Waking up cosy and dry (this did not last long!), discovering exciting new jam flavours at breakfast (chestnut jam is my new favourite thing), local retirees expressing incredulous surprise that we were off hiking given the forecast, steep hills to a village called Germ where all the lampposts were bright blue and a refuge served us coffee and takeaway wine for later, finding my 3rd five-leaved clover, cows emerging from the mist one at a time until we were suddenly surrounded, the mist turning to rain which got steadily heavier until recently dryish boots were freshly saturated, heading to an unmanned refuge for shelter which took so long to find that we gave up all hope (especially when the hail started), a roof suddenly appearing in the mist, discovering a sweet young French couple inside who had just started a fire and sharing our wine with them as we warmed up, peering out the doorway to see glimpses of epic waterfalls through the cloud, adding the PHS to the table graffiti, heading back out into the rain and wading through at least 4 rivers cursing and swearing at the path, unfathomably steep, horrendous uphill paths that went on far too long up to a col, soggy marmots yipping on either side and braving the rain, patches of purple flowers, zigzags down through the wettest forest ever encountered (surprisingly pleasant given the conditions), arriving at an Auberge and contemplating camping, realising that was mad, getting a room and unpacking our bags to realise everything was drenched and going for a boozy dinner. Our wettest day of hiking yet but somehow also strangely enjoyable! We will perservere!!
The Vital statistics:
Total hiking time: 7h45
Peak: 2161m
Total ascent: 1282m
Total descent: 1109m
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