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!
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