A Video Of Every One's Special Memory

I decided I needed to collect and make a video of everyones special memory.  I surprise most people with this question so that what ever came to their mind first was what most memorable. A fun little video, I hope you enjoy.

Day 12 Hiking to the Midi, Standing up at the top of what we looked at yesterday.

This morning we take a historic 100-year-old cog-wheel train up to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice), one of the largest glaciers in the Alps. This cog train was used for some of the first hiking adventures in the area when people would come to Chamonix in earlier times.  People would take the train up, hire a guide to help them cross the glacier, and then hike back down.  Montenvers (6276'), the upper station, has a great panorama view of the Mer de Glace (a very scenic glacier and one you most likely have heard of.  It sounds a lot like Mirror de Glass.  We stand here for a awhile, none of us really wanting to get started for the day.  Getting started means this is the last day of hiking...


We start our morning trek taking the ever so popular slight incline up the mountain, switchbacking our way along.  At one spot we stop to let our group gather back together, there are lots of pictures being taken today.  While waiting an eighty seven year old hiker friend of Danielle's hikes up towards our group.  Later when he is out of ear shot, Danielle tells us two stories about this man.  Twenty years ago his son fell into a crevasse in the Mer de Glace glacier and died.  So each year this man hikes up to the overlook to honor and visit his son.  Last summer some mountaineers found the remains of his son on the glacier and they had his final memorial service.  The second story takes place when this man had Danielle guide him to the top of the one of the over looking summits by Mer de Glace.   I am sorry I can not tell you which summit as when Danielle says the name in French...I hear it in English, and the spellings and sounds do not come out the same.  


We arrive at a flat balcony area filled with sone cairns. The Signal Forbes (7,217') grants us even better vistas. It is here that a man named Forbes did research on the glacier. We traverse on the Northern Grand Balcon to the Plan de l'Aiguille (7,518'), mid-station of the cable car to Aiguille du Midi. On this high path we have lovely views over the Chamonix Valley and to the Aiguilles Rouges. We do not stop here as we are now trying to beat the afternoon storms that are predicted.  Here we say good bye to Danielle and Eve as the rest of us take the cable car up to the Midi.  The Midi is so far away that you can not see the cable cars with the naked eye.  As the car goes higher up the mountain it gets smaller and smaller until poof, you can't see it.  We are told that we can only stay an hour and half up at the top.  I think there are so many people up there this is how they manage crowd control.    When we arrive we are handed an exit number and told to be back at 2:45.  We spend the time exploring all of the different spaces and views from the Midi. From the top of the Aiguille du Midi (~12,600') there are spectacular views over the entire Mont Blanc range and of the Swiss, French and Italian Alps. On a clear day it is possible to see the Matterhorn, Monta Rosa and the Grand Combin in Switzerland. We have a growing cloud bank moving in so we had pretty good views considering that.  We can see some climbers down on the Mont Blanc glacier and they look like fly specs against the huge vast mass of the top of the mountain.  


We visit a few exhibits inside the building and watch some videos on the climbing history of Mont Blanc.  We had thought there would be an ice cave like at Jungfrau, but on closer reading we learned that the ice caves are way down at the station where we started this morning.  The time up at the top went pretty fast and our exit time was near, so we went and got into our boarding group.  We waited about fifteen minutes to board our cable car down.  In this time the clouds have totally surrounded the Midi making it impossible to see even a foot.  The heavy cloud cover surrounding us seemed rather ominous, but we came out of the clouds about half of the way down. By the time we reached Chamonix it had begun to rain.  This is the first rain we have had during the day since we arrived in Europe.

Tonight we gathered together for a special dinner at a garden/farm to table restaurant.  All of the food was local and most of it grown right on the sight.  We raised a toast to an excellent adventure and good friendship.  After dinner we sat around the large table and enjoyed conversation and had some herbal tea.  But I shall never forget Danielle asking us if we wanted some herbal tea.  The French do not have this herbal sound in their language, it sounds like more like hairball, and this is what we laughed and laughed at.  Hairball tea any one?  

