I never stopped after that, nor did Claudia. After twenty more minutes of chains, two centimeter wide ledges and endless rock scrambles, I caught up with her just as we sighted the top. We were drenched in sweat despite the cold.
Figure 15: A blaze of color: a fitting epitaph
The last sentier before the top, normally a very sober and reassuring red and white blaze summed up the situation nicely. We reasoned that the painter must have traveled north to south like we had, and this was the last sentier that needed doing. The red pot had been thrown all over a rock, and then the white one after it. It was over. The view from the col was fantastic, mostly, I suspect, as a result of it being the view from the col. Miraculously, I suddenly felt much better, all my symptoms from the previous twenty-four hours disappeared, and I developed a strong appetite. Very interesting.
Figure 16: The tea shop crowd
Alf and Martha arrived, exhilarated but otherwise not the worse for their ordeal. We celebrated by taking the time to make a cup of tea, and eat a bar of chocolate. I think I counted fifteen people sitting on that isolated hilltop, the largest conglomeration of people (other than at refuges) that we saw all trip.
Figure 17: Club Med, trekking style
Claudia and I set off on the home stretch down to the refuge. As was becoming common practice, Martha and Alf gave us a head start, then overtook us long before the bottom. Claudia put on her thermal underwear, knocked back a couple of pain-killers and we continued to set a better pace than the previous day.
We made quite good progress to start with, but the four hundred meter descent took its toll on Claudia and the last few hundred meters were again the slowest by a considerable margin. It took us just over two hours to get down, half an hour more than Alf and Martha, the mountain goats. The consolation prize was that the refuge was the largest, most luxurious on the trip. It was also in the most deserted and isolated spot. Well, I liked it anyway. Curried prawns made a great treat for supper too.
