Road to Home 2023 Day 60: Bourg-Saint-Pierre - Gran San Bernardo

After 60 days of walking all across France and Switzerland, I finally reached the Italian border!

A final climb of over a thousand metres, with a net elevation gain of about 800 metres in 14.5 kilometres, brought me to the Grand Saint Bernard Pass, and to a hospice that has been hosting pilgrims on the Via Francigena for over a thousand years. 

My walking partners for the day were Audrey from Montreal, with whom I have been walking since Besançon, and Jannis, a New Zealander who arrived at our hostel in Bourg-Saint-Pierre yesterday. 

We set off just before 7 in the morning, up a small road to the foot of the Barrage de Toules, a dam 86 metres high and almost half a kilometre wide. The road climbed to the top of the dam, where we left it to take the footpath along the side of the reservoir and up the Dranse d'Entremont river. The spring thaw meant that the ground was very wet; we crossed many little streams, and sometimes the path itself was a stream!

The Gran San Bernardo highway ran parallel to our path, covered over to protect against avalanches and rock falls; where the highway became a tunnel and disappeared into the mountain, the first patches of snow appeared. At the second ventilation tower for the tunnel, at 2270 metres in altitude, the pass was only one more kilometre away via the footpath, but there was quite a bit of snow on the path, so we forded a stream to get onto the road. 

Cars and bicycles can't go uphill as steeply as people, and so we had to walk two kilometres instead of one, because of all the switchbacks. The stunning views from the road more than made up for this inconvenience!

By lunch time we had reached the top and the hospice of Grand Saint Bernard, where we had booked beds for the night. The hospice has been continually hosting pilgrims on the Via Francigena since it was founded by Saint Bernard of Menthon in the year 962! 

Extremely dangerous for much of the year due to deep snow and danger of avalanches, Saint Bernard's Pass has nonetheless been used since ancient times by pilgrims and travellers from northern Europe on their way to Rome. Saint Bernard established a monastery at the pass to take care of people coming over the pass and rescue anyone who might find themselves in difficulty with all the snow. This mission continues until the present day, aided until recently by the famous Great Saint Bernard dogs.

It so happens that we arrived at the hospice on the eve of the Feast of Saint Bernard of Menthon: preparations are underway for the celebrations tomorrow,  and a film crew was at work on footage for Italian national television.

Saint Bernard of Menthon

When we had checked in, I took a cool shower - the hot water does not appear to be working properly - and ate some leftover pasta from yesterday that I had carried all the way up to the pass in my backpack! Then I went for a walk around the lake to Italy and back.

In the evening I attended mass in the chapel and then partook of the communal dinner in the dining room. There are five of us in our dormitory room: Audrey, Jannis and I, another woman walker who is not walking the Via Francigena but another route, and a cyclist who is cycling from Yorkshire to Rome. It has taken him only 12 days to cover all the ground I have covered in three months - one month walking in England last year, and two months crossing France and Switzerland this year. In another eight days he will be in Rome!

Today's accommodations: Hospice Grand Saint Bernard 

Bourg-Saint-Pierre - Grand Saint Bernard Pass 14.5 km

1100 metre elevation gain

Road to Home 2023 Day 59: Rest day in Bourg-Saint-Pierre

Follow your heart.

- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

Upon arriving at the cosy Maison Saint-Pierre pilgrim hostel in Bourg-Saint-Pierre, our hearts became heavy at the thought of doing all we had to do in the course of the evening and then rising early in the morning and rushing off to complete the long uphill hike before the forecast rain began in the afternoon. So I sent the manager of the hostel a message asking if we could stay another night, and he readily agreed. 

We were up early anyway, as there were no shutters to block out the morning sunlight, and wondering what to do all day! But before much of the morning had gone by, as we sat out in the courtyard we were joined by Jannis, a walker from New Zealand, who had taken the bus up from Orsieres to rest up here before tackling the pass. We showed her to a room and then sat outside chatting. We all walked up to the gas station store to buy enough food for another day. I found all the ingredients to make pasta with tomato sauce, tuna and peas; the extra pasta we dressed with grated cheese and cream, and we ate some of each. We had just finished washing the dishes when in came Brian and Alison, also from New Zealand, just in time to take care of the leftovers! Audrey had met them already, at an earlier stage of her walk, before she started walking with Elaine and I, and she was overjoyed to see them again! I was also happy to have their company, not least because they have walked over St. Bernard's Pass before and are familiar with the path.

