Refuge Albert 1er
Some friends and I will be visiting France in September and will be spending a few days in Chamonix. We are hoping to overnight at a couple mountain huts including Albert 1er and Lac Blanc. In order to maximize our time, we are planning on hiking to Albert the first day there after driving all the way from Marseille, which hopefully is doable. I have a few questions:
It looks like a much easier hike from Domaine de Balme after taking the lifts, but I am struggling to find much information about ticketing. It looks like it is a gondola and then a chairlift with separate tickets. I do see a combined roundtrip price for €41.50, but it says unavailable for the day we are looking, even though another website says it is open until after the days we will be there. I also don't see a one-way price, and it's a little confusing. I'm wondering if it is open then if it would be worth buying the Mont Blanc Multipass since we also want to go up to Aiguille du Midi and over to Helbronner, but we probably wouldn't take any other cable cars.
If we hike from Le Tour, I'm wondering how feasible it would be given we will hopefully start around early afternoon, but it might be more like mid-afternoon. I see a very steep, direct route going straight up to the refuge from Le Tour that is not listed on AllTrails as an official route, but is clearly visible in aerial images, so I'm wondering how safe that trail is.
I'm also curious as to the quality of food there, the meal costs are a little high so we are leaning against booking that. Is it possible to purchase meals when we're there though if we don't book them ahead of time? Also I'm guessing it is cash only like other refuges? I appreciate any info!