A Final Adventure

Thursday August 15th

Today I decided to have one final adventure high above Chamonix.  First, I took the gondola to Plan Praz far up above the town (2200m).  Then, as if that were not enough, I took the teleferique (cable car) to le Brevent (2500m).  This gave me an amazing view of Mont Blanc and the surrounding valley.

 

 I was busy taking pictures when I heard someone call my name.  I turned to see Ginette and Thomas who were just finishing lunch in the little restaurant perched high on the edge of the mountain. 

They had hiked up from Plan Paz and were getting ready to continue their final journey back to Les Houches.  We chatted for a bit and then they were on their way.  I stayed on top for a while, had lunch, took some more pictures and then went back down to Plan Praz.  I decided to walk up the trail to the spot where the parasailers were launching their flights. It was amazing to see them running off the edge of the cliff and lifting into the air with a great swoosh of the sail. I took a mini video of several launches and will post it on the blog as soon as I can. In the meantime, here are a couple of stills.

 

After watching the parasailors for some time, I continued my walk up the trail - being careful of my toe since I can only wear sandals and remembering what two doctors had told me about NOT hiking! Still, I remained up for several hours before reluctantly descending to Chamonix again. Ginette and Thomas finally arrived back from their extremely difficult and hazardous hike to Les Houches. They had completed the TMB. Bravo and lots of congratulations to them. This is NOT an easy hike and NOT for the feint of heart - FAR FROM IT!

Later we had a farewell dinner with friends met on the trail (John, Helen, Rob) - delicious raclette such as we can only get in this beautiful region of the Haute Savoie!  Next evening (Friday) we had another farewell dinner - this time with John, Helen, Alice and Duncan.   I leave tomorrow morning for Geneva and Canada. And, as I said yesterday, although this was not the holiday I planned, it was wonderful nonetheless!

And Back To Chamonix

This morning, Wednesday, I took the bus from Argentiere back to Chamonix for the final few days of my holiday.  As always it is beautiful here and the para-sailors are flying high above the town.  On Saturday, I will return to Canada.  In the meantime, there is lots to see and do.  This has not been the holiday that I planned but it has been great, nonetheless - and the good news is that the mountains will still be here should I choose to return another year

 

Final blog tomorrow!

 

Museums Not Mountains

Monday August 12th.   Since I couldn't hike, I decided that this day would be a day for exploring the local culture.  I began by walking up a steep hill to the Alpine Garden in Champex-Lac only to find it was closed.  At that point I decided to go as quickly as possible to Montigny where I knew there was an exhibition of Modigliani and other painters from l'École de Paris.

 

I took the bus at 10:30am back down the valley to Orsieres and after that took two trains to get to Montigny.   I walked through the town to the art gallery and spent a beautiful hour there enjoying the paintings. 

  

 

Afterwards I went to the Sculpture Garden to see the Henry Moore and the Alexander Calder - as a bonus there was also a Joan Miro sculpture there as well. Next, I decided to forgo the Musee des Chiens St Bernard in favour of the archeological walk - good choice!

 

Later that afternoon I took the bus to Trient - another hair-raising climb over an extremely high pass. Our auberge was not the greatest but good friends and good food/wine made up for anything we were lacking in material comforts.

Today, August 13th, I took two more buses to get to Argentiere, a delightful small village in the Chamonix Valley.  En route, we came over the Col des Montets, passed by the Aiguilles Rouge and crossed over the TMB several times as we left Switzerland and came back into France.  Argentiere is a beautiful village with unbelievable views of the high peaks.  Like Chamonix, it is a centre for alpine skiing, hiking and climbing and forms part of the commune of Chamonix Mont Blanc (altitude 1250m). Visible from the village are the Argentiere glacier and the Aiguille d'Argentiere - first climbed by a British team in 1864.

 

Here I saw a French doctor who told me not to have my toenail removed. Instead, he put the detached nail back into the nail bed without freezing it - ouch!  Now I just have to wait for the new nail to grow. Thanks, Vera, for sending me useful information on detached toenails!  Very helpful.

That's it for now.  My friends have just arrived and we are going for beers.

What I Missed

I missed the dairy cattle with their huge cow bells and the wild strawberries on the walk from La Fouly to Champex-Lac.  I missed a famous flower-adorned house in Issert.  I also missed the Bovine alp and great views of the Grand Combin.  I missed the Fenêtre d' Arpette, one of the highest and most difficult points on the TMB with its incredible height gains and losses and its chaos of boulders and grit.  I missed spectacular views of the Trient Glacier and the arduous climb up the Col de Balme. However, I did not miss too much of the stunning scenery as my bus wound its way through the valleys and across the Cols with great views in every direction.

Over Le Grand St. Bernard Pass

I left Courmayeur at 9:30 yesterday morning on a very fine bus - large, clean, huge windows, seat belts, friendly driver - heading for Aosta.  Riding down the Vallee d'Aosta was beautiful - snow-capped mountains behind us and apple orchards and vineyards in front of us.  One hour later we were in Aosta itself and then the real adventure began.  I boarded another very fine bus to take me up and over the Grand St Bernard Pass into Switzerland.  As we climbed higher and higher the south-facing hillsides were covered with vines, the houses in the valley below began to look like toy houses and the farmers fields resembled very well manicured miniature golf courses.   We were very high - almost level with the peaks around us.

