Day 23: MFDS

We slept in late this morning. Over breakfast, we discussed the day's activities. We decided to split up; the boys go biking and the girls take a hike. My dad and I headed to the closest bike shop, and rented downhill mountain bikes. These bikes have full suspension, disc breaks, and huge front shocks. With the rental came a motorcycle-like helmet, knee pads and elbow pads. Though we laughed at the level of protection at the time, we did not know what was in store.

The ride to the ski lift from the shop was only a few hundred meters long, but it was straight uphill. The huge front suspension and low seat make the bikes ill fit for any uphill, not to mention this huge grade. I made it up the hill in a low gear, my dad got off and walked most of the way. We bought all-day passes for the ski lifts around town, and waited for the next cabin to come. My dad went in first, and I took the next cabin. It was an impossibly hot ride up the mountain; one kilometer of vertical elevation.

We got to the top, got out, and spent some time up there. We had a perfect view of Mont Blanc, and of all the hang gliders soaring through the air. After asking for directions, we suited up, took a photo, and prepared for our descent.

I went first. Our ride was down a very steep, very loosely packed gravel road. Standing on the pedals, with my butt behind the seat, I began slowly to gain confidence, and soon figured out that speed was the key to an easy and fun ride. I eased myself off the breaks, though still too dependent, and rushed down, yelping, for about five minutes. There I stopped to wait for my dad and to get a photo of him coming down the mountain. I waited about seven minutes and began to worry. Just as I was about to speed down the mountain so I could come back up and find him (the hill was way too steep to consider going back up it) he came around the bend at a snail's pace. He had been at the top fussing with the gear, he had walked some, and the rest he had taken very slowly. After coaxing him to speed up, I continued down.

Five switchbacks later I stopped again to wait for him. I waited here for more than ten minutes. He finally came walking down the hill. He had fallen just after we met, and was all shook up. He told me it was too hard, and he was going to walk down, and he'd meet me after my second run. The next section was the steepest and loosest, and I went down the whole way loudly singing MFDS and Don't Stop Me Now. I only had a few awkward encounters with hikers annoyed with my obnoxiousness, I was luckily moving fast enough that I didn't have to interact at all.

After passing a pile of steel beams, the road smoothed out a bit, and I went really fast here, as there was less to fear. The last little bit got steep again, and then I was back at the lift. I took a little break, drank some water, and refilled my bottle, and then got back on the lift. I started back down the mountain, a little more confident, and much quieter. But, when I got back to the bottom, I hadn't passed my dad at all. So I figured he had taken a shortcut, because surely he'd wait at the lift for me if he got down before me. I waited for fifteen minutes, and then tried to call him, but I didn't have my cell with me. I asked around, got a lot of no's, and the phones I was allowed to use couldn't call his American cell phone. I went down the hill to the bike shop, but it was closed, like everything else in France from noon to two. I walked up the hill this time, deciding he was either fine and back at the hotel, or was somewhere on the mountain, and I had time for another run.

This was my fastest run of the day; one kilometer in less than fifteen minutes. I barely stopped, and knew all the routes I wanted to take. It was awesome. I went back to the hotel, grabbed my cell, and called my dad.
He had gotten down before I did, and went to the bike store, and then went to find my mom and sister. When I called, he headed back to the hotel apologetically, and we grabbed some lunch. After lunch, we went to bike shop to ask for a new route. He pointed us to a trail he thought was bikeable up the same lift. We went up, and found the trail. It was singletrack, and had very short runs before switchbacks, read: not suitable for us to bike it. So, we were going to do the same run again. I convinced my dad to try again. He went down the first little part, decided it wasn't for him, and headed back up to take the lift down. I went down, a bit slower this time. A helicopter deafened me, and I looked up to see a huge steel piece dangling from the helicopter right over my head, and I figured out that it was an old lift piece, being moved to the pile I had seen before. I kept biking, and just before I got to the pile, another helicopter came with a dangling piece. I stopped for the show, my back up against the mountain, scared of being taken out by the helicopter blades.

