Refuge de Larribet to Refuge Wallon 

Ascent: 1200 meters

Desent: 1350 meters

9.5 hours

What great sleep. I wish all refuges were like this one. But really it’s better that they are all different and you never know what you are going to get. 

Beautiful walk to the valley floor… all on a trail.  And then the rest of the day was mostly on real trail with lots of granite steps. That made most of the day a cake walk. Except for the end of the day which was just a bit too much downhill. 

We watched this herd of izards for 20 minutes.

Col de Cambales

Used microspikes over the snow on the descent because I would rather walk on snow than loose rock. That was about 10 minutes and then it was trail all the way down. We walked thru glacier carved granite, lakes and steams, and gorgeous mountain views

My favorite French family, Leopold 13, David, and Blanche 11

There were huge old pine trees in the area of the refuge.

Refuge Wallon is pretty run down. But we had a great dinner there. And before dinner we split a 1/2 liter of wine.  This is such a beautiful area that it attracts tons of people. We were told where the camping area was and then told that we could camp anywhere. We pitched our tents near the old church next door. 

Once again the fog rolled in for the evening.