8/23 Forneaux to Refuge I Re Magi

A cool morning thanks to the evenings thunder festivities. Refreshed we packed up early and got out the door at 8:10. No matter how early we get up its 8:10 - 8:20 out the door. The cool was important as the climb of the GR5 branch from Forneaux felt vertical. Long unrelenting sections of up, up, up. If I had to do it over I would have opted for the longer but gentler branch coming up from Modane. Occasional views back to the city below. Then a brief descent to cross the river and meeting up with the other arm of the GR5 in the ski village of Valfrejus. I stopped in and picked up a artisanal ham and cheese which I ate as we walked up the road. In fact the better part of the climb is on gravel road.
We passed an abandoned military bunker with a steel copula turret guarding the road. A large structure loomed above - a barracks perhaps once now a fromagerie. We stopped along the stream for sandwiches and a cooling foot dip. In the thirty minutes we stopped to eat, the sky went from blue to gathering cumulus . We continued on leaving the tree line and entering the views over the dried grassy hills of the prominent peaks including Mt Thabor up the valley. It's a reasonably graded climb. Finally a split is reached we went right unfortunately loosing altitude only to make it up again to reach the col where we left a note for the Dutch. As we did sprinkles and chill wind became more serious and we went to pack covers and rain jackets. We descended gently into a grassy basin then more seriously down to another basin below through crumbling rock.
A few trees began to appear then into forest of mostly beautiful larches. A picturesque pond appeared and with the storm dissipating the camera was out. Another descent into denser larch forest, and a road walk to the refuge amongst day walkers circulating about. Finally the little building cluster with our refuge appeared with dramatic views behind to to the up valley peaks.
The refuge was the best yet with a small room for 2. Italian is mostly spoken here and we enjoyed listening at dinner- which was amazing- polenta + sausage in tomato sauce + blue cheese. Stuffed sleep came easy.