By this time it was raining slowly but steadily, and we were happy to be indoors sipping cups of tea rather than outside walking! 

I did take a walk around the village in the morning before the rain began, and photographed some of its notable sights, such as a fourth century Roman milestone up against the back of the church, dedicated "To the Emperor Cesar Valere Constantin".

Another remarkable feature of the village is its wooden grain storage bins, which exploit the same principle as the horreos of Galicia: mice cannot walk upside-down, so the wooden structure is raised on feet incorporating a wide, flat stone.

After our morning walk, culinary venture and chat with the New Zealanders, we spent most of the afternoon sleeping! Though we are only at 1600 metres here, I believe the altitude has had an effect on me, as I felt a bit short of breath on the uphill stretches even just walking around the village, and I slept very soundly for at least a couple of hours after lunch. The extra day will not only allow our leg muscles to recover, but give our bodies a chance to get used to this intermediate altitude before we climb to the pass at 2478 metres tomorrow.

A well-earned and much-appreciated day of rest!

View of the approaching rain clouds from our room at Maison Saint-Pierre 

Road to Home 2023 Day 58: Orsieres - Bourg-Saint-Pierre

To go back is nothing but death; to go forward is fear of death, and life everlasting beyond it. I will yet go forward.

- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)

Today we began to climb in earnest! A 750 metre elevation gain in 17 kilometres. Today's stage was supposed to be only 14 kilometres, but according to my gps track it was 17... including a few wrong turns and backtracking here and there!

We started out with a steep climb from Orsieres, zigzagging along a gravel road up the mountainside. We were soon sweating despite the cool mountain air! 

We walked through an Alpine meadow of wildflowers, which we shouldn't really have been in - we had missed a poorly marked turn-off onto a steep dirt trail down to the Dranse, the stream at the bottom of the valley. 

Old landslide site

We crossed the stream and then scrambled up the other bank, only to cross over again higher up! Then we walked through a small hamlet of scattered farmhouses, and stopped for a break in the shade before climbing another steep hill into the village of Liddes. On our way up, we met Aileen and Bill, two Australian walkers who started in Lausanne. I asked them if they had walked the "tricky bit" between Martigny Croix and Sembrancher yesterday,  and they said they had, and as they were used to bushwacking  hikes back home, it was no problem for them! 

Aileen is one tough cookie! She lives in Tasmania and has walked the Southwest Coast Trail there, crossing much more difficult terrain than yesterday's while carrying a much heavier pack, including a week's worth of food supplies! Just goes to show that the definition of whether a trail should be described as easy or difficult is entirely relative. 

Aileen has all sorts of nifty gear, such as ultra-light titanium hiking poles, and a reflective sun umbrella that fits onto her backpack so she can keep her hands free! 

We all stopped at the grocery store in Liddes to pick up some snacks - just in time, as the store closed as soon as we left. We sat outside eating, and I had a brief moment of panic when I leaned over to wash a nectarine in the fountain and my phone fell out of its pocket in my waist pack and into the tub of water below the fountain! I grabbed it out right away, wiped it off, and it continued to work. Phew!!!

We continued on, gaining another 170 metres in altitude over the remaining four kilometres between Liddes and Bourg-Saint-Pierre. We walked through a field of cattle, letting ourselves in and out through gates in the electric fence. Finally we came to the Hotel Bivouac Napoléon, at the entrance to the village of Bourg-Saint-Pierre. Across from the hotel there is a gas station with a small shop, the only source of groceries in the village. We stopped and bought a frozen pizza to cook ourselves for dinner at our hostel, and some cheese and crackers for snacks on the big climb up to Grand Saint Bernard Pass. 

Our only doubt is whether to attempt the pass tomorrow, or take a day to rest and recover while letting the coming rainstorm pass by. The rest of the week is supposed to be sunny, and it would nice to be able to enjoy the views! Plus our legs would be very happy to have a day off from climbing!

Coming into Bourg-Saint-Pierre 

Today's accommodations: Maison Saint-Pierre pilgrim hostel

Orsieres - Bourg-Saint-Pierre 17 km

750 metre elevation gain