Bravo! Bravissimo! Two weeks on the Tour du Mont Blanc
Two months ago, I hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc over two weeks. Since then, I’ve been eager to share pictures and my story about the trek, hitting massive amounts of writer’s block along the way. Finally, I decided to just post my raw notes from every day of my hike so I can share them with you, along with my favorite ~100 of the 2,000 or so pictures I took on that trip. Here they are below. I’ve added a few notes along the way to set some context, or add additional memories to my recollection of each day. Enjoy!
Day 1: August 26, 2019
21 years ago today, I took off on the adventure of a lifetime. It was my freshman year at the University of Illinois, and it was my first day of school. As I write this, and note the time difference, I was probably hitting breakfast in PAR right now before I walked across campus to my first class. I wish I could remember what class that was. Today, I take off on another adventure of a lifetime. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc.
I flew into Geneva yesterday via Frankfurt and stayed in a small hotel near the airport – the Nash Prathik. I woke up this morning, ran 3.5 miles and had the hotel buffet for breakfast. At noon, I met the rest of our group, a pair of friends from near San Antonio [Shailesh’s note: Lisa and Valeska] celebrating a birthday, and a couple from California [Shailesh’s note: Jim and Deb]. It’s a smaller group than I’d hoped, but they are an entertaining bunch. So far, I’ve learned two things: 1) I’m the only non-medical professional in the group; 2) I’m younger than everyone else. The latter is a bit of a surprise. These days, with most active things I do, I fully expect to be the old guy. So, it’s nice for a change, especially given that I thought I might be physically unprepared for hiking ~100 miles over the next 13 days.
That said, it’s worth noting that although the timing of the two adventures is coincidental, they are not unrelated. During my first two years of college, Karen Long became one of my best study friends at school. I’ve probably lost track of how many hours we spent the union talking about nonsense while theoretically studying. We lost touch in the past few years, but its was only because of the obligations of adulthood, compounded by her fight with cancer. We lost Karen in March. It was a shock but not a surprise. She’d been battling breast cancer for four years and we knew it’d be a part of her life forever.
I wish I could write this paragraph about how I’m doing this to honor her. But that’s not exactly true. About ten days after we lost Karen, I was reading about this trip and thinking to myself about how it needed to be on my bucket list. Suddenly, the concept of a ‘bucket list’ became very real to me. I’ve maintained one for over a decade, but always operated with the assumption there’s more time. I looked at the available dates on my work calendar for the rest of the year, found a good window, and I booked it. On Saturday, as I waited for my flight from Chicago, I met a woman flying to Minneapolis for the funeral of a 37-year-old friend. And then another guy flying to his grandfather’s funeral. [Shailesh’s note: In hindsight, this is probably representative of people at the airport waiting to board 10pm Saturday night flights]. I don’t want to this to be morbid- so I’ll end this thought with something that might sound a little callous to some. Death is a part of life. We should be sad and grieve the ones we love when we lose them. But we should plan for and strive for long healthy lives. We should accept that things happen, and they won’t be fair. And that’s why despite making tons of deposits into our longevity, we need withdrawals of bliss.
Serious stuff aside, I just ate lunch in a small bistro in Chamonix [Shailesh’s note: Brasserie de L’M]. I ordered a burger and a beer. The waiter rolled his eyes at me when I asked for ‘medium,’ so I went with ‘medium rare.’ As I sit on the patio finishing my beer, the bistro sits along the path of a long-distance trail race. Every few minutes a runner goes by and people start cheering for them. So fitting. Chamonix is a typical winter sports town—sitting in a valley surrounded by gorgeous peaks. Tonight at 6:30 we have dinner to discuss the trip. Tomorrow we hike.
[Shailesh’s note: The reality of meeting your tripmates is even more awkward than I can describe it. It feels like you’re about to go on The Amazing Race. You get a list of stuff to buy and instructions to meet your tripmates in front of a store in a different continent and exactly noon. We all stood around awkwardly trying to figure out who else was part of our trip. I do give credit to Lisa, who straight up walked up to me and asked me if I was Shailesh.