It came down to eye level with me, a guy unhooked the ski part, and the helicopter went back up the hill. After taking some pictures of the action, I got back on the bike and rode the rest of the way down. I gave back the stuff to the shop, and went to the hotel. My sister and I went swimming for a little in the hotel's small pool, and then relaxed in the room til dinner. We walked around town for a long time looking for a place to eat, guided by my mom's guidebook this time. The first place it lead us was too fancy, so we backtracked and ate at a good Italian restaurant, whetting my palate for the Italian experience I'm about to have.

After dinner, we played cards, packed up, and went to bed.

Day 22: Argentieres to Chamonix

Today's hike was spectacular. We ate a delicious breakfast with fresh croissants, packed up, and began our hike. Not surprisingly, it began with an ascent. It was fairly long, but not too steep. The forest then opened up into meadow, with amazing views of Mont Blanc. We reached a split in the trail, and after deliberation, decided to go the long and more interesting way.

Naomi and I ran up ahead. Along the way, we saw an Ibex. We got off the trail to get closer, and stopped when we were about five meters away. We watched them scratch themselves, sleep, and salute Mont Blanc. My parents passed us as we were watching the Ibex, and we followed soon after.

We ate lunch by the side of a small alpine lake, with the mountains reflected in the freezing cold water. Lunch was French bread, cheese, and saucisson. After lunch, my mom didn't want to do the last twenty minutes up to the bigger lake, Lac Blanc, so we split up. It was a bit of a scramble, with some snow, some rocks, and a ladder. Naomi and I bounded ahead while my dad stopped to talk to a family from Pennsylvania.

We met at the top. The lake had a sheet of ice covering almost the whole thing, with bits of deep blue water showing through. There are two lakes separated by a small land mass, and we walked over some snow to see the second, larger lake. There has been, on the surface of a lot of the snow here, a deep red pigment. I just read that it is caused by an algae called protococcus nivalis, one of the oldest life forms known. We had all kinds of conjectures, from blood to mineral residue to pollen.

After admiring the frozen lake with the mountains in the background, we began our descent to Chamonix. The rain clouds were darkening and collecting, so we went as quickly as we could. As we neared the ski lift we were to take down, we saw and heard huge construction machines. They are building an artificial pond to make snow with, and the construction disrupted our path. We had to hop across boulders to regain the path, and found my mom walking up the hill just ahead. We met her at the top, and sat in the shade, cooling down and relaxing our muscles. My dad got two beers, a really good light local beer, and a really strange local green beer.

As the clouds rolled in, we decided we should get down the mountain before the thunder shut down the lift. We got in the cabin that was to take us down, with about eight other people. It zoomed down the mountain, much too fast for my mom and sister's tastes, but it sure was efficient. When we were down we waited for the bus for a half hour, found a cab who said he would come back in ten, and eight minutes later, we caught the bus that finally came.

After showering, reading email, and unpacking a bit, we went downstairs for dinner. We sat down, saw the menu, and stood right back up, the prices and selections much to extreme for our tired tastes. I grabbed my 2004 France guide book, and we headed to its first suggestion. The sign outside the restaurant told us it was closed until July 2, so we turned around and headed to the next suggested restaurant. We found the family we met on the mountain, and invited them to dinner with us. They agreed, and we went to the little street where our restaurant was. It no longer existed, so we picked another, called Munchie. We had a lovely dinner; Nicole is twelve and Alex is nine, so Naomi had a friend and I had Alex, who helped to fill the Nature Camps void I'm feeling. It was the parent's anniversary, too. The restaurant had an interesting and exciting menu, a nice break from all the hams and cheese and bread we've been eating. To add to the excitement, Naomi got locked in the bathroom temporarily. Her face, however, was not as red as I was hoping when she finally got out; she kept her cool well.

