On reaching Notre Dame de le Gorge, we found people preparing for the SAAB-Salomon endurance race - in this filthy weather. Ah well, it takes all sorts.
We headed up towards the Col again - in slightly worse conditions than last. We found another little wooden shelter (at about 1,900 m), some way below the col, and had lunch inside. With a cocoon jacket and a cup of hot coffee, things weren’t so bad inside the shelter. While we were eating, about 100 runners went past - dressed just like the pair we’d seen in our earlier trek. Now we knew what that pair had been training for. Better them than us. Further up we found genuine alpine guides dotted along the track - for the safety of the runners. They seemed to think the weather was ‘normal’ - well, fairly common anyhow.
It was late enough when we reached the CAF Refuge, so we decided to spend the night there. My summer UL gear was not really suited to camping up there, although we could have done so in an emergency. The ridge we wanted to take the next morning was just visible to the right of the Refuge, covered with a lot of snow and without any visible tracks. Hm.
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