Vanoise – day 9

21.7.2023 Friday

Ritord – Pralognan-la-Vanoise

→ 13,79 km ↑ 284 m ↓ 871 m

We get up at 5:30am and pack fast. We’re on a busy trail and don’t want to hang around here long. We set off at 6am without breakfast. We reach a hut 2.5 km on and make breakfast and coffee. Next part is uphill, and I really couldn’t manage that without food and coffee. I still feel a bit cold, probably from yesterday’s temperature swings. First a hot climb in the sun, then a late descent in high mountains, in the shade. Once we eat, we start climbing.

Today we chose the harder mountain route over the easier one through the valley. The weather looks uncertain, clouds coming from every direction. We climb slowly and the sky looks genuinely scary.

We pack everything into waterproof covers and get our rain gear ready. Suddenly thunder rumbles. I really don’t like that. We reach a small stone hut, but it’s marked private, so we decide what to do next. Either continue and pitch the tent if things get bad, or turn back. The thunders get stronger, but it’s not raining yet, so we head back down to the hut, about 1.5 km. We run downhill, and I feel like lightning strikes are really close, followed right away by thunder. Jozef says it was far, but I don’t know, I was pretty stressed. It’s already started raining. By some houses we put on rain gear. We’re just a short way from the hut, but I really can’t do it, I have to walk. I reach the hut completely soaked and out of breath. We get undressed, put our things away, change into slippers they have there, and I go ask for coffee. We don’t even finish our coffee and the storm’s already over, blue sky again.

We go outside and check the weather (YR, the Norwegian weather service), and it forecasts showers all day, which could mean more storms like this one. Behind the hill we already see more dark clouds. I was pretty tired already this morning, and this storm situation took away all my will to continue. So we choose the valley route instead (the original GR 55 trail). Next comes a gentle descent, about 7 km through a beautiful forest with views.

We walk slowly, I feel a bit sick, and if I lay down anywhere here I’d fall asleep instantly. We reach the village of Pralognan-la-Vanoise. We check the first campsite, but it looks expensive, so we go to a second one. That one’s fine. At 10:30am we pitch the tent so it can dry. Jozef goes to the shop. He comes back with sausages, prosecco, and a lot of peaches too. So for lunch we have sausages. Jozef has a combo, baguette, Dijon mustard, ketchup, onion, sausage.

I inflate the sleeping pads and take a cold and flu medicine. I go to sleep for two hours, and Jozef probably naps a bit too. Then I go shower and finish the blog, with which I need to catch up. Another hiker arrives next to us and have the urge to pick a spot about half a meter away from us (there’s plenty of room everywhere), so we even hear him turning on his sleeping pad. Jozef goes to put the prosecco in the stream to chill, then back to the shop for pasta, sauce and olives for dinner.

I keep working on the blog, and Jozef cooks. For dinner we open that prosecco, which we’d wanted the day before yesterday to celebrate finishing the GR 54. I think we rested enough today, the afternoon nap really helped, we got a lot of calories in, and tomorrow’s weather should be better too.