Grand Col Ferret

The first 'big' day of the tour today; the clients were a little apprehensive - but had the encouragement that tomorrows a rest day in Courmayeur and finally - on a day when the major peaks come back into view - the weather turned glorious.
Following the river along the valley its a long steady climb - we broke for more apple juice, and for a few brave souls, milk straight from the cows at La Peule - about half way through the 1000m climb. Pushing on for the Col we got the added bonus of seeing a family pack of Lamagier's - two huge adults and a fairly impressive sized juvenile.
then we arrived at the Col - to hear your clients gasp, say wow & stop in their tracks - these are the sort of moments that make it all worth while - the over exuberant Americans even gave me a hug - I had to explain that they & nature had done most of the hard work.
The Col was busy but we found space to take photo's, them we moved down a few hundred metres to lose the crowds and enjoy our picnic admiring the Grand Jorrasse, Mont Dolent and a distant Aguille Verte.
From here its a steep short descent to the refuge Elena - wanting to linger and enjoy the views some more we stopped for our first Italian coffee of the tour - with the aid of some binoculars we could just make out the tiny figures of the climbers over on the cliff's at the foot of the Triolet. Then comes the long (very nearly too long) steady road down to La Palud - those that didn't opt to catch the navette were rewarded with some fantastic home made Italian ice cream at La Vechey - all in all a very good day out with some very happy clients.