August 22

August 22:  Les Hoches

Our last "free" day in Les Hoches/Chamonix, and finally the sun is shining and we can see Mont Blanc.  Stunning!


Today we (sans Gary) are off to see the Mer de Glace.  We go up the mountain by train.  Not the first one.........



Great views at valley level of Mont Blanc and the Aiguille de Midi.  We won't be able to see either of this once we're up at the glacier.



The glacier is rapidly receding and it is expected that it will be totally gone within 50 years.  There is a marker near the terminus of the gondola marking the glacier in 2020.  Then there are 170 steps down to the current entrance to the glacier.  That's a huge melt.  I was here in 2013 and while I can't recall whether or not there was even a gondola down towards the glacier, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't.  Here are some pictures before we entered the glacier.









And then into the glacier............





Lots of interesting tidbits of enlightenment along the way.............




Here's a few pictures of the train coming up/going down.............



There is quite the climbing history in the area.  One peak that was very prominent was Les Drus.  We saw it in many moods as the cloud formations changed throughout our time up top.  This was my favourite view.


Other miscellaneous pictures from the day.





Once back in Chamonix, I tried to recreate a shot I took in 2013.  The mountain was much more visible the first time.............



 A few more shots to end the day.




And finally - we start walking tomorrow..............


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

September 4 & 5

Image
September 4 & 5:  Chamonix Well, I wasn't going to post anything further after the end of the hike.  But - I have to have somewhere to put some pictures from today. Yesterday (September 4) was a pretty lazy day.  Leisurely breakfast and lazing about for a bit.  Then we spent a few hours stimulating the local economy.  A person could easily spend a LOT of money here.  Met the boys for dinner, and appreciate them trekking over to our place in an absolute downpour.  Sure glad we weren't out on the trail for that one.  It was still raining buckets on the walk home. A few days ago we had reserved tickets for the gondola ride up the Aiguille du Midi.  A very popular tourist activity here.  Two gondola rides up to 3800m from the valley floor at about 1000m.  When we saw the weather forecast change yesterday, Pat popped over to the base station to see if he could change our tickets to later in the day.  No luck.  Needless to s...
Read more

August 26

Image
August 26:  La Visaille to Courmayeur After a bus drops you back to the trail there's a little backtracking on yesterday's route before you begin breaking a fresh and increasingly scenic path overlooking Mont Blanc's southern face.  Although this walk is mostly downhill, there is still a significant climb of around 800 metres to reach the 'balcony'.  'Balcony' is a good way to describe the footpath which remains mostly flat, hugging the exposed, steep southern slopes of Val Veni.  On the far side of the valley captivating views of Mont Blanc's jagged southern peaks and of the glaciers de Bruillard and de Freney which appear as if they might slide from their precarious slant at any moment.  Your gaze is sure to be turned left, digesting this veritable feast for the eyes.   Courmayeur marks the low point of the trip since leaving Les Houches and therefore your first glimpse of it will be from high above, with a long descent and endless switchbacks requir...
Read more

Introduction

Well, this trip has certainly crept up on me!  Lise arrives tomorrow from Oregon, and we fly out to Geneva on Monday.  No packing done yet, and a ton of loose ends to clean up around here.  Oh well...... The Tour du Mont Blanc, or TMB, is a 170 km hike around the Mont Blanc massif that we will complete over 11 days of walking.  We'll start and finish in Les Houches, France.  We will be walking in three countries - France, Italy, and Switzerland, and travelling in a counter-clockwise direction.  The summit of Mont Blanc is the highest point in Europe west of the Caucasus, at an elevation of 4808 metres.  I've engaged the services of Macs Adventure to do all the reservations and (best of all!) they will move our luggage from hotel to hotel (with the exception of one night that we'll stay in a mountain hut).  It won't be an easy stroll, though, as we'll gain and lose about 10,000 metres of elevation over those 11 days.  Lise, a biking friend fro...
Read more