Friday 28 Sept Conangles to Restanca 13 km

Cold but sunny. The thermometer shows 3 degrees outside at 8am. It is not a long day today, or so we think. We say farewell to Rene and Bart from the Netherlands. We have had a good time at Refugio de Conangles for the last 2 days while the weather has shown us what it can do and we have enjoyed the hospitality of Genis and Elena. We have eaten very well, too well in fact because Elena's cooking is amazing. I think i have added the 3 kgs i thought i had lost. We walk in the sun and it lifts our spirits. After we climb out of the forest we hit the snow that has fallen over the last 2 days. We climb 900 mtrs to the pass the snow getting deeper. At times we are sinking up to our thighs in powdery snow. The views are amazing but the going is slow and hard because of the snow. En route to the refuge we look down from the tops into a valley that Anna and i once camped in many years ago. Then its a final slog up the steep, rocky side of a mountain, traversing around to the east and the Restanca refuge comes into sight just above a large lake. It has taken us 6 hours. We arrive at the refuge to find it populated with french real estate agents on a team building thing. Immediately the talk turns to the rugby world cup. They are convinced that the french have it in the bag. How wrong could they be, but no amount of cheap red wine and argument could convince them otherwise. Tomorrow is going to be a long, hard day so we should go to bed early, but we dont.