Incidentally, Jim and Deb’s luggage did not make it to Geneva with them, so there was a scramble once they got to Chamonix to get some hiking essentials. They’d been smart and packed most of what they needed in their carry-ons. I’d have been in much worse shape if that’d been me. Note to self—never connect through Heathrow.]
Day 2: August 27, 2019
Today we finally hiked. I should add that Chamonix really is a beautiful little town. I sit here at an eatery called ‘Josephine,’ about eat a meal and a burger. [Shailesh’s note: Not sure what’s up with all the burgers. It’s especially funny because when you read further, you’ll see that I mocked a group of Americans in Forclaz for ordering hamburgers at dinner.]
I mentioned the road race yesterday and I should add a bit more about what a big deal it is. The UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc) is a weeklong series of events, culminating with Friday’s ultra-race around Mont Blanc. The winner usually finishes the race in ~20 hours. But the city is full of trail runners and the sign-fronts are all aggressively trying to woo them. The race has taken over the entire town- it’s a huge deal.
Today’s hiking was theoretically a warmup, but I but I don’t feel like it. I slept all of ~3 hours yesterday, possibly tied to nerves, jet lag and a new bed. I was up at 7:30, at breakfast at 7:45, packing a lunch at 8:15- Beef, prosciutto and a salmon spread– a sandwich combo I’d never imagined. At 8:30 we were out the door. It was mile walk through town and about 5 miles uphill to Chalet du Chailloux, where we had lunch. It was a much more manageable 3 miles back to a waiting truck that whisked us back to Chamonix. Tomorrow we head over the right to the next destination.
[Shailesh’s note: This was also the day that we got to learn more about our tour guide Daniele. She’s a Chamonix native, and as we learned on the trail, she literally knows everything there is to know about the TMB, whether its alternate trails, animal species, locations of rifugios/bavettes, ecology, the local economy, or world war two history.
One of my favorite parts of this day was that we walked by the beautiful ruins of an old church and Daniele let us stop and take tons of pictures before she explained what it was. It was literally built to look like ruins because British tourists in the 18th century thought it would look interesting. Apparently, British tourists have been finding creative ways to irritate people for centuries.
I should add a note about our daily lunch-making ritual. Our logistics coordinator, Celine would go shopping and find lots of local breads/cheeses for us so that we could pack a lunch every morning. Each morning there was this incredible spread of fine food for us to pick from. When she explained to us that it was all local, we assumed she was saying it was, “low cal,” which is more a sign of our selective hearing than anything else. As we got to know Celine better, we learned all kinds of things about her. For instance, she may or may not have a driver’s license, she’s worked every job in the Chamonix valley- driver, ski lift operator, waitress, and operating the Chalet du Chailloux. She also has an identical twin sister, which we didn’t learn about till be hiked up to Chalet du Chailloux and found two Celine’s working there.]
Day 3: August 28, 2019
Today we started with a cable car ride from Les Houches to Bellevue, followed by a pretty rocky hike that led us across an amazing bridge overlooking a river of glacial runoff and eventually end up at a pass overlooking Miage. [Shailesh’s note: One of the funnier moments on the trip happened when we disembarked from the cable car and noticed a guy in the group in front of us was carrying a giant rake. Someone made a joke about him raking the forest. I’ll leave it at that.] We descended and stopped for lunch in this valley and sat in front a creek staring back up at the Bionassay Glacier, with all its melt eventually running into this creek. Eventually, we headed out again. Our afternoon consisted of a small 30-minute ascent followed by another descent to Les Contamines- a very small skiing village [Shailesh’s note: The ascent ended at an area too small to be considered a pass, so they call it Le Truc, or French for The Thing] . I sit here writing in Les Contamines, sipping on a Bruno dark (?). It’s been 2 of 11 hiking days at this point. Tomorrow will be the biggest test. We ran into another REI group multiple times on our hike today. It was an “express” group, who’d signed up for the 7-day version of this trek.
