Day 5 - Thursday 27th August 2015 - Le Châble to Cabane du Mont Fort

Total distance walked:	11.70 km	7.27 miles
Total hours walked including stops	5 hrs 31 mins
Total hours walked excluding stops	4 hrs 43 mins
Height at start	821 metres	2694 feet
Height at finish	2457 metres	8061 feet
Total Height Gain	1727 metres	5666 feet
Total Height Loss	119 metres	390 feet
Maximum Height	2453 metres	8048 feet
Average speed excluding stops	2.48 km/hr	1.54 miles/hr

I was up at 6.00 am, dressed, washed and down to breakfast which had been left out for me.  Orange juice, cereal, coffee, bread, butter and jam – perfectly adequat5e.  I left the hotel at 6.50 am and headed down to cross the river into Vilette and up the path to Mont Fort.  After ten minutes, I misunderstood the instructions in the guide book and took the path signed to Mont Fort whereas I should have turned right to Les Verneys.  I wasn’t sure how well the GPD was working so I couldn’t trust the location it was giving me.  However, after some 30 minutes, I realised that I was on the route to Mont Fort via Verbier but there was no easy way to re-connect with the correct path other than descending several hundred metres and so I carried on.  After a short stop in the forest, I arrived in Verbier after about 90 minutes walking.  I walked through Verbier and was at Clambin at about 9.10 am.  According to the lady at the restaurant, most walkers from Le Châble didn’t get to the café/restaurant until nearly 11 o’clock so it seemed my error had saved me some 90 minutes or more of walking.  I don’t understand why as the total distance walked was a kilometre longer than the correct route.

Anyway having arrived at the café/restaurant, I stopped and had a chocolat chaud and then a small beer staying until almost 10 o’clock.  I then continued on the path, now that given in the guide book and arrived at the refuge at 12.20 pm i.e. about 5½ hours after leaving Le Châble.  I wasn’t particularly steep or hard and I had been able to enjoy walking in the sunshine.  I had a couple of large beers and ate a sandwich that I had bought the previous afternoon.  I chatted to an Englishman and a Swissman (average age 70) who were on a short walk from Verbier where they were staying – I assume – at the Swissman’s house.  After a couple of hours, the American couple Greg and Molly arrived – they had caught the lift to Les Ruinettes and shortly later, the Scotsman Dave who I had met in Trient and a little later still, Patrick and Veronique who I discovered lived in High Wycombe.

I then went up to my room, a double which I had to myself, had a shower and a shaved.  The down for a beer before dinner at 6.30 pm.  Dinner of minestrone soup, spaghetti bolognese, cream custard and one glass of wine – no bread or cheese.  I then went up to my room and watched the sunset before reading for a while and then getting a reasonable night’s sleep.  Total for bed, breakfast, 2 large beers, one small beer and a glass of red wine was Є110.00.