This trip has been on the radar for years. It is on every hiker’s radar in fact. It is the Tour Du Mont Blanc. Trail reservation information website.
I have done quite a few 5-10 day hikes across the world that allow some sort of accommodations, freeing me up from carrying camping equipment, but this one was always sitting out there. I hesitated to do it because I was not sure my body could hold up to the rigors of the elevation and duration. I decided that if I ever was going to make it happen I had to do it now before the wheels completely fall off this bus of a body. Instead of doing it in 8 days, which would have been my normal distance equivalent for each day, I chose 10 to allow for less grueling days and rest days in case of injury. It turns out 8 days would probably have been more fitting but more about that later.
I try and come up with a title for my blog entry that somehow references a famous song that ties into the subject matter. I looked up “Mont Blanc Pen Slogans” but didn’t get anything good. So I just typed in Mont Blanc songs and got this gem. It isn’t really my thing but the more I watched it, I really started vibing on it.
On a separate note, during this trip I visited 3 countries (France, Italy and Switzerland). I am listing the entire trip under Switzerland just to make things easier.
The rough plan was to fly into Chamonix France and start hiking around Mont Blanc in a counterclockwise fashion, or, “Anticlockwise” as the Europeans like to say, and then return to Chamonix 10 days later after 100+ miles and 30K feet of elevation gain.
The night before my trip, I tried to check into the flight and it said it was cancelled, but I never got an email or alert. I called Air France and they promised me the flight was not cancelled. I woke the next morning about to leave for the airport and I got a message that my flight was now officially cancelled. That made for an exciting next couple hours in front of the computer. I ended up booking a flight to Paris (the flight they rescheduled me had a 12hr layover in Germany and would not have gotten me into France until the following day). Once in Paris I found some people to ride share a private car with driver to take us to Geneva while slept. Once in Geneva, I caught a bus into Chamonix.
As someone who enjoys adventure travel and books, Chamonix is famous as a base for many Alpine expeditions in the early 20th century. It is also a mecca for skiing and summer hiking. Similar to Moab or Park City in the USA.
Views from my hotel room
I checked in exhausted, knowing that I had to hit the trail in 12 hours. I should have just gotten some rest, but I had been cooped up in various transportation vehicles for the last 20hrs and needed to unwind. I started a solo pub crawl after picking up some supplies.
Here is a shot where I stopped for an hour to watch a fire burn through Chamonix. Many of the old structures in the alps are made of wood with, what I can only assume ancient wiring, so I am sure it is a somewhat common occurance.
I closed out the night sitting in a corner of a karaoke bar listening to Eastern Europeans sing American songs
There was a wall / rock climbing competition that afternoon and the clothing brand, Arcteryx, had a private party at a house that evening. On my walk home I decided to check it out and help myself to a few “house beers.” Man, it was been 30 years since I used that phrase.
The next morning’s 6am alarm came early. I was definitely not well rested. Just the way you want to feel when strapping all your belongings to your back and heading out on a 10 day hiking adventure.
I paid $30 for the hotels breakfast and was the best decision I made all week. I sat there for an hour stuffing all kinds of food in my mouth and pack. After 6 cups of coffee I bit the bullet as I had to get on the trail at some point if I was going to make it to night one’s destination.
I could have started hiking from Chamonix, but in my current state, I boarded a bus to the official start in the neighboring town of Les Houches.
And why stop there, instead of hiking up the first hill, I took the gondola up to the top! I was really not starting off on the right foot here, but I said I could always complete these parts on the tail end of the hike. Righhhttt.
Once I got the top I looked for a donkey, train or something to extend this gravy train, but realized there was no way to delay this any longer. The hike must begin!
As punishment for my easy morning, I decided to take an alternate route that involved more elevation gain and loss than the traditional stage 1 of the TMB. Basically, two peaks instead of one. The TMB trail was all up and down. Your day was measured by how many mountain passes, saddles, or cols you would climb and the subsequent downhills.
After a few hours I had worked my up to the first pass and looking down in the below picture you can see my lunch stop at a refuge in the valley.
I cruised the downhill, but really should not brag about that as my knees bore the brunt of my aggressive downhill maneuvers. When I got to Refuge De Miage, I stopped for some electrolytes and food I borrowed from the breakfast buffet.
After soaking in a stream for 30 minutes I shouldered the pack and made the next assent. It was listed in the guidebook as an “easy uphill” but I found it a challenge. It is the hill in the background of the below picture.
I actually stopped halfway up and tried to take a nap under a tree. I heard a woman walking by say, “Honey, remember when I said earlier how I felt like me and my pack are one, well it doesn’t feel like that anymore.” Eventually I made it up and over and descended into the town of Les Contamines. I had booked lodging at Gîte Les Mélèzes. This was not your typical overnight at a refuge on the TMB. Since we were in a village as opposed to up on the mountain I got to pick a place that was a little fancier. In fact, I was staying as a guest in a couple's home. They had converted the upstairs to 2, 3-person dorm rooms.
This is where the evening got a little weird. As I usually do, when I get within 2 hours of ending the day, I like to start a loading dose of THC edibles. Well, by the time I got to the house, I had given a bon voyage as my boat had set sail down the river of confusion and I was about to enter class V rapids. As usual I had no self-awareness as to the situation, I just knew it was really frustrating spending 10 minutes trying to collapse my hiking pole before just throwing it in a corner.
So, like I said, I am in these peoples house but I couldn’t quite understand that. I didn’t understand why the lady at the front desk was walking me up to my room and explaining when dinner was. What kind of hotel was this? Things got really strange when 2 other ladies were in my room. I was just sitting on my bed like, “why don’t they go to their room?” Then when I went to take a shower I did something I never even do, even at home. I took all my clothes off in the bedroom, with the 2 woman there, and walked from there to the bathroom with a towel over my shoulder like I am in some scene from a postgame football movie in the locker room. Every conversation that night I rehearsed incessantly before opening my mouth and they still all came out super awkward.
I walked into town to get some cash out of the ATM and to clear my head. I saw this restaurant sign offering Marmot on the menu.
At the liquor store I got a bottle of the local liquor, Genepi.
By the time I got back to the house I was doing a little better and ready for more interactions. Well, not really. At one point I walked up to a fountain in the yard that was clearly just the same water through it for the last 5 years and put my glass under it for a drink when the owner came running over and yelled for me to not drink it as he tried to slap it away like I was about to ingest poison.
After a welcome drink we sat down to an excellent meal filled with local ingredients.
It turned out that another girl staying at the house grew up less than a mile from my house in Michigan. Her husband was a strange cat but grew on me as I found him quite amusing. It was only days later that I learned that his appendix burst on the trail the next day and had to have surgery in Italy and was stuck in hospital for 14 days, unable to fly. Something to do with pressure I assume, similar to SCUBA precautions.
I also met 2 ladies form the south island of New Zealand who became my “trail buddies.” We would see each other every couple days and share a beer. One of them was writing a book about her year-long trip around the world on a motorcycle.
Until Tomorrow Darren