Tomorrow is our toughest day of all- off to Courmayeur. [Shailesh’s note: This is wrong- we went to Les Chapieux]
Day 4: August 29, 2019
I’m too tired to even write much. We trudged 11 miles, most of it spent getting to the first pass today. The ascent was brutal, but we managed the rest of the day very well. I’m lying in bed after an amazing French dinner (homestyle- complete with the grandmother-type woman who keeps pressing you to eat more of whatever she felt like cooking that day). Mushroom quiche as the appetizer, beef roast as the main course, and then some kind of red fruit for dessert. I don’t have any sort of epiphany for today, expect maybe a commentary on how quickly time flies by. It blows my mind that I’m only 4 days into a 13-day trip. Yet if I was not on vacation, it’d be just a regular old Thursday afternoon ahead of a long weekend. I get and appreciate downtime. But what shocks me is the days we’re awake but living as zombies. Maybe we need to start aiming for 1 new thing a day- a new commute, a new lunch spot, whatever.
The other thing on my mind today is the value of preparation I learned during marathon training. It wasn’t just about getting my legs and body ready for 26.2 miles. It was about practicing the pre-race routine, learning what shorts, socks and shoes chafed the least, what carb/water strategy works the best and what runner’s goo bothered my stomach the least.
This was similar. I adjusted the pack, tried different socks, cross-trained, etc. And its been working. I’m doing just fine for someone who’d never owned hiking boots six months ago.
I say goodnight from Le Chapieux, France.
[Shailesh’s note: This is an indicator of how tired I was that day. While re-reading this entry, I literally have zero memories of the dinner I ate that day.
Also, this portion of the trek is commonly advertised as the ‘Roman Road,’ supposedly an old trade route dating back thousands of years. According to Daniele, that is 100% false. Given our experience so far, I’m going to go ahead and blame the Brits for this one too.]
Day 5: August 30, 2019
Buon Giorno! I’m writing this from a pub in Courmayeur, Italy and have now crossed the border into the second country on this trip. Today was a fairly “standard” day – we started from Les Chapieux, did a gentle ascent, and then did an easier descent. The border was right at the pass we crossed. There were some good “border” sights too- rocks marking the border, and a shut-down crossing booth (from the pre-EU days?). The most interesting thing part was the WWII-era bunkers on both sides. They were dug into natural features, but the bricks and windows made it obvious. Apparently, the France-Italy border was a pretty dead front during WWII. According to Daniele, the reason was that culturally, the communities living in the foothills of Mont Blanc are all essentially one. Often, a person living in Italy would have close family in France. The war efforts on both sides didn’t get a ton of support for that reason. But the bunkers live on.
Tomorrow is an interesting day hiking-wise. We start a little bit later and have a slightly easier hike (because of the UTMB race), but we spend the night in a mountain hut where we’ll sleep dorm-style and share a bathroom.
Speaking of UTMB, I should add that Courmayeur is an amazing town. It’s a quaint Italian ski town with one main strip loaded with restaurants, bars, souvenir stores and sporting goods stores. This town is amped up for the UTMB race. The town square has a large screen in the center showing the race live. I happened to have just stepped out of the hotel just before 6pm when the race started in Chamonix, so I was able to watch the start on the large screen. The race also comes through the center of the town with the leaders rolling through at 2am. I won’t be up for that. Finally, there’s the gelato. I’m told I can’t miss that. Hopefully I can finish dinner in time to enjoy that. Off to dinner, maybe some gelato, and then bed.
[Shailesh’s note: While hiking up the trail this morning, we came across a group hiking the other way who had a mule carrying their stuff. When Valeska casually commented, “Oh, poor mule…” the mule’s minder got incredibly upset and told us we were destroying the environment and personally melting all the glaciers by not having our own mule.