Then at last we came to the Grand St Bernard tunnel, which wasn't a tunnel at all really but more like a very long carport - at least for the first few kilometres.   This allowed great views of the mountains and the valleys below.  The rivers here are white with glacial sediment just as they are in Nepal.  They race down the mountainsides at great speed and with great turmoil.  The bus ride down to Oriestes was spectacular - what can I say, this is Switzerland!

Since I had a 90 minute wait for my next bus, I decided to walk into the centre of Oriestes for lunch.  Now Oriestes is a very small town in the centre of "nowhere" so little did I know that when I sat down on the terrace of a very small restaurant I would be offered delicacies one would only expect to find in Paris or London or New York!  But I was - with prices to match!

The bus ride up the valley to La Fouly was lovely.  I arrived in mid-afternoon and spent a few hours sitting on the balcony, reading, with a cold beer waiting for my friends to arrive.

What Did I Miss?

Quite a lot!  Today's trail crossed the Grand Col Ferret and took the TMB out of Italy into Switzerland along the eastern edge of the Mont Blanc range.  It began with a lovely winding trail that descended into the Val Ferret.  It later passed through rolling pastureland and beautiful forests.  There were more climbs and more great views and (so I heard) glasses of vin rose to be drank at the top of one of the cols!  I missed that as well as the sunrise behind the Rifugio Bonatti and the amazing views of the Grand Jurrasses, but my journey over the Grand St Bernard was an adventure it itself so I am not complaining!

Today, Sunday, I took a hair-raising bus ride from Oriestas to Champex-Lac - hair-raising because the road was steep and narrow and the bus seemed to almost veer off the road every time we went around one of the ubiquitous hair-pin bends!  We made it though.  Champex-Lac is a lovely small town with great views of Mont Combat off to the east.

A Lovely Day in Courmayeur

Ginette and Thomas left today to continue their hike of the TMB, while I stayed back in Courmayeur for another day.  I'll join them on Saturday in La Fouly.  Was I disappointed not to be continuing?  Absolutely!   Will it spoil my holiday?  Not at all! There are many wonderful things to see and do in the Mount Blanc region and I plan to enjoy as many of them as I can.

The first thing I did this morning was take a 1-hour walk up the TMB trail as far as the edge of the village.  It was paved all the way so no problem walking in my sandals.  Later I walked to the far reaches of the town in the other direction.  The weather was great (after two days of storms) and the views exquisite.  It was a great day for taking pictures.

This is my first time in Courmayeur and I must say that I am very impressed.  It is a small, pristine town surrounded by huge mountains on all sides, with the ubiquitous MB peering out over all the others.  The centre of town consists of a long pedestrian walk-way lined with upscale boutiques (including Gucci and Hermes, among others).  There are also many delightful cafes and restaurants as well as butchers shops and green grocers. Crowds of people swarm into this small area every day.  The peak is around 11 am as everyone rushes to do their last minute shopping before the two-hour lunch break.  Then the restaurants fill to overflowing as tourists and locals enjoy the wonderful foods and wines of the region.

At the bus station, where I went to buy my ticket for Switzerland tomorrow, I met an American who has lived in Estonia for almost 20 years and every summer comes back to this region to hike and climb around the MB Massif.  He had already been hiking for some days but was heading back to Les Houches today to meet friends arriving from the US to begin the hike all over again.

Tonight I must pack up my backpack for the long journey to La Fouly tomorrow via Aosta, and Orsieres.  I think it will take all day as I have to change buses three times!

What Did I Miss?

I missed the steep climb out of Courmayeur up to the Rifugio Bertone and the wonderful views of Mont Blanc and the Aiguille Noire.  I missed the walk into Val Ferret and the long ridge to the Tete de la Tranche.  I missed the wonderful view of the Grand Col Ferret and the Grand Jurasse across the valley.  I missed the steep climb down to the Col Sapin and the gentle, meandering walk through the alpine meadows to the Rifugio Bonatti.  And finally, I missed spending my first night in a dorm for many years as Rifugio Bonatti is a remote mountain hostel, with limited accommodation!

Up, Over and Out!

Sorry for the long delay in blogging!  Life is never simple.  We began our hike from Les Contamines to Les Chapieux via the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme (total distance 18 - 20 km) around 8am on Tuesday morning.  The first four kilometres were perfect - along beside the roaring, raging, glacial run-off river to the beautiful pilgrimage chapel of Notre-Dame de la Gorge.  This Baroque chapel at the head of the Val Montjoie road-head is the scene of a pilgrimage that takes place on the Feast of Assumption (August 15th) every year.   The interior is filled with Renaissance frescoes and an ornate altar-piece - incredible.

