"Buongiorno Courmayeur!!" TMB day 5 from Cabane du Combal to Courmayeur

Day 5 TMB hike (7/24/19) from Cabane du Combal via Mont Favre Spur (2429m) to Refuge Maison Vielle to Dolonne and final destination Columayeur Italy.
Highest point 2422 m/ 7946ft
Lowest point 1173 m/ 3484ft
Elevation gain 522 m/ 1712ft
Elevation loss 1252 m/ 4107ft
Total distances 13.2 km/ 8.2 mi
Smells Like Summer (Original Mix) by Del / del-sound
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported- CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/smells-like-summer
Music promoted by Audio Library • Smells Like Summer - D...
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🎵 Track Info:
Title: Smells Like Summer by Del
Genre and Mood: Dance & Electronic + Bright

[@anorthosite]

We hiked down to Courmayeur on steps cut in the trail, in what seemed like a 45-degree pitch. It was LONNNG: Be glad you didn't :)

[@anorthosite]

I am binge-watching your (fantastic !) TMB videos and comparing to the many photos I posted on FB, after 11-day trekking the TMB back in Sept 2012. Helps jog memories.
At 6:20 and 7:50 of this vid, on the lower left, you can see the HUGE amount of earth debris, the "tongue" of material left behind by a much larger glacier that once occupied the large valley above.
It's a glacial moraine and kame terrain: The ice literally melted out from underneath some of the debris, which then collapsed unevenly. From upper parts of the trail from Refugio Elizabetta Soldini, you can see how uneven and pitted the surface is. Being a geologist, I was WOWed by the sight of it (among many other things) when I trekked the TMB, 10 yrs ago !
We stayed at Elizabetta Soldini our 3rd night (from Les Houches), but I don't remember Cabane du Combal or the spur. Guess I'll have to dig out my guidebook :)

[@rev.triciadillonthomas3576]

I’m taking a group of women in June next year and want to stay at refuge Cabane Combal. The gondola and ski lifts won’t be running then. I’m wondering if we had to hike it one way, should we do Courmayeur to the refuge or the refuge to Courmayeur? Also did is there car access to the refuge? Wondering if it would be possible to let those who wanted to be picked up at the refuge. I thought I read that you can hike for about an hour from the refuge the opposite way to a small town and catch a ride there. Just concerned about knees of some of our folks.