Short trip to Bella Italia

With the arrival in Champsec, I had covered quite a distance in the last few days and was now quite close to Mont Blanc. Geographically, it was gradually time to switch from the previous westward direction to the south. To do this, I had to choose a pass over the main Alpine ridge. I had three options in my shortlist. The dilemma, however, was that I didn't want to miss out on any of them. Fortunately, one of them was better to ride from south to north, so I decided to do all three. This also allowed me to circumnavigate the Grand Combin and make a detour into the Aosta Valley. The whole short trip was supposed to last about a week before continuing on to Mont Blanc and heading south for good.

It all started in Champsec with an endless ascent consisting of the well-known trio of paved road, gravel track, and the final portage up to the Cabane Col de Mille, a mountain hut with a fantastic view of Mont Blanc and the Grand Combin. At least for a short while, because then the mountains disappeared behind the first rain clouds. So I waited for a while before descending on a singletrack in brilliant scenery to find a well-hidden spot for my night camp.

In the undulating terrain of a small side valley, I found the almost perfect spot - flat, not visible, with access to fresh water and a fantastic view of the Mont Blanc massif directly from the tent. Unfortunately, it seemed that I was not the first one to appreciate the benefits of this place. A flock of sheep had apparently spent some time here recently. The widely scattered organic remains testified to this. It was not easy to find a reasonably undamaged patch of earth. And despite all caution, the memories of that evening clung to my tent for days in the form of odor molecules.

But all this was forgotten at sunrise. On a magnificent balcony with a breathtaking view, I continued to Bourge-St-Pierre and made my way uphill to the Great St. Bernard Pass, the first of my three passes. The best thing about the pass was the border to Italy. Finally! Pasta, pizza, espresso, tiramisu, ice cream in abundance, Aperol Spritz came within my immediate, and finally affordable reach. The land of plenty was in front of me.

After a first taste of pasta at the pass, a challenging 100-meter climb awaited me on the descent into the Aosta Valley. It was almost vertical, with the gaping abyss of a gorge directly below the path. I was really angry. Something like this usually only happened when I planned the GPX track myself, like at the Albula Pass. But here, I was following a well-known and well-documented bikepacking route. So I struggled, trying to maintain balance somehow and at the same time move the bike a few centimeters higher. And then the helmet slipped off the handlebars, happily tumbling down towards the gorge and getting stuck in the bushes just above the abyss. Great, now I had to weigh the risks - descend 1,500 meters in altitude without head protection or balance towards the bushes and maybe take the direct path down while getting the helmet. I chose the latter. Carefully, I climbed through steep scree and slippery grass until I grabbed it, and then quickly gained altitude again.

After this unexpected interlude, I felt that I deserved the Italian delicacies even more. Starving, I stormed the first supermarket that caught my eye in Aosta. But here, too, I had to exercise even more patience - it felt like half of Italy was standing in front of me at the checkout, each with a year's worth of hamster purchases in their shopping carts. I think I have never stood in a supermarket for so long. And that while being really thirsty and having acute hunger. It felt like an eternity before I was finally allowed to devour the hamster purchase in my shopping cart within minutes.