On the way back down, we stopped from time to time to admire the different alpine flowers and mushrooms that we spotted, testing each other’s knowledge with interest, and concluding that most of us could barely tell a tasty chanterelle from a poisonous toadstool. The last few hundred metres was a pleasant ramble along a forest trail and James led us dutifully into the animal-skin covered seats on the terrasse at Bar7 for an apres-hike beer to a chorus of “thank-yous” and a cheer for the guide.
On our way home, we took some time out to walk through the village of Montana and browse some of the shops. There are enough to wander around for an hour or so, and we enjoyed looking through the ski stores for off-season discounts, and checking out the latest marmotte trinkets in the mountain deco shops.