July 29, 2024

Rifugio Bonatti to Auberge des Glaciers, La Fouly

12.4 TMB miles

14 miles total with side trail 

Alarm goes off. Snooze. Goes off again. Snooze. It’s going to be a big hiking day, an a challenging one, and I know that I need to get up, but I’m still so eepy and I just want to be a slug! But I haul myself up, put the coffee on, and start the packing process so we can go back out and do the thing.

Once we’ve packed and cleaned up, we walk to the bus stop and take the shuttle back to where we picked it up yesterday. The route today from Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly is twelve and a half miles technically, but with the hike up, it ends up being closer to 14. And the problem is that we have to be at our refuge tonight in La Fouly, Switzerland by 5:00 PM. So we don’t have a lot of time to waste.

Luckily, I feel pretty cruisey despite the weight of my pack. I’m not exactly the most aware or in-tune person when it comes to pop culture, so Grace has been educating me on Charli XCX’s Brat. I listen to the album at the start of the day on the initial climb and a bit after, and it’s an absolute bop. When I get to “365” I’m really feeling it and jamming out and the contrast of listening to pop songs about doing cocaine in a club and being among these gorgeous mountains is hilarious. But it works; we rocket through the first three and a half miles. Brat summer!

The only roadblock on the very level and enjoyable hiking after Rifugio Bonatti is a herd of cows that freaks us out. We’re just minding our own business and walking down the trail and all of a sudden there is a bunch of mooing, and then several cows with very big, scary horns seem to be following us. Neither of us had any idea that we could run as fast as we do with our packs on. Finally, we perch at a spot up the hill in the shade that seems to be out of their way enough for the entire herd, and after a few moments they pass—very slowly. 

We make our way down to the valley, have a snack of leftover pizza to fuel up, and then start working on the climb up to Rifugio Elena, which is halfway up the climb to Grand Col Ferret, the Swiss border. It’s tough, but not terrible, and the wildflowers are absolutely popping on either side of the trail, even more than I’ve seen so far. I take photo after photo during my little breathing stops. 

Before I know it, we’re at Rifugio Elena. The FarOut comments suggest that this refuge has excellent cannoli and coffee, so we go in and order both. As we sit outside and stare at the glacier on the mountains across the valley while we eat flaky cannoli and drink Italian espresso, it strikes me for the thousandth time how perfect this hike is. It has challenge in the form of large climbs through otherworldly landscapes, but it also has comforts in the form of amazing food to break up the climb. 

And yet. The climb must be finished. I am already tired and the grade is brutal on my quads and knees. I suffer. I toil. But we must toil to get to beds tonight! We must toil so that we can reap the fruit of our toiling! And there is a lot of beauty among the suffering, in the form of views, and wildflowers, and the specific feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing something really hard along with other people. 

We have a snack when we get to the top, but a horsefly bites Grace and then hangs around, so we decide to just clear out and start going downhill. We snap a few quick photos, then begin the descent to La Fouly. 

It’s not as sharp as some of the other descents we’ve experienced, but it is still rather exposed and therefore tiring. The trail largely follows a dirt road, along which we find wild strawberries and an assortment of flowers we’ve not seen before. 

The trail turns into paved road and ends up in the small hamlet of La Fouly. It’s 4:30, a full half hour before our deadline of 5:00, even with the late start, enormous climb, and cannoli break. We crushed it! I feel both very accomplished and very tired.

We check in to the Auberge des Glaciers and get settled in our room. It’s a cute place, and though the room is cozy and packed full of six bunk beds, it’s still better than Elisabetta. Not that this is a challenge. There are also tons of showers, so there’s no wait and we can get clean right away. After this we wander around the supermarket, which also features a very cute souvenir section, so I get a very cute magnet, a postcard, and some other goodies. 

After this we return to the hostel and go outside and order a drink on the patio, then take it inside for dinner when it’s time. We have assigned seating again, and we end up with Mert, from Turkey, and Jeanne and George, from Oregon. It is an exceedingly pleasant evening chatting with them and eating the dinner, which is probably the best we’ve had so far in a refuge. There’s a soup first, then a salad (Vegetables! My body rejoices!), followed by a kebab with couscous and cauliflower covered in a creamy sauce. Grace’s vegetarian meal also looks incredible: in addition to the cauliflower and couscous, she gets an assortment of grilled vegetables. For dessert, there is gelato with a little cookie. I mean. Just. Chef’s kiss. Perfection. Parfait.

After dinner we go outside and try to order another beer, the “Trail” session IPA we had earlier and enjoyed, but the waiter tells us that they have a bar downstairs that “you young people might like more” because “this is a restaurant where people order food, and the bar is for drinks.” I try to push back, saying that we want to sit outside here, but she basically tells us to get lost. So we scurry off to the bar, which does not have the beer that we wanted anyway. But whatever. We order a different beer from the same local brewery and spend some chill time writing. 

It’s endlessly interesting to me how the crossing of a border over a mountain pass here results in a completely different environment. We’re in the same mountains we’ve been hiking through the whole time, but the language is different, the signage is different, the architecture is different, the vibe is different. It’s like a completely different place immediately. “Ciao” has been replaced with “bonjour” again, just like that. “Grazie” has morphed back into “merci.” The American mind cannot comprehend such switching of culture in such a small amount of time and space.

So we are in Switzerland! The last of the three countries.  Land of cows, St. Bernards, Swiss Army knives, big mountains, neutrality. It’s a cool place, and the flag is also a big plus. I’m excited to see what this section has to offer.