Refugio Mario Bezzi - Day One - Part 2

1/ A racoon (Christophe), Rudolf the Reindeer (Andy) & chinese bloke (Graeme) enjoy a wine with The "Mario Bezzi!"

Named after the charming old man who has been the guardian of this refuge for nearly 40 years - Mario Bezzi, this refuge is a true European Alps experience. Originally built for the Italian Army, it is now leased by Mario and provides walkers, skiers and climbers with an outstanding level of comfort in the high mountains from Mid March to Mid October. This place has showers, toilets, bedrooms with linen and the most delicious italian food you could ever wish for.

But what really makes this place, is the crusty old mountain man and host - Mario. He does not speak a word of English but speaks French fluently. He takes time to talk with all his guests over dinner each night. He is a font of knowledge about the mountains and in particular his own little valley and peaks. Christophe is very respectful and he spends a lot of time talking with Mario about snow conditions and our proposed touring route.

Mario is very interested to learn that we are from NZ and even more so when he finds out that Graeme is a telemark skier. With Christophe interpreting for us, he explains that telemark skiing is the "birth of skiing". He respectfully bows to Graeme and drops his knee to imitate a telemark turn. I think we may have made a good impression!

2/ The Bar Area in the Dining Room

Imagine after a hard day ski touring sitting down to a beautifully prepared meal, a bucket of minestrone brimming with vegetables, another huge bowl of pasta, a meat course ( we had veal scallopine with fresh green haricot beans on the first night), cheese platter and then chocolate mousse for dessert. I was feeling a little bit of a fraud eating so much on the first night as we had only skinned for 5 hours or so along the flat valley.

Did we also mention the lovely Italian wine too! Oh, I am in heaven!!

Mario and his friend ( who is 78 years of age!!) are on their own here to clean the refuge and prepare all the meals. Totally amazing!

3/"Est-ce tu peut haricot, Andy?" "Oui, Merci!!"

We are sharing the Refugio with only 2 other parties. So much for the crowds! There are only 10 of us here. And Christophe and I are the youngest! There is a group of 4 swiss ski tourers and another group of very senior German men. I particularly enjoyed talking with one of the swiss guys who had been to NZ. Given the Swiss lake of coastline, he predictably loved the Bay of Islands and the Abel Tasman Track.

No-one lingers much after dinner. Ski-touring is hard work and everyone will be up for breakfast at 7am and away into the mountains by 8am. We are much relieved that we are not making this trip in April as the usual morning starts at 5am or 6am to avoid avalanche danger in the late afternoon. Graeme and I are more your "latte-style ski tourers!!"

Just as we are about to turn out the light, we gazed out our bedroom window to see Mario's special friend. It's a mountain fox who comes every evening around 8:30pm to the kitchen door. After years of receiving a guaranteed feed he is tame enough to take food directly from Mario's hand. But he is still very shy of anyone else and will quickly vanish if someone else tries to feed him or take a picture. Mario had explained to Christophe, that this fox always seems to know that the Refuge opens in Mid March. He manages to survive on slim pickings for the majority of the winter, only to be spoilt for choice when Mario arrives in March.

With thoughts of foxes with thick winter coats and endless bowls of pasta we drifted off to sleep!

4/ Tucked up in our cosy little room for a terrific night's sleep!