Wednesday, August 31, 2022

(Entry will only be made on the evening of September 2nd, as there is no network connection for two days.)

Today's route:

La Madone de Fenestre (1905 m) - Pas du Mt. Colomb (2548 m) - La Barme (2153 m) - Refuge de Nice (2232 m)

The providence of the Virgin Mary will have ensured that we do not camp outside, but rather use the offer of the French Alpine Club, which even offers us a four-bed room for the two of us: During the night, a severe storm rages and wakes us up repeatedly. With only 14 people in a 62-place mountain hut and even in a room of our own, there is no cabin fever.

We climb the Pas de Mt. Colomb together with a Dutchman who has been hiking in the Mercantour for a week, until he meets his family next Sunday. The descent from the pass is anything but easy; 400 meters of steep descent through scree almost drive Lis to despair. We estimate the difficulty level as T4. However, another pass descent was even more difficult, the one from the Pas de la Cavale on August 24, a descent that would probably be a "no go" for many people prone to dizziness and unsure footing.

We arrive at the Refuge de Nice early in the afternoon and decide to stay there overnight, although we still have plenty of time to continue hiking. The weather forecast is not bad, but it is already cold at an altitude of over 2200 meters, where the hut is located, and we would be camping even higher up. So we hang around a bit... And later feel confirmed in our decision to avoid SAC huts and the like as much as possible, unless a certain level of comfort is offered in the form of small rooms. We sleep with about 18 people in a relatively small room, open the windows about three times, and close them three times again! It gets stuffy at night. And then the (admittedly few) snorers and all those who need to get up at night. We are the first to leave the sleeping area at 6:15 am.