Stage 8: Col de Balme

The eighth hike on day 16, August 5th, went up to Col de Balme and Aiguillette des Posettes. Both destinations were at around 2200m. We took the (late) bus (at 08:19) to Trient Church at 8:20 AM and from there to La Peuty Campsite, the starting point of the hike. We heard thunder twice during the ascent, woohoo, thunderstorms in the mountains!! Luckily, we were in the forest and still quite low. It rained from time to time as well. So we hiked quite quickly to the mountain pass, even the 'Japanese master' couldn't catch up with us :)) We were doing really well uphill (Janina as well by now!). At the mountain pass hut, we had a little snack, of course with the two Israelis. This would also be our last meeting, we wish you all the best! We took some more photos as the weather had improved, but it was still quite windy (as you can tell from our hats).

Afterwards, we also hiked the small mountain Aiguillette des Posettes. Quite rocky everything :)), the descent was slow (especially for Jörg, who is more like the slow one going downhill ;-)). However, the views of the surrounding mountains, valleys, clouds, and glaciers were very beautiful, and once again, it was rather dry in terms of drinking water. We arrived at the Hotel 'Le Dahu' in Argentière shortly before 5:30 PM. The food at the associated restaurant and the room with a balcony were very good.

After this hike, we finished our exploration of the traditional Tour du Mont Blanc route. While Janina was able to recover sufficiently overnight, Jörg experienced a certain process of torment. The first four hours of hiking were still enjoyable for him, but then the physical torment prevailed, unfortunately. So we decided to reach La Flégère and Les Houches on the following two days via valley paths.