Refuge D'Ortu Di U Piobbu to Refuge de Carozzu

It was supposed to be easier on day 2, or at least so I had thought. Last night was a quiet one as far as backpacking campgrounds go. I didn't hear a single person snoring. On this trip I had brought a mini thermometer with me so that I could keep track of how well my sleep system would perform based on the various temperatures throughout the trip. Temps got down to 63˚F last night, and I was comfortable inside my quilt. A good start!

I woke up around 5:30 am in order to catch the sunrise but there wasn't much to see: it was hidden behind a ridge of mountains. I set about packing up my gear, and getting ready for the day. Breakfast at the eating area was plain, as expected. The kitchen is a small operation, so it was just yogurt and bread and jam/nutella. I ran into a couple of the people from last night and we were all meeting up at the same place, so I said goodbye and would see them there. I filled up my water bottles and hit the trail.

From the start it was all uphill, but I was doing a much better job at pacing myself today than yesterday, and therefore was making good progress. It quickly turned into more scrambling and climbing, which wasn't the most fun, not gonna lie, but as I said compared to yesterday I was doing much better. No leg pains!

A frustrating thing happened though as I was taking pictures while climbing: my phone decided to lock itself and prevent me from using it for about an hour due to too many unsuccessful unlock attempts. I'm not sure how that happened, maybe from me swiping right on the home screen to get to the camera without waiting for it to unlock, but I missed out on some great photos because of it. That put me in a bad mood because there were some pretty epic shots! I could have sat and waited for an hour, but it was really windy in this area and I didn't want to fall behind.

While I was doing better today, it was still harder than yesterday with lots of hiking up and down and up and down, plus the bits of climbing mixed in, and the unrelenting sun. There were some sketchy areas were you had to boulder across severe drops with no chains. If it was raining this would be nearly impossible to do.

The views were great, but after the third or fourth ridge pass I was starting to wonder if it would ever start descending. Obviously it had to eventually, and it did, but that joy didn't last for long. The trail heading down was mostly loose rocks which was kind of dangerous given how steep some sections were. The descent seemed to last forever. Finally I could see the refuge as a tiny blue dot in the distance, but every time I went around a turn it didn't seem to be getting any closer.

Oh, and I forgot I had the packed lunch, so that went to waste. Could have used the food though. I was energy deprived and dehydrated even though I drank like 3-4 liters of water throughout the day. Apparently that wasn't enough in these hot valleys, and I would need to do better.

I made it to the refuge after cursing the trail multiple times due to the heat, the loose scree underneath, and the fact that the trail seemed to be deliberatly taking the long way around. I also got banged up by rocks all over my shins and ankles, with some cuts as well.

I had a hard time finding a level spot, and ended up using some wood pallets as a base which meant using rocks to hold everything down. It worked, but we'll see how it holds up in the wind tonight (it's getting really windy right now). But good news is that I'm parked right next to Denis, Peter, and Tyezet!

Since I had arrived after everyone else in my new group I had to eat dinner with a group of French people due to assigned seating (I was in the second dinner group). They didn't speak much English, which made for a quick dinner.

I hung out with the gang before going to bed early. I can smell the toilets from here. Not a pleasant thing at all.