it. It is well tended and well loved, and the locals are as welcoming as the geraniums on this chalet.
And for good measure . . .
We crossed the river at La Raie and climbed back through the forest up to Sainte Foy Station to Chalet Nido, where it all began a week ago. My rucksack should be lighter now as I have eaten some of my food (I took too much) and the bottles which carry my three-litre daily supply of water are now exhausted. It doesn’t feel lighter though!
Finally, thank you to Lucie for being such great company this week. It was quite an adventure!
Things I learned today
1. Once I engage in more than average levels of exercise, my body tells me what to eat, and it isn’t chocolate! I craves natural wholesome foods. I don’t know why this is, but I ended up giving my emergency bar of Toblerone to the Refuge guardians this morning.
2. The refuge guardians all talk to each other. They know that the hikers travelling through these mountains only stop for one night at a refuge before moving on, so they make a big effort to cook different food at each refuge, thus providing variety for the hiker. Consequently, each guardian has their own speciality and the fabulous boeuf bourguignon we had on the first night had been on the menu long before Laurent’s questions about what we liked and didn’t like!
Read about the other days of our hiking trip here:
- Day 1/5 – My front door to Refuge du Mont Pourri
- 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
You will also find other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
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