Day 78 Tuesday 21 July 2026
It’s been another awesome day… it started with a 5hr hike to Lac de Pierre Blanche via Lac de Lou and then a drive to the Col de la Madeleine for the night.
At a height of 2300m alt, it was a lovely cool night and a peaceful sleep with only the ‘white noise’ from the stream behind us. We decided that we would hike to Lake Lou and depart from La Chasse carpark 7km back down from Val Thorens.
Arriving at 8am there was no problems in finding a parking spot. So after breakfast we set off at 9am. From 1888m in we had to go up a bit via a lovely restaurant area with small animals, a garden and play ground.
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| View of our trail |
Then down to join the trail that can also be taken from the village. It took us an hour to reach the lovely Lake Lou (2035m) that also has a refuge restaurant.
We decided that we would continue on to Lac de Pierre Blanche (White Rock Lake) another 2km onwards but to 2304alt. There’s no denying it that it was a hard slog but we took our time and 1 hour later we had made it! We enjoyed a well deserved rest before doing our return journey.
This time it was harder on the legs than the lungs. But the views made up for it.
Back to Bluey just before 2pm we had a bite to eat and a drink before continuing 30km back down to the valley. We did stop to have a look at a quaint chapel along the way.
But not for long before we turned off to zig zag our way up again for 26km to the Col de la Madeleine (2014, 2022). We had forgotten how tight the road was in places. Arriving at 4:45pm we were happy to get a spot in the carpark and enjoyed the amazing views here of both sides of the col.
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| 73km |