During the descent, for most of the afternoon, we could see a very straight road in the valley that we eventually hiked to. Apparently, the road was built that straight because Mussolini was insistent on being able to land an airplane there.
I ended up eating dinner this night in an Italian restaurant and had some of the worst lasagna I’ve ever hard. I compounded my dinner experience by butchering my metric conversions and ordering 0.5 Liters of wine. That’s actually way more wine than I thought.]
Day 6: August 31, 2019
Today’s hike took us from Courmayeur to a mountain hostel at 6,000 ft elevation- Rifugio Bonatti, named after the famous climber Walter Bonatti. Tonight, we share a bedroom- 5 of us in a room built for 8. It will be an experience. I hope I can make it through the night without snoring. [Shailesh’s note: I did. I think. Or at least everyone was too polite to tell me.]
The morning started a little bit later- as we didn’t leave the hotel until 9:30am. We packed our lunches just outside the hotel and watched the UTMB racers run by. The hike started with a major uphill push, followed by a pretty flat balcony trail along a major valley. We reached our destination at 3:45pm, so it was a very short day. The highlight was dodging the UTMB racers as much of our path was common. In fact, our rifugio is one of the UTMB aid points- I’m watching as runners come in, grab some water, some aid, and keep going.
The rifugio itself is interesting. There’s a small bar, a dining room with dinner at 6:45pm, shared dorm-style bedrooms, and coin-operated showers that apparently only give you hot water for a minute per coin. Finally, my laziness about fixing my water heater back home has prepared me for something. [Shailesh’s note: It’s fixed now. I should make that clear before anyone worries how I’ll handle winter in Chicago.]
Overall, today was likely the easiest day of the hike. Heck, we’re almost half-done. Tomorrow will be tough, but not as bad as day 4. We’ll leave early and leave Italy for Switzerland by the end of the day.
[Shailesh’s note: We developed some of our own traditions as we pulled off to the side every few minutes to let the UTMB runners through. When you’re in town, the polite way to cheer on a runner is to shout, ‘Bravo! Bravo!’ as your clap your hands. Of course, with our hands occupied by hiking poles, we instead opted to clank the poles together while shouting, ‘Bravo! Bravo!’ That also became our words of encouragement to each other whenever we got through a tough part of the trail.
We also started meeting some of the regulars at this point, that we kept running into. There was a couple from North Carolina who were casual hikers, and a couple from Australia who were INTENSE.
This was also the day of the infamous helicopter story. As we hiked the balcony trail to Rifugio Bonatti, a helicopter flew through the valley at roughly the same altitude. Being Americans, we did what Americans do, and a few of us waived at the guy. Of course, he interpreted this as a medical emergency and started trying to land. Luckily, we somehow waived him off just as quickly. Daniele told us that events like this are a good example of why Europeans find Americans to be so entertaining and childlike.
The one absolute highlight of Rifugio Bonatti is their hot chocolate, which is basically pure dark chocolate melted down into a liquid. I’m not even sure how they get it to stay liquid. I actually had to cut mine with some sugar to even drink the stuff, but it was highly touted going into the trip, and well-worth the experience.]
Day 7: September 1, 2019
Rabbit! Rabbit! [Shailesh’s note: I’m not superstitious at all. I’m not even a little -stitious. But this good luck ritual always cracks me up.] Normally, the first of the September and Labor Day weekend are bittersweet. It’s the return to normalcy but it’s also the symbolic end of summer, and a staunch reminder that the year is two-thirds over. Thinking back to January, it’s hard to fathom what would’ve constituted a good year. Yes, I know what I was calling my resolutions, but everything I’ve learned about myself is so much more. Hiking the Alps, definitely was not on my radar, yet here I now sit in a hotel restaurant (Auberge de Glacier) drinking a Chopfab Golden Ale (I think… the taps don’t always match the beers in Europe the way they do back in the US).
