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 time, very fast flowing and presumably icy cold.
Nice breakfast, then we headed out at about 7:50 or so to the Planpraz gondola, with the goal of cheating on the entire day’s elevation gain by then switching to the Brevent cable car. Walking through Chamonix was lovely–hardly anyone around and still lovely views of the mountains. That would change dramatically over the course of the day!
For some bizarre reason, the gondola base station was quite a climb out of Chamonix. My legs grumbled about every unexpected step!
Neither the ticket windows nor the gondola itself was open. We stood around for probably 20 minutes or so with a collection of other hikers and climbers and day trippers. The gondola finally started going, but of course they have to send all the cabins around once before letting anyone on. At least it was still sunny!
Finally to the top of Planpraz at 8:35am. Mountain still mostly clear, but that cap of cloud was growing.
And off to the north, there was a darker band in the sky that moved steadily in all day.
Loved the machinery of the Brevent cable car.
The one that left right before ours came to a screeching halt just out of the station as it was leaving, resulting in a dramatic rocking. Held on tight when it was our turn, but it didn’t happen again. I guess they were testing the brakes on a whole cable car full of unwitting volunteers!
At the top….
See that dark cloud to the right…cue ominous music…
Then, off we go, almost entirely downhill from 2525 meters down to Les Houches at about 1000 meters.
It was jarring being greeted by this view to the north and west. For two weeks, we’ve lived in an orbit around Mont Blanc, protected from the outside world by encircling mountain ranges. This view is the rest of the world.
This pool at the top still had ice in it, and my guess is that it will not thaw out this season–temperatures are forecast to drop a lot from tomorrow on, with snow forecast at the highest elevations next week.
The path for much of today was hard going, most of it across ankle-twisting rocks and/or down steep descents.
This particular hand rail seemed quite random. We’ve walked along much more precarious paths over the last 2 weeks (and in Cornwall for that matter.)
The clouds are starting to fill in to the east too…
A little below this point, I saw a marmot for the first (and last!) time on this trip. I took a photo, but it’s too far away to see clearly, so you’ll just have to believe me! I was so hoping to see a marmot, so I was rather happy about it. The other thing I hoped to see was an edelweiss flower, but they seem to have disappeared from the alps!
We stopped for one last refuge coffee…
And ate our last Smarties…
This type of flower has drawn my attention almost every day. It’s like a less flamboyant dandelion–the color is lovely.
Uh oh, can’t see the top of Mont Blanc any more! And beginning to feel occasional sprinkles.
This handrail was actually quite useful–the path was very steep and narrow at this point.
We arrived at this scene out of Jurassic Park–monstrously high fences, with a moat and additional electric fencing. We looked it up–a zoo, basically. The only animals we saw wandering around were humans, and everything inside the fence looked exactly like what we could see outside the fence.
The path took us past the statue of Christ-Roi, which Dave had visited by drone two weeks earlier. It failed to impress either time–feels like a very amateurish and ugly creation. I’m probably missing the point.
Then, the rain set in for real. We donned rain gear for the last hour or so. How amazing that this was only the second time on our entire 7 week trek in the UK and the alps when we’ve needed to put on rain jackets!
Mont Blanc completely hidden by clouds and rain for the next several hours, though as I type this in our hotel room at 7pm, the clouds have lifted above the peak again.
Waiting for the train…wistful that the walk is over.
Nice but short train ride back to Chamonix, then late lunch with the rain hammering down.
I’ll add some sort of footnote about dinner later, I imagine! But for now…signing off!
This entry was posted in Tour du Mont Blanc 2018