After dinner we walked around town a little, and saw the most substantial dog I've ever seen. We got back to the hotel and fell asleep in the hot hotel room.

Day 21: Trient to Argentieres

We woke up at 7:40, ate breakfast, showered, and got on the road. Though our legs were very sore from yesterday, the hike started easy enough, through fields of wildflowers and cows. The cowbells sounded so beautiful, a perfect soundtrack for the mountains. Then, our ascent began in full. For the next few hours, we hiked up switchbacks through a pine forest. We took it slow, and finally left the forest for the meadows. The hike got easier from here, and we continued up through meadows for another hour or two. We stopped in Les Arbages, a herding settlement, with stone huts that were a perfect cool refuge from the sun. After our little break, we finished our uphill to a funky restaurant at the top. We ate some lunch with panoramic views of Mont Blanc.

Our descent began with a small uphill to a ski lift. It was not running, so we walked down next to it. This part was easy and beautiful. Naomi and I went ahead of my parents, a nice break for all. At the bottom of this part was another restaurant and a working lift, this one cabins. We ate ice cream bars, made sure the lift went to where we wanted to go this time, and got in. We passed over a huge herd of goats and sheep and a lot of cows before getting off in the skiing town of Le Tour. When we got off, it started to rain, and we were really glad that we had taken the ride instead of walking down the steep hill. We then got off our path a little, and headed down to Argentieres, where we are staying tonight. The thunder only made us walk faster; but the rain never really got bad. When we got here, our luggage was not here, so my dad and sister walked another kilometer through town to find our bags. I, on the other hand, slept. When the got back with the bags, we hung around the room, cleaning up, and working on my next steps. At seven, we went down to dinner.

Dinner began with escargots and local white wine. The escargots were hot and cooked in butter and pesto. Naomi got the courage to try one, and ended up eating three. We couldn't convince my mom to try any though. The main part of the meal, though, was the fondue. The cheese was incredible, and the liquor it was cooked with was perfect. Dipping the French bread in was heaven. Desert was amazing ice cream and sorbet. The perfect dinner in the alps.

After dinner, Naomi and I took a little walk to see the orange pink light on the glacier. We then headed into the room to work out next steps and write this blog. Now that it is finally dark, and this is finished, I'm going to sleep.

Day 20: Champex to Trient

Today was epic. We got out a little later than we had hoped, and began our hike. Not long after we began, our trail passed under a working chairlift. Hopeful that it would take off the first uphill of our long, hard day, we found the operator. He assured us we could get to the place we needed to go from the top of the lift, so we got on. It was a huge lift; we were in the air for probably fifteen minutes. We got out feeling great about our shortcut, and treated ourselves to a cup of coffee at the café at the top. We then began the hike back to the point we knew we had to leave from. We overshot it, so we had to walk back down to it. What we didn't know is that we overshot it by much more than we saved, so instead of walking uphill for 45 minutes as the directions told us to, we walked downhill for about an hour fifteen. After arguments and a lot of downhill, we arrived at the trail.

From here, it was all up. It started out steep but not too technical, with very stark cliffs all around us. We then began traversing boulder fields, hopping from one boulder to the next, through some snow, and on very rocky paths. This was not easy. At a stream, we refilled our water bottles, enjoying the cold of the fresh snowmelt and praying that it wouldn't get us sick.

We went slowly, encouraging my mom the whole way. We then got to the verticals. First, it was snow. We walked across the vertical faces of large snow patches. In some parts, we had to go from snow to boulders, staying away from the edges of the snow where it had melted and a leg could (and in the case of my mom, did) fall through the snow.

The last part had a path, but required using our hands. We scrambled up slowly, the top now in sight. We were headed to the fenetre d'arpette, a window between two mountainscapes. After the last scrambling and a little more snow, we were there. From the top, it looked as if we had just climbed a cliff, and had a cliff to climb down on the other side. The view was stunning. To our left loomed a huge, blue glacier, and all around us were huge, snow covered peaks and cliffs. We ate a quick lunch, the wind rushing through the gap in the mountains, bringing dark, imposing clouds towards us.

