When we woke up in the refuge in the morning, we had the most amazing view of the Mont Blanc range above the clouds. We were so happy that we might have good weather for our final stage of the Tour du Mont Blanc.
We had breakfast with Terri — she planned to take an excursion to a lake first with Nadav and Noam Perlman and we hiked with Nadav and Noam's parents, Ayeley and Shuki.
As we started out, the clouds were all socked in. As the day progressed, we would continue to have lots of clouds covering the mountain views along with times when the clouds lifted and we saw spectacular vistas.
The guidebook we have been using described this last stage "as varied as any on the walk." We both agreed that it reminded us a lot of some of the stages on The Walkers' High Route as it had a lot more scree, boulder fields, and other challenging conditions. 
A look at a boulder field we hiked through.
Every once and awhile in the morning, the low-hanging clouds would part and you could get a glimpse of Mont Blanc. 
Once, in late morning, the clouds lifted and we got a glorious view of Mont Blanc with fresh snow that had fallen during the last several days of rain. 
By the time we reached Col du Brévent, we were back in the clouds. 
After the col, we hiked through more boulder fields and challenging climbs including a section of ladders and a cable railing to hold on to up the steep side. See below. Luckily, it wasn't raining or too windy, otherwise it would have been much more challenging for us!
It's hard to see how steep it is in this photograph but this stage had a lot more trails "with exposure" — a euphemism in my mind for "scary." :-)
Once we reached the top, this was the backdrop for our entire descent. It's hard to describe in words how majestic the scenery is in this stage. 
Here is a photo where we came upon a small reflecting pool and I was able to get a shot of Mont Blanc and its reflection. 
We reached the Refuge de Bellachat at about 4:15 pm. We knew that we had a 5000 foot descent down to Les Houches, so we didn't tarry. We parted with Ayeley and Shuki at the refuge as they were going to wait for Nadav, Noam, and Terri before their descent. Greg and I were estimating about 3 hours to descend, so we knew we had a challenging hike ahead. 
This is part of the way down — you can catch a glimpse of the valley below where we were headed, so it gives you an idea of how far we had to go still. I'm so grateful that as hard as the hike down was, I did not have any knee pain. As happened with my experience with The Walkers' High Route, after several days of acclimation, my knee pain seems to resolve. I told Greg that I want to figure out some additional training I can do, so that the next time I take a big hike, I can avoid the acute knee pain all together!
A small miracle occurred as Greg and I finally reached Les Houches at about 7:45 pm. We ran into our friends! They had taken a slightly different path down. We took one last photo and said our goodbyes. Greg and I then began the hike into Les Houches to see if we could find a bus to take us closer to where we were staying for the night. As luck would have it, the Sunday night bus ran only once per hour, so we hiked for a final 45 minutes to where we had made a reservation. As it was getting dark, and we hadn't had any dinner, I mentioned that it was good that we still had one sausage stick, one apple, and a piece of bread left. Greg said, "we'll eat at our hotel."
Turns out when we got to our lodging at 8:35 pm, it was a bed and breakfast. Our host, Pascaline, took pity on us when we asked if she had any fromage (cheese) she could give us to go with our piece of bread, sausage stick, and apple. She brought us some cheese and some stuffed tomatoes to add to our food. We had a late dinner, showered, and fell into bed exhausted, but exhilarated from hiking our final stage of Tour Du Mont Blanc!Stage 11 — We think these statistics are pretty impressive! 12 hours of hiking and 40,782 steps!
Because the weather forecast was for rain and snow and 
We purchased some more lunch supplies, including a chocolate bar, before taking the cable car.
The cable car station.
Once we got to the top of the mountain, our decision was confirmed as there was a rain/snow mix falling. 
One of the amazing benefits of our decision was our ability to see the first four runners of the UTMB coming running into the checkpoint at Refuge La Flégère. The excitement was palatable as these amazing athletes (who had started the race at 6 pm the night before) came running right by us. From this point, they were headed down to Chamonix to the finish line. 
I got this close-up photo of Tim Tollefson, an American who ultimately finished in 3rd place! He looks pretty good considering he has run all night through rain and snow. It was very exciting!
Here is the bunk room we shared with a couple from Australia and a man from Singapore. We felt fortunate to only have 5 in our room as one of the rooms housed 30 plus people. 
Because we had modified our hike, we had time in the late afternoon to relax and play cards. 
At dinner that night, we joined our friends Terri (from Canada) and the Perlman family (Ayeley, Shuki, Nadav, and Noam) from Israel. 
Terri showing our dinner — cheesy potatoes and prosciutto. 
Some more friends from Iceland that we've been hiking with through all the stages. 
The cheese plate that is served before dessert to "clear the palate."
When we left Trient, it was cloudy and drizzly. The forecast for the day included rain for most of the day.
To get to the trail, we walked through town and had a chance to see some of the town's cows up close and personal.
Because we had taken this same stage 3 years ago (but going in the opposite direction) when we hiked the Walkers' Haute Route, we knew what was ahead of us. We would be climbing up about 3000 feet to reach the Col De Balme. I had remembered how steep the descent was when we did this stage previously and I wasn't looking forward to the ascent!
This gives you an idea of the trail we took up for the first 3 hours of hiking. 
At this point, it wasn't actually raining yet, but we were walking in a cloud! Unfortunately, that meant we had absolutely no view of the mountains. 
About an hour from Col De Balme, we were getting up above the tree line and it started raining hard. Fortunately, it wasn't a lightening storm, just a steady rain with wind.
At the Col De Balme, there was a small wooden shelter where you could buy hot drinks. We took off our wet jackets, got some coffee, and studied our guidebook for the trail down. There were several options, but we decided due to the rain and the clouds, not to take the high route down.
The other route down started down from the col through a ski area. The entire hike down took about 3 hours. 
After about 1.5 hours of hiking, the sky started lightening up and we could actually see some mountains! We were thrilled as this was NOT what was forecast. 
The last hour of the hike, we traveled from Le Tour to Argentière along a beautiful trail that started along a rushing mountain river and then took us through a forest with huge pine trees. We were descending to Ar
We arrived at our hotel at about 4:15 pm pleasantly surprised at how the day had gone given the original forecast of rain all day. 
This what the view off our porch looked like this morning — you couldn't see the valley or any of the mountains. We checked the weather for the rain that we knew was coming!
First step, go downstairs and have one last lovely breakfast with Marlène!
We are ready with our rain gear and pack covers!
Within 10 minutes of leaving our Alpina, the rain had started. 
As you can see, the trail soon became a muddy mess!
We still had about a 30 minute climb down a very steep, muddy trail with very tight switchbacks. 
We are super happy to be at our lodging for the night — it is a hostel, but we have a private room which is really nice. We showered, washed some muddy rain pants, and are now relaxing before dinner. We know we have more rain coming tomorrow as well as a 3000 foot climb out of Trient, so we're just trying to enjoy this time resting before tomorrow's hike.