It is still raining after starting late in the afternoon it has rained all through dinner and stopped just as we were finishing up.  Half of our group decides to walk the mile back to the hotel and half of us take a ride with Caroline.  Kathi and I have our signed certificate that says we completed our hike around Mont Blanc, so we decide on two accounts to ride in the van.  One we have finished the hike, two it might rain…  We leave the other half of the group and drive through Chamonix, as we are about half way back the heavens open up and it just pours rain.  Pours so hard it was hard to hear everyone in the van groan and then burst into laughter. 

This is the first hiking adventure we have been on that our rain gear stayed dry!

What a great group of people, I shall miss each and every one of them.  Our vacation was made richer and fuller because of the special group of people who came together to share this amazing experience.

Brian and Sue from Arizona

Rita and Margaret from the state of Washington

Bill and Jenny from Florida

Chip and Cole from Atlanta

Maryann from Indiana

Kathi and Penny from Wisconsin

Danielle, Eve and Caroline, all from Chamonix

Mer de Glace

Sun rising 

Many stacks of cairns

Cheese!

Looking at how deep that glacier used to be!

This looks like Mary Ann??

This is the Midi and we are going up there

Mid way station.  Cable car runs from Chamonix to here, then you change cars and take a cable to the top.  We hiked up to this point.

Standing on one of the observation decks we see this

People out walking on the glacier

Top of Mont Blanc

This is the top of Mont Blanc, the tallest part of the Alps

Our hotel in Chamonix had some art work on the front

Bonjour
Sante Bonheur (I wish you health and happiness)




Hiking: 3-4 miles. Elevation gain: 1,720 ft.

Day 11 Closing the loop Hiking back to Chamonix a time to Celebrate

 Day 11 - Close our loop on the Grand Balcon, hiking to Lacs des Chéserys  for the opportunity to take a swim in an Alpine lake.....brrrrrrr.

We have an early pack up and shuttle this morning due to the weather forecast.  The earlier we leave the better chance we will have to have encounter no thunderstorms.  We take a short drive to the Col des Montets where we begin our hike along the Grand Balcon. Kathi and I are in the second shuttle making us the fast hikers.  We have the job to catch up with the first group before the first water break.  The trail switches back and forth up a solid face of a mountain.  Thankfully the trail is well maintained and there are no sketchy parts.  For once Eve is not bounding up the trail with us gasping to stay with her, rather she sets a very reasonable pace for us to close the gap with the first group.  

We meet up with the first group at an overlook with a view, and what a view it is.  The sun was making the mountain glisten and the glaciers look spectacular with the clouds wafting through the valley.  This is just the first of the next one hundred photo opportunities along the next four miles of this balcony trail.  

By now our group is quite efficient with taking turns taking pictures of each other and how everyone wants the shot set up.  Feet in the shot or waist up, no cutting off at the ankles...Along the way we talk about the mountains and what their names are, the names of the glaciers, and what the towns names are at the bottom of the glaciers.  

Danielle spots a couple of Ibex at the top of the mountain.  The Ibex is an alpine mountain goat that lives high in the alps and due to its protected status does not seem to be too afraid of people. It is another hot day, so the ibex are high in the mountains. Male and female ibexes come together only once a year for mating season, otherwise they live separate from each other.  I think we saw two or three ibex, it was difficult to tell as they were moving around.  We shot some pictures as best we could and made our way to the spectacularly situated Lac des Cheserys.  There are several little lakes up in the area we are at, so we stop at one of the lakes and have it all to ourselves.  Chip, Cole, Armon (Eve's son who is studying to be a guide), Eve and Mary Ann all went swimming.  The lake was chilly, but supposedly warmer than usual.  Thanks but I'll just put my feet in. 