We came from here...

....and had to go here:

Scared of what laid ahead, we finished lunch quickly and began our decent. It was down a path, but a very, very steep path, and we spent a lot of time scooting down on our butts. Naomi pointed out a small mammal, and a bit later, a baby ibex. After a very slow, tedious downhill, we were off the steepest part. It began to rain. Not hard, but enough to make us worry about the hours and hours we still had ahead of us. We heard a huge rumble, and saw a large piece of the glacier break off, and pour down the mountain in a shower of snow. A tragic but impressive display. The rain turned to hail as we continued down towards the river, though it seemed to get farther and farther the more we walked.

The rain slowed and then stopped, and we kept walking down. After two and a half hours, or more, we got to a refuge where we were hoping to refill water, but it was closed. From here, luckily, the path flattened, and became almost like a sidewalk. We walked on this, seeing lots of bright orange slugs, a snake, and frogs, for an hour or so. We then had a steep downhill to Trient, the town where we were going to sleep. Our shins and knees did not feel like they could go another step, and we got into town. Our directions pointed us in entierely the wrong way, so we walked the entire town before finding our hostel. We threw down our stuff, and went down to dinner, at 8:20. After a disappointing dinner, we fell into bed.

Day 19: Lavachey to Champex

After a shower and an uninspiring breakfast, we walked outside and waited for the bus. It came right on time, and brought us up the road, cutting about 45 minutes off the beginning of our hike. We got off the bus and hiked to the trail head. We could see, right above our heads, our first destination; a refuge. The walk was steep, but we had much worse to come. We had a view of a large glacier the whole time, and passed snow banks at every switchback.

We drank some tea at the refuge, and then got on our way. This was by far the hardest part of the hike: two hours of very steep, switchback filled trail up the face of the mountain. We walked with several groups, all moving at similar paces and taking stops at different times and frequencies. We took a lot of stops, and moved slowly. The scenery was beautiful: snow covered mountains, rocky ravines, and grassy faces. We made it to the top, walked through some snow patches, and took our lunch break at the peak; Italy on one side and Switzerland on the other. The Swiss side was snow covered, and though stunning, was very cold. With all our warm gear on, we ate, took photos, and schmoozed with the other hikers.

Our descent began on the snow. Naomi and I discovered the joy of running down the wet snow patches; it was almost as fun as sledding down, though not quite. This was a large portion of our hike; running through snow patches, stopping in the mud to wait for my parents, and then bounding ahead. We took a short break at the end of the snow, and then began a steep downhill to the valley.

The light at this point was amazing, the greens were so green, the whites so white, and everything else was so pronounced. We walked down a dirt road, cutting some switchbacks off on steep trails, and finally ended up at a bus stop. We waited twenty minutes, then boarded the bus. I slept while it took us to our first destination. We stopped in a small town, watched the football match for twenty minutes in a restaurant, and then got back in the bus. It took us up a mountain on a skinny, switchback laden road to Champex, where we are staying tonight. It is a beautiful little town by a little lake.

We showered and read email before dinner. During this time, I realized that I screwed up, and I don't have to be in Italy until a week after I thought I did, so right now I have an extra week on my hands with no plans. The view outside the hotel is outrageous, straight off a postcard. We ate dinner accompanied by the most stunning views of the Swiss alps. After dinner, we walked around the lake as the sun set.

I am now sitting on the deck outside my room writing this. The stars are just coming out over the peaks, as the last reds disappear in the west.

