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Tour du Mont Blanc

Stage 3. Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme - Rifugio Elisabetta

Tuesday 13th August 2019

Stage 3. Schedule

From To Distance Km Time Hrs Ascent m Descent m

3-1 Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme (2,433m) Chalet de Plan Varraro (2,103m) 3.0 450

3-2 Chalet de Plan Varraro (2,103m) Les Chapieux (1,549m) 2.5 470

3-3 Les Chapieux (1,549m) La Ville des Glaciers (1,789m) 5.5 434 190

3-4 La Ville des Glaciers (1,789m) Refuge des Mottets (1,870m) 2.0 90

3-5 Refuge des Mottets (1,870m) Col de la Seigne (2,516m) 4.5 655

3-6 Col de la Seigne (2,516m) Rifugio Elisabetta (2,180m) 4.0 370

Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme (2,433m) Rifugio Elisabetta (2,180m) 21.5 7H30 1,015 1,290

Garmin GPS Actual Data
Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme - Les Chapieux

Distance	Time	Elevation in meters
Km	Elapsed Hrs-Mins	Gain	Loss	Min	Max
5.1	1H58	-	884	1,549	2,433

Garmin GPS Actual Data
Ville de Glaciers to Refugio Elisabetta

Distance	Time	Elevation in meters
Km	Elapsed Hrs-Mins	Gain	Loss	Min	Max
10.19	4H38	738	364	1,787	2,514

Garmin GPS Actual Data
Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme to Refugio Elisabetta excluding the shuttle
bus from Les Chapieux to La Ville de Glaciers

Distance Time Elevation in meters

Km Elapsed
Hrs-Mins Gain Loss Min Max

15.29 6H36 738 1,248 1,549 2,514

Early morning at Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme

View towards Les Chapieux

Lesley and Mick

I joined a Korean group for pre-walk limbering up exercises; I have to say that it really helped!

Leaving Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme

Dropping down to Les Chapieux; you can just see the road at the bottom
of the valley heading towards Valle de Glaciers.

Looking back up the hill towards Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme

Descending to Les Chapieux

Great yellow gentiane (Gentiane Jaune - Gentiane lutea)

Les Chapieux

Euro 3.50 for the shuttle bus between Les Chapieux and Valle des Glaciers for adults single or return;
children under 12 free

The mini-bus goes from an elevation of 1,546 m at Les Chapieux to 1,786 m at La Ville de Glaciers over a distance of 5.4 km. There is an ascent of 434 m, and a descent into La Ville de Glaciers of 190 m

Navettes de Chapieux - Summer 2019 Saturday 6th July - Sunday 25th August - every day
Les Chapieux	Selogne	La Ville des Glaciers	Parking des Mottets	Les Lanchettes
08:30	08:40	08:50
08:40	08:50	09:00	09:10	09:15
09:05	09:15	09:25
09:40	09:50	10:00
09:45	09:55	10:05	10:15	10:20
10:15	10:25	10:35
10:50	11:00	11:10
11:00	11:10	11:20	11:30	11:35
11:25	11:35	11:45
12:10	12:20	12:30
13:30	13:40	13:50
13:55	14:05	14:15	14:25	14:30
14:05	14:15	14:25
14:40	14:50	15:00
15:05	15:15	15:25
15:35	15:45	15:55
16:00	16:10	16:20
16:10	16:20	16:30	16:40	16:45
16:40	16:50	17:00
17:15	17:25	17:35
17:30	17:40	17:50

Navettes de Chapieux - Summer 2019
Monday 26th August - Saturday 31st August -every day

Les Chapieux Selogne La Ville des Glaciers Parking des Mottets Les
Lanchettes

09:30 09:40 09:50 10:00 10:05

10:40 10:50 11:00 11:10 11:15

11:50 12:00 12:10 12:20 12:25

14:00 14:10 14:20 14:30 14:35

15:10 15:20 15:30 15:40 15:45

16:20 16:30 16:40 16:50 16:55

Heading to Valle des Glaciers

La Ville des Glaciers

Vente Beaufort Cheese Plant

Raw and whole milk: it is the basis of the Beaufort. It goes through several stages of renneting, curdling, of cutting, brewing, cooking to finally reach the phases of casting (in a wooden circle, where the characteristic concave heel of this cheese comes from) and pressing.

Flipped over and then salted, the wheels of about 40 kg are finally reaching the maturing process on spruce shelves in cellars, they will be turned over and salted about twice a week, and this for at least 5 to 12 months before the Beaufort is ready to be tasted. An entire program to get an exquisite result!

20 minutes to Refuge des Mottets

Looking back from whence we came

Refuge des Mottets

Sleeping accommodation at Refuge des Mottets

Monty the marmot

Signposted two hours to Col de la Seigne, Italy
(Note the alternative higher route via Refuge Robert Blanc at this point)

B-17 Serial number 43-39338, the ill-fated aircraft which crashed into Mont Blanc on November 1 1946, was a Boeing model 299, more commonly known by the US Army Air Force designation of B-17G. It was one of the 8,680 B-17G’s built between 1943 and 1945. Although designed as a bomber, at the conclusion of WW-2, a number of these versatile 4-engined airplanes were used by the US Army Air Force’s European Air Transport Service, mainly for troop transport, the role in which the aircraft piloted by Col. H.H. Upham was operating at the time of the crash.

At approximately 4 a.m. local time on November 1st 1946, the flight of a B-17 “Flying Fortress” abruptly and catastrophically ended when it crashed into the 12,500 feet high Aiguille des Glaciers, on the south-west shoulder of Mont Blanc, practically on the French-Italian border. The impact was such that the aircraft completely disintegrated, scattering mechanical parts and the remains of its 8-man crew over a wide area on both sides of the border. The nearly-new B-17 model G, serial number 43-39338, was assigned to the USAAF’s European Air Transport Service (EATS), the 15th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 61st Troop Carrier Group, and had totalled less than 200 flight hours . It was en route from the Capodichino Air Base in Naples (Italy) to Bovingdon, a small town near Southampton in England. For an as-yet unexplained reason, at the moment of the crash, the aircraft was more than 90 miles east of its planned flight path.

It was not until July 1947 that a French Alpine Patrol chanced on the impact site and found fragments of wreckage at around 12,000 feet, just below the summit of the Aiguille des Glaciers, part of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. Despite the deep snow and treacherous conditions they managed to recover a number of human remains and documents. These were brought down to their base at Bourg Saint-Maurice for examination. The documents identified the aircraft as the missing B-17. The human remains, evidently those of the crew, were carefully conserved for consignment to the American authorities.

Looking back on Refuge des Mottets

Looking back to La Ville des Glaciers

Mick

Just look at that!

Heading to Col de la Seigne

At Col de la Seigne, 2,516m, the border between France and Italy

Mick, Jim & Lesley

The border marker

Col de la Seigne 2,516m

Lunch just below Col de la Seigne

La Casermetta

Owned by the Autonomous Region Valle d'Aosta and run by the Courmayeur "Montagna Sicura" Foundation, the Casermetta in Val Veny is the Espace Mont Blanc centre for transboundary environmental education. It houses an educational center, display and reception area for hikers and a shelter for hikers (abri du randonneur).

The Col de la Seigne was an ancient route for goods passing between Italy and France. The name is old and of an uncertain origin. The medieval terms Mons Senae, Collium de Senia, Alpis Seniae make reference to the "Colle del Sengale", while the Celtic term "sange" means marshy land, which is found lower down in the area of Lake Combal. Col de la Seigne became well known due to the Tour du Mont Blanc, but it acquired notoriety during the Second World War when a series of military outposts were built along the frontier between France and Italy.