After the swim and lunch it was time to move on.  Our group moves along taking pictures and enjoying the day.  We stop right across the valley from a perfect view of Aiguille du Midi. We will have the opportunity to go to the Midi tomorrow, if the weather cooperates.  We finally close the loop of our tour at La Flégère (6150') where our unforgettable journey began 10 days ago. Here we are surprised with champagne and crackers. Earlier this afternoon Armon ran ahead from the group to the gondola at La Flégère, took the gondola down to pick up the celebration items, then came back up on the gondola, and got the celebration party ready.  Must be nice to have young legs! Once everyone had a glass of champagne, we toasted the good trip, good weather, healthy hikers, and amazing guides that made our trip so very easy and breathtaking.  The feeling of having walked around Mount Blanc is a feeling of satisfaction given that a mere six months ago I was sitting on the sofa wondering if I would be able to walk on this new foot of mine.  My foot has done well, and I have gathered a few new blisters and will lose a toenail or two, but all is well.

As we were getting our champaign ready Amy arrived at the Les Flègère deck.  Amy is hiking the Tour Mont Blanc (TMB) by herself, meeting people along the way but doing the self guided and and unsupported version.  When she finishes hiking the TMB, she is planning will then keep walking to the coastline of France.  Amazing perseverance!  Amy is armed with her trusty TMB guide book and a heavy pack.  

I have not written about our head guide Daneille.  She is adventuresome, knowledgable, enjoys sharing French language lessons especially to those who are multilingually challenged, enlightens us with cultural lessons and has a good sense of humor.  She has an interesting life story.  She started her career as a music teacher, and then went to grad school in geography.  During her free time she would participate in mountain bike races and was discovered by the France mountain biking association who asked her if she wanted to ride professionally.  She did that for several years before missing the Olympics by one place.  Danielle decided to go back to school to become a professional hiking guide.  Here she worked her way up from a driver, to an assistant guide to a lead guide.  In the winters she teaches cross country skiing to school children.  Sounds like a great lifestyle to stay active!

Danielle is very interesting to talk with as she always has a story or two to share that directly relates to either the location we are hiking or some crazy thing she did when she was younger.  These life lessons have provided her with great wisdom. Danielle will tell you one winter day when she thought skiing down a glacier would be a good idea, she was lucky to return home and only leave her back pack up in a crevasse on the mountain.    The snow on the glacier was actually not safe to ski on that day and she fell and slid quite a ways down the glacier on her back. She has summitted Mont Blanc three times using two different climbing routes and skied down it once.  She has walked around the mountain more than fifty times.  She is in fantastic shape, and maybe only broke a sweat once during our trip, when she mentioned she was a tad warm.  She was the perfect guide instilling confidence in our group

The cable car at La Flégère carries us down into the valley over alpine pastures to Les Praz where we meet with Caroline and return to the hotel where we started from  just eleven days ago.  

We have a huge room this time, it could comfortably sleep 6.  We unpack, but I have a hard time taking my boots off as that means the trek is over and it has truly been a moving experience.  One I would gladly do again.


Hiking: 5 miles. Elevation gain: 2,460 ft., Elevation loss: 1,103 ft.

Clouds hanging in the valley

Kathi hiking

Ibex with baby

Favorite time  of day is cookie and chocolate break

These boots have seem a lot of miles

Stopping at another vista

Where we will hike tomorrow next to the Mer de Glace

Susan stops to reflect on what we have seen and done

Magical

Can you see the building over by Mont Blanc?  we are going there tomorrow!

Look again it is way up there and really tiny

This has been a walk worth every step!  An amazing mourn

Day 10 Triert to Argentière

Day 10 - today we take the shuttle down the pass to a tiny little town called: Triert where in the 50's the Tour De France went through.  It is a very memorable Tour de France as the road was so steep here that the bikers did not have the right gears for the hill so they had to carry their bikes up the hill.  The road looks pretty narrow and plenty steep.  We are headed in the opposite direction.  Wind is blowing over the top of the glacier and down the valley making the air very chilly.    Since we are going uphill it is not to long before we are warm!

