Rather than one post per day covering the 4 days it took us to get home, I’m throwing everything into one post, symbolic of the shift from foot power to the blur of motorized vehicles of one sort or another! We were picked up from Chamonix by a Mountain Transfers van. We were the only…
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Last day of hiking. Wow. Not sure we know what to do with ourselves when we’re not following either a blue line on a map or a red line on a map! Woke up to an almost clear Mont Blanc–this is the view from our hotel balcony. That glacial river roars below us all the…
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We went our separate ways today. I had a not-great night of sleep–leg was painful, and it was too hot in the room. And I wasn’t in any better headspace than I was at the end of yesterday. So I decided to take the train to Chamonix and the cable car up to La Flegere,…
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Interesting place last night. Called Hotel De L’Ourse, but very much more like a hostel or refuge, in that many rooms were dormitory style, and all bathroom facilities were shared. The food at dinner was quite good, but not as much as multi-day hikers typically eat (plenty for me, though). Wifi was blindingly fast, but…
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A nice but not terribly memorable walk today, lacking any of the jaw-dropping vistas of other days. 10.41 miles, 2634ft elevation gain. Some thoughts about the Hotel Glacier in Champex. Nice location, nice evening meal, tired room, and not terribly helpful staff at check in. Liked this use of silver birch in the dining room!…
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Another great walking day! Billed as the easiest of the entire tour, which I think is probably accurate, though nothing is truly easy about this hike. Before describing today, a quick look back at dinner last night. We sat with a couple from Northumberland, one a retired teacher and the other a local council member….
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I was somewhat dreading today, because it promised to be long and hard (12+ miles and 1600m ascent). But it actually was right up there with yesterday for being my favorite day. What an amazing place to wake up, 2025m (6643ft) up, at a mountain hut reachable only on foot, facing the beauty and bulk…
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My favorite day so far! Not too many miles (8) and the hard climb was at the start of the day when it was still mostly cool, with a fairly level contour path from then on. One final fabulous breakfast at Bouton D’Or–a hotel I highly recommend. It’s a little retro, but everything is clean…
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The original plan was to spend the first day in Courmayeur backtracking to La Visaille and walking back to Courmayeur, then actually resting on the second day. In reality, we both rested on the first day, and only Dave went back to do the missed section on the second day. We decided to head to…
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Another belated blog post! I think I might have just caught up by the time we leave Courmayeur, but then will immediately get behind again because I assume Refugio Bonatti won’t have internet of any kind. Day 3 was a day of compromises. Because of our unwillingness to sleep on platforms with scores of other…
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