Courmayeur, Italy, is really charming! It appears to be a big ski town. We have enjoyed our day of rest.
We started with breakfast at the hotel where our waiter insisted on bringing us Italian expresso (in addition to our coffee). So we got charged up for the day.
The night we arrived, we had pulled out all our wet, stinky clothes and washed them in the tub. After hanging them out overnight, none of them were dry, so we knew we'd have to lay them outside in the sun in the afternoon.
So, after breakfast, we went out walking around town. Almost all the buildings have slate roofs which are very interesting and attractive.
In the afternoon, we laid all our clothes out in the sun in a sitting area in back of the hotel. The clothes dried up nicely in the strong sun!
There is an air of excitement in Courmayeur as the Ultra Tour Mont Blanc is starting in two days. In 2000, a couple of runners had the brilliant idea of running non-stop around Mont Blanc (basically the same 110 miles we are hiking). In 2002, their dream became a reality when 711 long distance running enthusiasts raced to three different finishes — Courmayeur, Champex, or Chamonix. By 2008, the UTMB was so popular that registrations were closed within 9 minutes of opening. Today, in the course of a week, this huge trail running event brings together over 8000 runners from all over the world.
The trail runners are beginning to arrive for the event. In fact, over the last 3 days, we've seen multiple runners on our hiking trail. Most likely they are practicing as well as getting acclimated.
Due to this big event, there was a festive atmosphere in Courmayeur today!
Because we have a little experience with overlapping with this race when we did the Walkers Haute Route 3 years ago, we know that as exciting as it is to see all these amazing runners, it really slows up our hiking as we are constantly stepping off the narrow trail to let the runners go by. So we spent some time today trying to figure out if we will actually overlap with them again this time. We're hoping that the runners might pass by where we are during the night when we are fast asleep. :-)
Of course, being in Italy, we had to try some gelato!
Shades of various kinds of chocolate — all very tasty!
We also walked to a couple of markets to pick up items for our next several days of lunches.
Finally, we got oriented to where we will need to go tomorrow morning as we start Stage 5. We know that we will spend probably the first 3 hours going up the mountain — yikes, I'm feeling kind of lazy after my day of rest.
We started with breakfast at the hotel where our waiter insisted on bringing us Italian expresso (in addition to our coffee). So we got charged up for the day. The night we arrived, we had pulled out all our wet, stinky clothes and washed them in the tub. After hanging them out overnight, none of them were dry, so we knew we'd have to lay them outside in the sun in the afternoon. So, after breakfast, we went out walking around town. Almost all the buildings have slate roofs which are very interesting and attractive. In the afternoon, we laid all our clothes out in the sun in a sitting area in back of the hotel. The clothes dried up nicely in the strong sun! There is an air of excitement in Courmayeur as the Ultra Tour Mont Blanc is starting in two days. In 2000, a couple of runners had the brilliant idea of running non-stop around Mont Blanc (basically the same 110 miles we are hiking). In 2002, their dream became a reality when 711 long distance running enthusiasts raced to three different finishes — Courmayeur, Champex, or Chamonix. By 2008, the UTMB was so popular that registrations were closed within 9 minutes of opening. Today, in the course of a week, this huge trail running event brings together over 8000 runners from all over the world. The trail runners are beginning to arrive for the event. In fact, over the last 3 days, we've seen multiple runners on our hiking trail. Most likely they are practicing as well as getting acclimated. Due to this big event, there was a festive atmosphere in Courmayeur today! Because we have a little experience with overlapping with this race when we did the Walkers Haute Route 3 years ago, we know that as exciting as it is to see all these amazing runners, it really slows up our hiking as we are constantly stepping off the narrow trail to let the runners go by. So we spent some time today trying to figure out if we will actually overlap with them again this time. We're hoping that the runners might pass by where we are during the night when we are fast asleep. :-) Of course, being in Italy, we had to try some gelato! Shades of various kinds of chocolate — all very tasty! We also walked to a couple of markets to pick up items for our next several days of lunches. Finally, we got oriented to where we will need to go tomorrow morning as we start Stage 5. We know that we will spend probably the first 3 hours going up the mountain — yikes, I'm feeling kind of lazy after my day of rest. We will be staying in a hut again at the end of our hike tomorrow, so will "be off the grid again" for awhile. As soon as we are back to where we have Internet access, we'll put up a post.
Rest day steps - 11,751
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