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| Greg & Bill having a picnic on the long appraoch road |
Fabulous weather and great snow cover meant our trip to the Refugio Benevolo was very good. Bill, Greg and I drove through the Mt Blanc Tunnel and then down the Aosta valley from where we turned up the long side valley to Rhemes Notre-Dame. Here the road stopped abruptly because it hadn't been ploughed any further. We dumped the car and started skinning up the road. We passed through the final village [compeletely closed in the winter] before joining a long beautiful valley where tired, we arrived at the welcoming Refugio Benevolo nearly 4 hours after leaving the car.
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| The road becomes a path |
Despite mid week the refugio was packed. It was a good job that I had made the booking several weeks beforehand. It is a great place, with friendly helpful staff, good food, good beer AND hot showers. The down side is that the rooms are extremely narrow and there are three tier bunks . Ear plugs are essential.
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| Resident Fox |
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| Benevolo |
The next morning we climbed Punta Galicia 3346 m . This is a long way! It is aslo one of those peaks which has many false summits. Despite the refugio being busy we had the whole route to ourselves and the sense of wilderness added to the experience .
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| Greg on the summit of Punta Galicia |
We enjoyed a second night at the refugio and the next morning we embarked on a wonderful U shaped tour that ultimatly brought us directly back to the car. We left the refugio at 8.00hrs and headed to the summit of the Pointe Paletta 3024m. This was a good ascent following an interesting ridge to the top of a narrow summit.
We were able to ski off the top by a steep slope which lead us into an endless valley through ever changing scenary. A brilliant days ski mountaineering.
On arriving back at the car our plan was to find a hotel. Yet it now being the weekend, we failed. So we returned to Chamonix.
On the Sunday we skied off the Col du Brevent before skining back up to lac Cornu and then up and over into the Combe de la Gliere and back into the Flegere lift system.
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| Me |
On our final day we headed for the village of Liddes and completed what I currently consider to be the best one day ski tour there is : The Tour de Bavon with the descent of the Combe de L'A
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| Stunning view towards lac Leman |