Next came a very steep climb on an old Roman road that went up and up and up until we found a welcome cafe where we stopped for refreshments.  Just before the cafe, the trail crossed a small bridge over an amazing gorge - with water surging through to create a veritable spectacle.  After a most welcome break, we continued up and up until we came to a lovely waterfall rushing down the mountain side. A bit more up and suddenly we were on the snow - not too much of it but enough to give us the feeling of being high, high - and indeed we were no longer looking up at the peaks around us but straight out at them.

Once we had crossed the snow it was more steep climbing until we had reached the Col de Bonhomme at 2329m.  Were we at the top, though?  Not at all!  We still had 50 minutes of very difficult, and I would say dangerous, climbing to reach the summit of the day - the amazing Col de la Croix du Bonhomme at almost 3000 m.  We finally made it after a day-long climb.  Whew!

Next it was all down hill, as they say - but what a down hill!  Steep, steep, steep and often unstable underfoot - certainly the most difficult hiking I have ever done and that includes the Himalaya!  Unfortunately, to make a long story short, I almost lost a toenail on this treacherous descent (75% damaged).

Next day - because of my toenail (which was excrutiatingly painful) we took a two-hour cab ride into Courmayeur (our next destination) so that I could see a doctor.  He put me on anti-biotics right away, told me I should not do any more hiking and instructed me to go to a hospital in four days to get it (the toenail) surgically removed.  So, no more hiking for me!  Unless ...

Stay tuned for more on the errant toenail!

A Very Tough Day

This morning we left Les Houches at around 8am for a 3kms walk to the Le Prarion  cable car.
We had decided to cheat a little and take the telepheric to gain some altitude before beginning our walk just above the Cote de Voza.

This we did and continued walking all the way to Le Champel, where we stopped for coffee at a lovely road-side cafe.  After that it was down hill for a while followed by some very demanding climbs.  In fact, we climbed pretty much all the way from La Villlette to Les Contamines. Myself, I found it very difficult indeed and was glad when we arrived in the town where we could get food and some much-appreciated cold beer!

That said, it was really beautiful all the way as we passed through lovely Swiss-type villages with boxes and baskets filled to overflowing with brightly coloured flowers.  In the distance we heard cow bells and the occasional village church bells - quite lovely.

At every step of the way we were surrounded by the amazing Mont Blanc Massif - with Mont Blanc itself towering above the rest.

We are now in our hotel in Les Contamines  - a delightful little town and a very important ski centre. Les Contamines will host theTelemark World Championships in 2013.

Tomorrow  we have an even more demanding walk over the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme (2483m) to Chapieux.

Sorry - still can't post photos - will keep trying, though!

Beautiful Chamonix

We arrived in Chamonix yesterday after a very smooth flight from Montreal and a painless transfer with Mountain Drop Off.  I had forgotten how beautiful Chamonix was [last here10 years ago]  Chamomix is the major centre for mountain climbing and hiking in the French Alps and is always crowded with climbers/hikers from all over the world.  Its central pedestrian walkway is quite extensive and is lined with boutiques and indoor/outdoor restaurants.  As soon as we arrived we headed out to the Saturday morning market to pick up local cheese, fresh fruit and salad and, of course, a couple of bottles of wine!

After the market we stopped at a lovely outdoor restaurant for lunch and then walked around the town  for several hours. Later we had a delicious picnic supper on my balcony overlooking the raging River Arve.  Next we went back out into the town to enjoy the local Jazz Festival.

Chamonix is amazing because it is nesttled in the valley at the foot of Mount Blanc, surrounded by the amazing needle sharp aiguilles that dot the skyline whichever way you look. Dozens of parasailors were floating high above the mountains, making an amazing spectical against the deep blue sky.

Today, Sunday, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then walked around Chamonix again.  We went to check out the teleferique to the Aguille du Midi [12000ft] but decided not to take it since it is v. expensive and I have been up several times before. Ginette and Thomas will take it after our hike as they are staying in Chamonix an extra day.

Now we are in Les Houches, waiting to start our first hike to Les Contamines tomorrow.

I will try to post photos with my next blog.

Another Year: Another Adventure

It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed since I completed the Camino de Santiago de Compostela with Roxanne.  That was an amzing adventure from start to finish.  You can read about it on my Camino blog, if you are interested! 

Next month I will hike in Europe again, this time with my close friends Ginette and Thomas.   In just three weeks (August 2nd) we'll leave for Chamonix and our walk around the Mont Blanc Massive.  Starting in Les Houches, France, we'll pass through such fascinating-sounding places as Les Contamines, Col de la Croix du Bonehomme and Col de la Seigne before crossing into Italy where we'll head towards the Rifugio Elizabetta, Courmayeur and the Rifugio Bonatti.  Next we'll cross into Switzerland via Grand Col Ferret at 2537m, later dropping to La Fouly at 1610m.  Our journey through Switzerland continues towards Chamex, Col de la Forclaz and Trient.  Then at Col de Balme we'll find ourselves back in France for our final walk over L'Aiguillette des Posettes, Tré-le-Champ, La Flégère and back to Les Houches.