As I write this, “River of Dreams,” by Billy Joel has come on the restaurant’s background music. The irony. [Shailesh’s note: Most people who know me are aware of my love of Billy’s music. What really struck me in the moment is that the theme of the song is about the fact that despite the intentions we lay out, life sometimes takes us on its own path, and that’s not a bad thing.]
Anyways, the hiking: Today we left Rifugio Bonatti at 7:30am. It was an incident-free night with 5 total strangers sharing a room. The breakfast was simple but enough. We hiked to the bottom of the valley and were able to hand off some of our stuff to Celine who threw it all in the van. From there, we hiked back up towards the pass dividing Italy and Switzerland. We stopped only at Rifugio Elena. Of course, I took tons of pictures of the sign for Elena [Shailesh’s note: My niece is named Elena] and picked up a T-shirt. The espresso was also excellent. From there, we kept hiking up to the pass. The descent was much easier, with the only drama being that two bridges were washed out by rain overnight. This is, apparently, not a big deal, but for a while, we thought we might have to hike all the way into town. As it turned out, one of the two bridges were repaired by the time we descended, so we only crossed one washed out bridge, with an earth mover clearing rocks as we walked by. Fun fact: The Swiss are not as particular about construction fences as we are. [Shailesh’s note: The dude tried to run over us] We met Celine in Le Ferret and drove to La Fouly. La Fouly is tiny. I’m not exaggerating. I took a quick walk through town and it’s a street- one sporting goods store, a grocery store, the department of tourism (it was closed), two hotels, a pizzeria, and a few houses. That’s all. The hotel is also a bit interesting. We get old style keys- it reminds me of the one time I stayed in the Jumer Hotel in downtown Urbana, Illinois. You climb up some narrow staircases and eventually get to your room- two twin beds, a tiny TV, and a shower that sits in the middle of the room with a sink next to it. If you want to use the restroom, there’s a common bathroom in the hallway for that. I don’t know why I’m judging- I’ve done this drill in Laal Bagh [Shailesh’s note: This is a reference to my Dad’s childhood home in Mumbai]. In fact, even having running water is a step up in that regard. So, lets focus on the positives.
Tomorrow is a bit easier trek. It’s 8 miles to Champex, with the last two hours being a bit tougher. Champex is a situated next to a lake and is a bit bigger town than La Fouly.
[Shailesh’s note: I stopped writing to have dinner with my tripmates at this point]
I stopped writing mid-entry to eat dinner with the group: Red wine, a beer, soup, a salad and raclette, which is a dish made where they heat up a wheel of raclette cheese and cut off a melted slice into a dish. When it’s served to you, you add a boiled potato from a bag of potatoes at the table and mash it into the cheese. Then you mash in vegetables or cured meats. Basically, we made our own cheesy mashed potatoes. We finished with some orange sorbet, which was equally incredible. It’s now past 9pm and I’d love to finish out this entry with more, but I know I need my rest. I feel like we’re hitting the final stretch of this journey and I’m excited to ultimately go home. In some jacked-up way, I’ve been on a 10-year sprint for the last decade with applying to business school, attending B-school, paying off student loans, finding a new job, and getting settled in it.
This is the first true down time I’ve had in years. Anyways, I think its time to go inside and end my evening.
[Shailesh’s note: The hotel was a bit of a Swiss stereotype. There were all kinds of signs with some pretty strict rules everywhere, and some questionable English translation. Our favorites were the, ‘Remain silent and eat your breakfast,’ and the ‘Don’t throw your food,’ signs.
The raclette was also the most memorable meal of the trip—until I got back to Chicago. I went to the Green City farmer’s market in Lincoln Park on the Saturday after I got back (as I do almost every Saturday), and I realized there is a Raclette stand there that has always been there and I’d never noticed for the two years I’ve been going to this farmer’s market. Oops.]