Kathi and I are in the first group along with Chip, Cole, and our guide Danielle. We are moving along and all of a sudden Danielle stops and said there was a Chamois across the valley on the the mountain rocks.  These mountain goats are pretty allusive.  They are hunted, and so have a pretty keen nose for avoiding people.  No matter how hard I tried to see it I could not, there where a few others who said they could see it... I think they just wanted to believe they saw one!  

Not much further up the trail we stop again for another Chamois sighting...sure, I know where this is going.  But this time there were about 10 or more of them on the hillside across from us.  Kathi has been packing the binoculars in her backpack everyday and today is the first time we needed them! The chamois is a mid-sized mountain goat. A fully grown chamois reaches a height of 28–31 inches. Males, which weigh 66–132 lb, are slightly larger than females, which weigh 55–99 lb.  Both males and females have short, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip, the horn of the male being thicker. In summer, the fur has a rich brown color which turns to a light grey in winter. Distinct characteristics are white contrasting marks on the sides of the head with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white rump and a black stripe along the back.  

We are joined by the second group and play pass the binoculars around a bit more before moving along the trail.  The hike to the pass is two thirds in the forest and a third above tree line.  We can see the top of the pass so it seems easier to hike as you see the progress that you are making.  Along the way there is a renovated stone barn which doubles as a hiker shelter during storms.  We stop here for our daily cookie and chocolate break.

Our path follows an old smuggler's route back into France. We hike to Col de Balme (7,186'), the border between Switzerland and France.  I'm not sure what they were smuggling up this path but it must have been prize merchandise as it is a good climb to get to the top and back down.  We shoot several pictures of the boarder crossing and a few more panoramas of Mount Blanc. It was a good moment up there .  We spend about twenty minutes at the Col viewing the Chamonix valley.  The views to Mont Blanc are absolutely phenomenal!  And here we are, standing looking at the city where we began, looking up at the massive mountain...  It is difficult to believe the walk around Mont Blanc is almost finished.  

We descend to have lunch at a summer dairy, but the clouds are gathering and they don't look too friendly.  Danielle is trying to get a good forecast for us from her sources she can reach on her phone.  Seems like we need to get moving so we collect our items and get moving.  Eve does not like stormy weather and seems to be a bit of a lightening magnet so she high tails it out of there with the first group of hikers.  We leave with Danielle and hike a slower respectable pace.  We encounter people picking blueberries and having picnic lunches, no one seems too concerned about the clouds.

We found some fox scat balanced on a protruding edge of a rock.  It was quite colorful as the fox had been eating blueberries.  We also learned that fox like to go on top of things that are taller to " showcase" their scat.  We are in no big hurry as we chit chat our way down to the international road. The weather that Eve was fast hiking to avoid never came our way.  The trail down to the road was really steep, and I can't tell you how happy I was not to be racing down it. 

For dinner tonight we enjoyed a local favorite of fondue.  It was amazing!  We had all local meats, veggies and salads plus a fruity dessert.  To finish the evening we enjoyed a local group of two French accordion folk singers. One of the guys occasionally yodeled along to the song.  Neither of these guys spoke in English, but they strongly encouraged each  table to go up and sing with them.  Chip went up and sang some sort of Russian song he had learned in his youth.  Later the band was playing a polka so Kathi and I got up and did a polka dance.  Soon Chip and Mary Ann joined us in the dance.  It was all good fun.  One big local party, to bad we did not understand the language to know all that was being said.

It has certainly been a pleasure to have the gift of guides and the transportation support, to give us the opportunity to experience the local cultures and customs as we trekked  around this great mountain.  

Hiking: 8.5 miles; Elevation gain: 3,507'; Elevation loss: 3,225'.

Wind is blowing down off of the glacier, and it is kind of chilly...

Allusive Chamois

Headed up to the pass

looking back at where we have traveled

Still hiking towards the pass

Inside of shelter for hikers if caught in a storm

This is the renovated storm shelter.  It is made of local rocks

Our feet standing on the boarder Switzerland to the right  and France on the left

Mont Blanc

Where we stopped for lunch, Mont Blanc in the back

Our Group :)

Main street has Mont Blanc as a back drop.