Aosta --> Bionaz --> Ollomont --> Bionaz
Surrounded by the beautiful Alps we decided to tackle one of them. There were plenty of 3 hour walks but decided we would be well able for a 5.5 hour walk. God knows why we thought this as throughout our trip we had a threshold of about 3-4 hours of sightseeing.We set off loaded with enthusiasm, sunscreen and snacks. The scenery was stunning but We soon started hitting the snow line and looking straight across at the peaks in the distance.
By the time we reached the top we were both knackered but delighted!! After a lie down we commenced the decent, which was no easier then then accent.
Next thing the track we were walking on hit a glacier about 30 meters wide. Further down we could see it was melting and a stream was running underneath it. There had been no mention of this when we popped into the local tourist office that morning. Yikes...!! basically we were shitting ourselves. I was terrified that if we walked across we could fall through, Dave was more worried about slipping and hurtling down 300+ meters of sheer ice. The thought of walking back up the mountain was not appealing either so we gingerly padded across the ice and thankfully we made it to the other side. By the time we finally finished our walk it had taken us 7.5 hours, we were knackered and stinky. We went to the first bar we could find and got a couple of beers. One more problem.... we had to get back to our car. We had missed the last bus so we had to hitch. Luck was on our side and the second car that passed picked us up. Good ol' Italians come up trumps again. The lovely lady even went out of her way to drop us back.
There was a hostel near buy in restored old stone building. The guy who worked there was in the local pub so we had a couple of beers with him and then headed back to rest our exhausted bodies.I could barely walk for the next two days but it felt great to have climbed our very own alp.
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