Day 8: September 2, 2019
Greetings from Champex, Switzerland! We left from La Fouly at 9:30 this morning for what was a muddy but easy hike. It rained a good amount overnight and that led to some mud and slips, but nothing dramatic. The morning was flat. We hiked straight out of the hotel (no transfers), and through small villages, which let us get a good view of the cultural parts of the Swiss foothills of Mont Blanc. At lunch, we stopped at Café du Chatelet where Celine had prepared an amazing spread of local chesses, a salad and some desserts. (I’m not doing it justice, but she’s incredible with the food- and with hauling our heavy bags up to our hotel rooms ahead of our check-ins. I really wish that second part wasn’t part of her job as it feels ridiculous to make someone else do that). After lunch it was an uphill trudge to Champex. Champex is a nice ski town set upon a lake- kind of a hilltop valley, if that makes sense. It’s a quiet town. There are a couple of bars/restaurants, a couple of shops and that’s it. I dug in deep and did a massive amount of laundry today as we got in early (4:15). I have a tiny concern about whether it’ll all be dry by the time I pack in the morning, but it’s a calculated risk. If I chose correctly, (and got my math right), it’s the last laundry I’ll do until I’m back in Chicago. The hotel is also nice, so I figured Is should take advantage. [Shailesh’s note: I chose wrong. This was a disaster for the next few days. Keep reading.]
I don’t know whether I’m slowly getting in better shape or just more confident, but things have evolved from a “daily adventure” to “today’s plan.” The views on this side are not quite as spectacular, and I’m also getting eager to get back to Chicago. I want to unpack my bags. I want a massage. I want to watch the Washington-Philadelphia game on Sunday [Shailesh’s note: Big mistake, should’ve stayed in France]. I want my English Premier League mornings (go Toffees!) [Shailesh’s note: Bigger mistake, definitely should’ve stayed in France]. Yes, I love to travel, and I’m glad I pushed myself on this trip, but I do miss my life.
Last night, I stopped writing for our group dinner, and I had to finish up afterwards. I sat outside the restaurant in La Fouly and when I was done, I saw on my phone that Justin Verlander had a no-hitter in the 8th inning. I flipped on my mlb.tv stream and they were wrapping up the 8th. It was 0 – 0 Astros-Blue Jays, so despite his phenomenal performance, there were still potentially many innings to go. JV was part of my Detroit experience. I still remember walking into 220’s in Birmingham, Michigan on June 12, 2007. The timing was perfect. There were 2 outs in the ninth inning when I walked in, and as I entered the restaurant, I could sense every eyeball focused on the overheads TVs. It was his first no-hitter and part of the Tigers’ dominance when I lived there. Today was number three in his career. Congratulations to him.
Tomorrow is another straight-forward day. We hike about 8 miles, with about 2,500 feet of incline/decline to Forclaz. I’m told the town is small, they have a hotel and a gift shop, and that’s everything. Forclaz is our last top before we return to France on Wednesday. It’s hard to believe that we’re on the stretch run of something I’ve been thinking about and working for, for the past six months. I’m still looking forward Chamonix (especially Day 12), but mentally I’ve gone from wondering if/how I’ll make it, to managing through.
Off to find dinner, read, figure out how to dry my clothes and sleep.
Day 9: September 3, 2019
I must wrap up a cliffhanger from yesterday- the laundry run, while well-intentioned, was a massive failure. Luckily, I was up relatively early today, and it gave me some time to roll up my clothes in towels, and use the hairdryer to get them dry. Still, when I got here today, the first thing I did was unpack it all and set the clothes out do dry- shirts, underwear, and socks. I do have an extra towel tonight, so maybe I’ll have dry clothes by 6am tomorrow.