Day 18: Courmeyer to Lavachey

We're on hiking time now: wake up before seven, quick shower, quick breakfast. Though we were one of two families staying in the hotel (the recession is hitting them hard this summer), there was an impressive spread for breakfast. After eating and pocketing as many little nutella packets and cheese as we could fit, we left the hotel. While my dad bought lunch, I bought hiking socks, and then we began the hike. It started through the Italian town of Courmeyer, a pretty town filled with hikers. When we had finally passed through neighborhoods and fields of wildflowers, our ascent began with a vengeance. It was really steep. After a small breakdown, we distributed some weight and kept hiking.

Our trying first leg was rewarded with a stunning view of Mont Blanc and the surrounding alps. Just a few more minutes brought us up to a refuge, with tables, drinks, food, and a view. We talked with the other Americans at the refuge while eating what we had bought this morning. Though I was sitting in the sun, the cool breeze and nourishment felt perfect.

The next part of the hike was up and down along the edge of the mountain. We passed through grassy spots, wooded spots, and shrubby spots, and had to cross lots of snow melt streams. We crossed over a big one, and I held back to take some photos. By the time I caught up to them, they had turned around and were walking back towards me. We debated the route, chose one, and then were advised otherwise by some other hikers, and headed back the way we were going originally.

This was probably the prettiest leg of the hike. We had panoramic views of Mont Blanc, grassy meadows filled with wildflowers, and the occasional patch of snow. We walked the extra few hundred meters up the mountain to another refuge, where we rested and had a drink. When we felt ready to go, we began our steep descent to our refuge-turned-hotel. We were mostly on a farm road, but one I would not want to take any vehicle of value on. It was steep and rocky, but downhill. Running down the sections proved the easiest way down, but as my parents wouldn't even try it, our descent still took a long time. We finally got to the bottom and to our hotel, right by the gorgeous, freezing river. We passed out on the beds for a little, enjoying being flat and stationary until dinner time.

After dinner, which was good but not anywhere near as good as what we saw around us--I guess we were on the economy menu--Naomi and I walked around the river. When we started to get chilly, we headed inside. I beat my mom and sister in a few games of set, and we went to bed.

Day 17: We'll be comin around the mountain

We didn't wake up this morning until 9:15, so I got around ten hours of sleep. I guess I needed it. We had a good hotel breakfast with abundant fresh fruit, and then ventured quickly into town, St Remy de Provence. We'd heard about a chocolatier there who we needed to visit. We tried the cardamom, violet, and coffee chocolates, and bought some rosemary chocolates, which we have yet to taste.

We packed quickly and got in the car, beginning our long journey to the alps. Except for an epic experience getting gas that took half an hour, we drove straight to Annecy, a town with Mont Blanc in view, set on a gorgeous blue lake. We walked around a bit, ate a sandwich, and then Naomi, my mom and I rented kayaks and paddled around the lake. The weather was wonderful, and the scenery was beautiful. After paddling and splashing for quite a while, we met up with my dad, walked around the canal-laden town, and then got back in the car with wet butts.

After a gorgeous drive through the mountains, we arrived in Chamonix, an active, lively tourist town at the foot of Mont Blanc. We are staying in a hotel in Chamonix our last night of the hike, so we dropped off a bunch of stuff there that we won't be needing for the next five days. NB: for the next five days my family is hiking through the alps, around Mont Blanc. Some days we are carrying everything we need, and some days we have arranged for someone to take our luggage to the next hotel. We are hiking between eight and ten miles a day, with a good bit of elevation change each day.

After dropping of our stuff and the car, we got a taxi to Courmayeur, Italy, where we are staying tonight. We drove through the tunnel Mont Blanc, an 11.6 Km long tunnel through the mountain. There was a horrible fire in the tunnel several years ago that killed thirty nine people, so there are lots of safety precautions taken in the tunnel, including a police and fire station in the middle.

We got to our hotel, showered, and went down to dinner. We were the only ones in the hotel restaurant. We had an amazing four course meal, accompanied by a local red wine, and finished with a selection of local cheeses. My favorite was a cheese called toma. Hopefully we can find more tomorrow. Now, it is time to pack for the next two days and head to bed.