From Tignes over the Col de la leisse and through the Vanoise National Park

Day 7 (September 7, 2020)

The night was actually frosty and Simi and Jana slept very little. Alex, on the other hand, seems to be immune to the cold.

We stayed at the place for a long time and bathed ourselves and some of our clothes in the lake. Unfortunately, the sun only appeared sporadically.

Around noon, we set off for Tignes, where we wanted to do some shopping.

On the way, Alex twisted his foot. We quickly bandaged it and hoped it wasn't serious.

Tignes was even uglier up close than from a distance. A city built only for winter tourism and now completely deserted. The supermarket was fortunately open and we were able to buy the meals for the next few days after some arguments.

After a late lunch, Simi and Jana went out to buy new gas cartridges. Unfortunately, all the successful stores were closed due to the season or because of Corona. So we had to settle for firelighters after about an hour of searching. At least we had seen the whole village by then.

In the late afternoon, we walked to the neighboring village of Val Claret on the other side of the lake. Alex's foot hadn't gotten worse and Val Claret was even more deserted than Tigne. Not a single shop was open, and no one was out and about. It was almost eerie.

After this actually quiet but very exhausting day, the sun finally came out and we dragged ourselves up the hill again, back on the hiking trail. After a bit of struggle, we found a nice spot and even some wood with which we could cook. We had Ebly with fresh spinach. After that, we soon crawled into our sleeping bags and hoped for a restful night.

Day 8 (September 8, 2020)

Actually, we got up early and refreshed from our sleeping bags today. After a cold breakfast, the journey began. Back into the Vanoise National Park. A magnificent natural scenery awaited us. First, we climbed up to the Col de la leisse at an altitude of 2758 meters. Then we hiked through another marmot paradise along dried-up glacier lakes and the last remains of the white giants. Despite the sun, the morning was cool.

After the picnic lunch, we were accompanied by a river that grew larger and larger, fed by fresh glacier water gushing out of the rocks.

At around four o'clock, there was a long consultation pause about where the trail should continue. We decided to leave the national park as we were not interested in staying at the Réfuge Entre deux eaux. After a snack break, we embarked on the two-and-a-half-hour journey out of the park, which took us at least three hours. This was followed by another sweaty climb to the Réfuge Plan du lac and then a sunset hike over a beautiful plateau.

Our legs grew tired and the backpacks heavier. When we finally made it out of the national park, the sun had set and the shivering began. We would have liked a spot by the water, but considering the general exhaustion after what was probably an over eight-hour hike, we settled for a small ruin where we set up our tents. We had a very late, water-saving dinner and soon it was time to crawl into our sleeping bags.