We left the hotel in Champex today at 9:15am- right on time. It was a relatively uneventful day. The morning was extremely flat, and the afternoon featured a solid ascent, followed by a descent into Forclaz. The ascent did feature a walk straight through a cow pasture. And I’m not exaggerating- we were weaving around them. I know this is no big deal for most, but my only image of these animals is those bullfights in Mexico. I guess they’re less aggressive when they haven’t been loaded up with steroids and tortured. We also stopped for lunch just before the bovine bavette on a bluff overlooking the Rhone valley. The Rhone is known for its wine. Forclaz is every bit as tiny as Daniele described. It’s literally a bend in the road, with a small gift short across the street. That’s it.
Tomorrow, is the more standard up-and-down as we cross back into France. The border will be right at the pass and we’ll re-enter the Chamonix valley, spending the night in Argentiere.
Tonight’s dinner will feature vegetable soup, chicken and ratatouille, followed by some well-needed rest.
[Shailesh’s note: We hiked by the village where Ricola’s ingredients are grown, and the drops are made. The dinner was also interesting. Shortly after we sat down, a large group of other Americans sat at the table next to us and were absurdly loud for the entire dinner. In the morning, they were complaining about how terrible the hamburgers were at this establishment.]
Day 10: September 4, 2019
Greetings form the Chamonix Valley! After traversing Italy, and Switzerland, we’re finally back in France. Today was a classic up-and-down across the Switzerland-France border back into the Chamonix Valley. We’re just uphill of where we started a week and a half ago. I’m a bit exhausted today (more than I expected) so this will be short. Argentiere is a fun little town- hotels, bars, restaurants, gift shops. [Shailesh’s note: OK, based on rereading my journal entries, these are the only four types of businesses they have in France.] Apparently, they also have a big competitive skiing rivalry with Chamonix and Les Houches, which are the three major towns in this valley. We arrived early, and hiked straight into town, which is always fun. Anyways, tonight is dinner, washing out my lunch container, and sleeping. Time to run!
Day 11: September 5, 2019
Today will be a short one. We’re back in Chamonix. We left Argentiere at 8:15 this morning and took a transfer back uphill a bit. From there we hiked up, then across a balcony trail, then back down to a flat trail that ran along the river. The forecast called for heavy rain that never really came. [Shailesh’s note: On the first day of the trip, Daniele was insistent that everyone bought some rain pants because it’s miserable to hike and get drenched without them. Lisa was the only person who didn’t have any, and she found a €10 pair in Chamonix. Of course, the rain never came. So, it was €10 well spent and we all probably owe her a couple of Euros. Thanks Lisa!] As recently as 2 days ago, they were talking about snow. It’s gotten chilly this past couple of days. I’ve had to wear hiking pants almost every day- I guess fall is in the air. After lunch, Daniele gave us a couple of afternoon hiking options and we chose the hard one- to go back up into the “Petit Balcon” (small balcony?) trail. Not all the group was happy [Shailesh’s note: Sorry Valeska!], but we all braved through it. And it felt somewhat triumphant to march back into Chamonix and walk right up to the same hotel that we left 9 days ago. The Tour du Mont Blanc is complete! Tomorrow is a sight-seeing hike. We have options to either go cave exploring in ice caves or take a cable car to 12k feet. My preference is the latter, but the weather is the real determinant here. We started hitting real rain while walking through Chamonix and it’s now coming down decisively. We’ll make a judgment call in the morning.
Tonight is all about shopping and dinner. Then we meet downstairs at 7:50am for our last day of hiking. Time to head out for the evening and get ready for tomorrow.
[Shailesh’s note: Once upon a time, hiking the TMB required hikers to climb a series of ladders near the end, and that was considered one of the scariest parts of the trip. The trail has been rerouted since then, but I wouldn’t stop asking Daniele about the ladders for the first ten days. Finally, on this day, we happened to walk by some service ladders, and I had my photo op.]
