Gran Paradiso - Day 8

We (me, Matthias, Jakob, Stefan and Andi - Sarah had to go back to work) started early in the morning in Aosta and took the bus to Valnontey - at the end of Cogne Valley (1666 m). From there we hiked to Rifugio Vittorio Sella (2584 m) which took us about 3 hours.



































We arrived quite early at the Rifugio and had the whole afternoon to relax and to enjoy the sun.



















Matthias did a short side trip (towards Punto Rossa) in the afternoon where he could take all these wonderful pictures.

Gran Paradiso - Day 7

After breakfast I drove to Courmayeur and took the cable car to Pointe Helbronner and from there to Aiguille du Midi crossing Glacier du Géant. The weather was wonderful and I had really, really amazing views.

Mont Blanc














Tour Ronde















Col Du Midi















Grandes Jorasses (left), Dent du Géant (right)















Chamonix















Mont Blanc du Tacul, Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc (from left to right)















Piton Sud



















Aguille du Midi















The way out on the glacier

































Grande Jorasses and Deant du Géant





























Glacier du Géant



















Val Veny















Aguille Noire, Les Dames Anglaises, Aguille Blanche, Mont Blanc de Courmayeur, Mont Blanc (from left to right)















Aosta Valley














Alpine flowers near Rifugio Turino





























Down in the valley I drove back to Aymavilles - the entry of Cogne valley - to have lunch. Afterwards I drove to Lilaz to pick up Sarah, Matthias, Stefan, Jakob and Andi.

Gran Paradiso - Day 6

While the others had two exhausting legs in front of them, I used the time to relax. After breakfast, as I first thing in the morning, I took the bus to Cogne and from there to Lillaz to get my car.

Cogne

From Lillaz I drove to Aymavilles from where I did a hike to Pondel. Pondel is famous for its Roman aqueduct bridge which was built 3BC and carried water across the valley, more than 60m above the bottom. The unique thing about Pondel is the type of construction, i.e., combination of bridge and aqueduct.

Castle of Aymavilles whose origins go back to the 12^th century

Church of Saint Léger in Aymavilles

Bridge Aqueduct of Pondel

Back in Aymavilles I had lunch and then headed to Courmayeur to see Mont Blanc and some of the other mountains.

The next picture shows the south eastern view of the Peuterey ridge (taken from Val Ferret): Aiguille Noire - Dames Anglaises - Aiguille Blanche - Mont Blanc de Courmayeur - Mont Blanc

From Courmayeur I drove to Val Ferret where I had some really, really amazing views of the Grandes Jorasses. The highest point – Point Walker – is hidden in the fog.

The Triolet Glacier, which is located east of Grandes Jorasses, is also really beautiful. From the parking lot in Planpinchieux I made a short hike to take these pictures.

On the way back I stopped in Staint-Pierre and took some pictures of the Castle of Sarriod

and the parish church and the castle.

Gran Paradiso - Day 5

Today's leg went from Bivacco Ivrea (2745m) to Rifugio Meneghello (2440m). From our bivouac the trail headed towards Tre Bechhi. Soon the trail became really tedious leading through endless sea of stone blocks to Colle dei Becchi (2990m). Unfortunately, when we arrived at the pass, we could not see much of the surrounding mountains since the weather was not good enough.



























Fortunately, the way down was a bit less exhausting than the ascent, since there was still a big snow field :-).





































Soon we could see Lago Telessio glistening in turquois blue color. Down there is also Rifugio Pontese 2193m. However, before enjoying lunch there we had to descent about 800m in elevation.






































The lunch at the hut was really amazingly good and we spent several hours there.





























While Matthias, Andi, Stefan, Jakob and Sarah continued the hike from there (for me the next two upcoming legs were too exhausting), I hiked down to Lago Telessio from where a taxi picked me up and brought me to the train station in Ivrea. From there I took the train back to Aosta.