Rifugio Monzino - Part I

For the weekend I went on a hiking excursion in Italy with Emilie, Cécile, Yvain and Emilie’s father. The trip began Saturday morning with a three hour drive that took us primarily through Switzerland (via Martigny) before briefly passing through France (via Chamonix-Mont-Blanc) and then across the border with Italy (via the Mont Blanc tunnel) to Courmayeur. The Mont Blanc tunnel was particularly impressive – it’s over seven miles long and literally takes you right through the Alps.

After arriving in Italy we stopped for a quick lunch that consisted of a huge plate of charcuterie and cheeses. I never ate much of either before living in Europe, but now I’m addicted to them. Whether for an appetizer or a full meal, the combination of the two always tastes great to me. Unfortunately, I was too busy eating to even consider taking a photo.

From a hiking perspective, our plan was to spend the balance of Saturday heading up to Rifugio Monzino, a refuge at 2,590 meters where we would spend the night. On Sunday, we would then spend the morning hiking further up in the mountains before returning to the refuge for lunch and ultimately hiking back down to the car on Sunday afternoon.

Here are some pictures that I took as we began our journey…










To say that I was unprepared (at least mentally) for the “hiking” that followed would be a complete understatement. While everything was initially quite standard, about an hour into the hike Emilie’s father unpacked climbing equipment that consisted of waist harnesses, carabiners and climbing rope. The following is what we were up against.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, our “hike” required multiple climbs that made full use of our equipment (though primarily for safety purposes). While all of us could have made the various climbs without the equipment – as evidenced by the fact that no one fell – I was glad that we had taken the precaution. At times, the climbs were effectively vertical (albeit with ample foot and hand holds during the more difficult sections) and there were many instances where the slope was so severe that there was nothing to break your fall for at least 50 – 100 feet.



















As if the climb wasn’t challenging enough, Emilie’s father was intent on Yvain and me not taking any short cuts. If he caught us using a man-made foot / hand hold, he would shout “Only use the rocks. ONLY USE THE ROCKS!” (in French, of course). While adding a little bit to the challenge is fine by me under normal circumstances, once the consequence of a misplaced step or a failed grip entails a potentially lethal fall, I prefer to stick with the standard route…

But with risk comes reward – and in this case the reward came in the form of incredible views.




























Here’s a picture in celebration of finally seeing the refuge (it’s in the background at the top of the hill in the top-center of the picture).

By the time that we arrived at Refugio Monzino, I was definitely ready to get off my feet. I’m pretty sure that I used muscles that had been dormant for years and I expected to pay for it in the morning. I tried to suppress the pain in this picture, though.

Here are some pictures of a local inhabitant at the shelter. He loved to walk atop the stone wall as if he were a gymnast and clearly was not afraid of heights (a fall over the edge entailed an 80 foot drop). He loved to look straight down at the slope below and at times seemed fixated on something in particular, though we weren’t able to see anything special.











After we had settled into our room – which was actually quite nice and a clear step above camping given that we had beds and sheets – we went to the common area for dinner. There were roughly 20 others staying at the refuge (it also serves as a base camp for serious climbers) and everyone ate together. The food was classic Italian and hit the spot after an intense afternoon of hiking.

By the time that dinner ended it was getting late, so we went back to our room to get as much sleep as possible before our full day of hiking on Sunday. Further proving that the refuge was a step above camping, there was a communal bathroom and two showers that required a token (each guest got one) and were on a short timer. Apparently my internal clock is poorly calibrated, as I grossly misjudged the shower time window. And once the water stopped there was nothing you could do.