Day 12: September 6, 2019
The Tour du Mont Blanc is over. Today we left Chamonix by cog train for the view overlooking Mer du Glace (Sea of Ice), which at one point in the 18th century really did resemble a sea of glass [Shailesh’s note: There was a mini-ice age in the late 18th century]. Then we hiked to the cable car that took us to L’Augille du Midi. I give all of us credit for taking the option for what was a cold, snowy and rocky hike. The alternative was a cable car down to some manmade ice caves in a glacier. Despite our willingness to brave it, it was also obvious we were done. We complained, we talked about dinner and shopping the entire time- definitely moreso than any other day of the trip. We did go up and enjoy lunch and hot chocolate at the top, but it was cloudy, so the view was terrible. [Shailesh’s note: Quote of the trip: There was a small museum up top that has a few displays and videos of activities people do on the mountain. One of the videos was of a guy trying to walk a tight-rope between two the peaks, to which I casually remarked, “Oh that looks like fun.” Lisa’s response: “If I find out you’re even thinking about trying that, I’m going to find your mom and tell her what you’re up to.”]
The was a small chance the weather would clear up for us to see the views, but that didn’t look like it was happening. We descended back into Chamonix on the 2:15 cable car and were back at the hotel by 3pm. After that it was light shopping, checking in for our flights home, and packing. Tonight is our farewell dinner and tomorrow it’s a 7:30am shuttle to Geneva.
When I look back on this trip, the people were awesome, the views were awesome, and our guides taught us so much. But what stands out is the sense of accomplishment. I went to bed every night having done something, and I woke up with something to get done. I think it’s safe to say that most corporate jobs don’t always feel like this.
It’s still hard to believe I signed up for this so randomly. It’s hard to believe I was worried about being unprepared. It’s hard to believe it’s over. It’s hard to believe this’ll be another volume in our lives’ story.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop starting at a very drab gray sky, drinking a terrible beer [Shailesh’s note: it was a cider.] Overnight the Bears lost to the Packers on opening night for the NFL. I guess the universe is telling me it’s time to return to Chicago. Off to get ready for dinner, celebrate, pack and wake up early.
Day 13: September 7, 2019
10:00am – Geneve International airport.
We formally closed our trip last night with a nice dinner at La Maisson Carrier, a rustic-looking set menu restaurant. I had the salmon, followed by the duck, followed by an incredible dessert buffet I can’t even begin to describe. [Shailesh’s note: Seriously this thing was incredible. It was entire tower of dessert foods. I wished I’d taken a picture, but it didn’t occur to me in the moment.] We were back at the hotel by 10:30pm and I was in bed at midnight. There was good wine, good stories, laughter and our official Tour du Mont Blanc certificates. In the morning, I was up at 5:40 and at the breakfast buffet at 6:30. This time I had to remind myself I wasn’t about to burn about 5,000 calories today as I made my breakfast selections.
As I look forward, I think about everything I need to do by Monday morning: unpacking, laundry, groceries, a massage, catching up on work emails.
It all seems so mundane in the wake of the last two weeks. But then I remember one of my bigger takeaways from this trip- the mundane are our building blocks to bigger things. If I spent the last two weeks staring at the views, I’d have tripped/fallen at least a few times and definitely would have some missing teeth. And likewise, if I never bothered to look up, I’d have spent a few thousand dollars staring at rocks. So yes, all those mundane steps were the building blocks for this incredible trip. [Shailesh’s note: I know it’s kind of a corny moral to this story. But it’s true.]
Great diary. Very entertaining and informative. Your sense of humor and irony comes across very well. Congratulations. We are proud of you. By the way, areyou in touch with your fellow travelers now?
Wow!! I love all of this…. I didn’t know that you were such a talented writer! It sounds like you had a lot of fun, and I really like the jokes throughout the whole article.
Glad to read all details from your trip. You got very good experience. Nice pictures.
Haha, thanks “The best person in the whole world.” I can’t wait to see you in a couple of weeks!