….what goes up must go down and from the summit col, it's a 750metre descent into the village of Trient before finding our night's accommodation: L'Auberge du Mont Blanc. For future reference to any other people replicating this adventure: this Auberge HAS A SAUNA!!!!!!

Have we all the right gear? Have we too much? Too little? Can we do it? Is this daft? As always at the start of something unknown. My only comfort was that we had the two most critical items: our passports and a payment card in the event we needed to bail off the route early and get back my public transport to Chamonix!