Last night, several people heard that there might be a storm today mid afternoon, so we decided to leave earlier so that we could at least be off the high part of the mountain if there was a storm. We also decided that we would hike with Terri today — Terri is from Calgary, Canada. She is a graduate student in geology and she is hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc by herself. We met her several days ago — since it sounded like a storm might be a possibility, we decided it would be a good idea to team up.
We ate breakfast at 6:30 am. and then got hiking by 7:30 am. The first part of the hike was a high trail that left the Rifugio and continued along the same mountain slope.
Eventually, we began a long climb down — after about 2.5 hours, we arrived at the Chalet Val Ferret which was on the side of a river. We decided to stop, take a break, and enjoy a mid-morning snack.
Our hiking partner, Terri.
Just as we left the cafe, it started to sprinkle, so we pulled out our rain gear including our rain pants and put them on before starting to hike again. 
Today's hike had a lot of climbing up and climbing down. After we climbed all the way down to the river, we then started another long climb back up to our next Rifugio stopping point, Rifugio Elena. 
We climbed for about 2 hours and made it to Rifugio Elena at about lunch time. 
Rifugio Elena was rebuilt into the side of the hill after the previous Rifugio was destroyed in an avalanche. 
We knew this was our last stop in Italy as once we left here and climbed to the next col, we would be stepping into Switzerland. 
After lunch, we started our climb up to Grand Col Ferret which is at 8323 feet. If you look at the photo, you can see the river where we had our mid-morning snack and then in the lower right hand corner, you can see the copper roof of Rifugio Elena where we had lunch. As you can see, we did a lot of climbing today!!
All along the way today we saw multiple glaciers.
Here we are part of the way up towards the col.
Finally we reached the top and then had an amazing view of Italy on one side and a view of Switzerland on the other side. 
This is one last view of the Italian side. 
This is a photo of us at the col with the Switzerland side behind us.
We then began our long climb down — this stage had a descent of 4625 feet. I was a little concerned about how my knee would do; however, I'm pleased to report that it went much better than the first several days. I did some research online on our rest day and modified my descent technique (planting my heel first to take the pressure on the knee). I think that technique along with a day of rest helped a lot. 
The descent trail was relatively easy in that at least it wasn't super rocky in most places. 
Today, in addition to seeing some runners practicing, we saw quite a few mountain bikers. 
By 4 pm, the sun started to appear and the light on the mountains was beautiful. 
The last part of the day, we had to check the map several times to determine the exact route down. It always seems so much longer than you think, too!
Finally, we made our entire way down the mountain to a mountain stream. We then walked along the stream for about 30 minutes until we reached La Fouly. 
We finally reached our lodging for the night — it is like a hostel, but we have a private room tonight. For dinner, we had Raclette which is a traditional Swiss meal that consists of melted cheese generally served with potatoes. Stage 6 — 10.5 hours of hiking and 38,410 steps
Today, rested and refreshed, we began our hike by walking through the town, uphill, to Villair where the Tour du Mont Blanc path began to climb. 
We stopped to look at the map and note that our first stop was Rifugio Bertone. 
As always, we had to factor in about 1.5 the time that the sign indicated the hike would take :-).
At this point, the path began a steep uphill climb. The woman at our hotel told us we would have about a 2-hour climb up. 
This photo will give you an idea of our climb. The hotel where we started this morning is down in valley. 
This is the view of the path leading up to Rifugio Bertone. 
It is our experience that the huts are generally accessed by one final steep climb up. Once at the Rifugio Bertone, we took a brief stop to take in the view and then decided to proceed onward. 
Shortly after we ascended from the Rifugio, we turned to take a path coming from Val Ferret. This path was what we followed for the rest of the day — it is called a "balcony trail" because as you follow along it, it is like you are on a balcony overlooking a breathtaking view the whole way. It was a joyous experience — we had gorgeous weather, we were rested, and we had a smooth easy path. 
Our view for the entire time we were on this path included a succession of glaciers, snowfields, and spectacular mountains. 
We are so happy to see the glaciers as we don't know how much longer they will be here in our warming world. Already, you can see evidence of how much the glaciers have receded. 
This was the meadow we sat in (and the view) when we had our lunch.
Once again, we saw some people on the trail, but many times we felt like we were the only ones around.
Today there was definitely more evidence of the upcoming UTMB races which start on Friday. The protocol is for hikers to step aside for the runners — it is a little more challenging this time because many of the runners were coming from behind us. Most of the runners we saw today are here training and acclimating before the event.
We met a delightful couple (probably about our age) from Hong Kong. They snapped this photo of us during the day.
Finally, about 3 pm, we saw the Rifugio Bonatti ahead. Once again, gettting there required a final climb, but today we still had some energy left for the final push.
Once there, we took off our boots and had a beer. Tasted really good!
There is a big deck out front where people from all over the world are gathered to relax after a day of hiking. 
This is the front of the Rifugio and the photo below is one of the views from the front deck. 
We had a wonderful multi-course Italian dinner and then settled in for a good night sleep in our dorm room with 5 other people. 
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.