Through the Vanoise National Park over the Col du Palet

Day 6

Today we got up very early and set off before breakfast. After half an hour of hiking through the still shady valley, we found a nice spot on the slope to have breakfast. Once again, we enjoyed bread and delicious cheese. While feasting, we witnessed a massive rockslide on the opposite slope. Quite impressive.

We continued steeply up the slope towards the core zone of the Vanoise National Park. It was simply beautiful. We saw dozens of marmots playing in the meadows and, once again, many beautiful cows. Occasionally an eagle in the sky.

We had lunch in a dried-up stream bed where we could also air out our sleeping bags and down jackets.

We continued upwards through more high plateaus to the Refuge du Col du Palet where we had the first beer of the trip and a fromage blanc with blueberries.

As clouds and wind moved in, we put on long pants and jackets and tackled the last meters of ascent to the Col du Palet at 2,652 meters above sea level. Once at the top, we found ourselves in a different world. A kind of lunar landscape crisscrossed by countless ski lifts and ski slopes. A stark contrast to the national park on the other side of the mountain. After a few minutes, we suddenly also saw the massive tourist resort of Le Tigne and Val Claret in the valley.

We continued hiking a little further and then traversed to a lake where we found a perfect spot including a grill area. For dinner, we had tomato rice and played a game of Jass before a cold night.