Rifugio Elena - Grand Col Ferret - Alpage de la Peule - La Fouly - Praz-de-Fort - Champex - Relais d'Arpette
- Distance: 25km
- Duration: (with breaks): 10h 00min
- Elevation gain/loss: 740m/1450m
Today is the last day of combining two TMB stages into one and so the last relatively long day. We said goodbye to the spectacular views at Rifugio Elena and moved on towards Grand Col Ferret (2537m). After a short visit we’re leaving Italy and entering Switzerland. It’s funny that all the borders on TMB coincide with mountain passes with both countries “sharing” the mountains.
Rifugio Elena sits close to the pass and the hike up is rather gradual. I highly recommend to (again) turn back and admire Italian landscape before crossing to Switzerland.
Few times I just sat on the grass and stared at the valley with Val Ferret river zigzagging in the middle (I wasn’t the only one by the way). It seemed that this morning everyone was taking it easy and simply enjoying the Alps.
Once we reached Grand Col Ferret, we were greeted with quite some snow (again). Brave ones even descended “skiiing” on their shoes which is probably not that bad of an idea when you don’t have a heavy backpack on your shoulders. Once we left the snow, the path was well established and easy to follow.
We got some refreshments at Alpage de la Peule and decided to follow the main route (the higher one) to La Fouly which I considered more attractive since we could stay up high a bit longer.
The path is a bit misleading around the Alpage. We went down the hill for at least 15 min just to realize that we need to go back all the way to Alpage, walk back towards where we came from and only then follow the route to Ferret. So pay attention if you want to follow the main route, don’t go down at the Alpage!
The path was nice with views to the green Swiss Val Ferret valley and helped us to stay out of the sun for a while. Later we had to improvise again as we kind of lost the path, but eventually made it to La Fouly. This section was probably the least marked in the whole TMB. Or we were the least attentive to the signs…
La Fouly wasn’t our final stop as we had to reach Champex, which was a good 4 hours away. I’ve read in other blogs that this stage of TMB (#7) is rather meh, so we decided to walk as far as we can (or want to) and then take the bus to Champex.
After visiting this section I tend to agree with fellow bloggers – this stage is nice, but rather “weak” to compete with previous days, when we had sweeping views of the Alps. We did get to observe how an ordinary Swiss alpine village life looks like.
As this day was quite long, we really wanted to get the last bus instead of walking till late evening. We ended up running to the bus due to my overoptimistic belief in our abilities (2.5h hike – we can definitely do that in 2h, which is when the bus leaves…). But we made it!
Because of the bus choice we skipped a climb between Issert and Champex.
Once in Champex we decided to chill a bit and get food before hiking to our camping place – Relais D’Arpette, which was another 45min up the hill.
By the time we reached it, we were really glad to be done with hiking for today. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a place for dinner and had to rely on our own supplies. Luckily we had some fresh bread from a bakery in Champex, where the baker was so nice to “sneakily” add two croissants for free. As if she knew how we will need them later!
Day 5 tips
- As mentioned in the post, keep an eye for the upper path towards La Fouly, the signs are a bit misleading.
- If you are very tired or short on time, there are a few busses running through the valley on the Swiss side, you can basically skip the whole La Fouly - Champex stage.