Internet has been so slow and/or non-existent that until today (Wed Aug 1st) I hadn’t even managed to upload all my photos from my phone to Google Photos, let alone then edit them, download them, and upload again to WordPress for including in blog posts. Even today, in the relatively large town of Courmayeur, the hotel wifi is very slow. We only finally found decent wifi–unexpectedly–by going up the SkyWay Mont Blanc, which had 3mbps uploads, so all the photos finally uploaded (though only to Google Photos, not to the blog.)
So now, I’m looking back to Sunday July 29th and trying to remember what on earth we did! Luckily, I have photos to remind me. First, though, here’s a photo of me blogging in the bar of the hotel in Courmayeur after getting back from the SkyWay. It feels like internet is slightly faster than in the room, though that could be all in my head!
The basics: I walked 9.86 miles and Dave walked about 2 miles further because he didn’t cheat and take the telepherique.on the high route from Les Houches to Les Contamines. Spectacular views throughout the day.
The details: I decided that the only way I could do 12 miles on day 1 would be to miss the 3 mile climb out of the village, especially given that we decided to take the high route given the blue skies and promise of unforgettable views on a clear day. (Turns out, there’s some family history here that I’d forgotten. Mum reminded me that when we took a family holiday in Argentiere, even my hyperfit, unwilling-to-spend-money-on-luxuries father found the initial climb out of a similar glacial valley to be unrewarding and chose to take gondolas etc for that rest of that trip.)
So this is the 8 miles I walked from the top of the telepherique to Les Contamines. Doesn’t look that impressive, but in fact each of those ups and downs was really hard.
We had breakfast at 7:15am (reasonable selection, including eggs which was a relief since they’d only promised a continental breakfast.) Then I walked with Dave to the bottom of the lift, a mile from the hotel. We figured out how we’d try to meet up at the top at about 10:30am, though I felt great skepticism over whether it would work and was resigned to a day of solo walking.
Dave headed up the trail, and I headed back to the hotel for a nice pause–solitude is a little oasis on an extended vacation!
Dave’s progress on Google Maps suggested he’d be at the top earlier than 10:30am, so at about 9:15, I headed back to the telepherique. Funny that my plan to avoid too much walking today had me doing 2 miles more than I really needed to do. The views made it worthwhile…
Quite a line to get on the next gondola, luckily, because I realized I’d left my hat at the ticket counter. So I peeled out of the line to retrieve it, losing my spot in the process, and missing the next gondola. The one after that seemed (somehow!) to arrive faster, so it wasn’t too bad.
I got to the top just a little after Dave, who spent the extra time looking around with the drone. I was a bit worried about the possibility of colliding with a paraglider or various wires and cables. But he landed it without incident.
A view of the top station of the telepherique:
And a first staggering clear view of Mont Blanc…
We had a coffee at the little mountain cafe and then headed off on the high route, crossing a rack-and-pinion railway line that I think is the Mont Blanc Tram currently out of service.
Signage on the path is quite good, though because of the many variants of the TMB, it can seem a bit overwhelming! Guess which way we went?!?
Some more signicant scrambling up and down again led to a rope bridge across a torrent.
Then on to even more astonishing views of Mont Blanc, across alpine meadows with ever more amazing displays of wildflowers.
Wild azalea as we headed ever higher…
My handsome hiking companion 🙂
Up, up, up toward the Col de Tricot. Our first snow field–a very minor and easily-avoided one. But we stood on it anyway.
At the Col itself, we rested. I took my sweat-soaked shirt off to try to dry it in the breezy sunshine. Worked well enough to not feel drenched by the time I put it back on again.
As a side note: I am getting quite a lot of entertainment from my nails because the gel polish 
changes color depending on temperature. The air temperature in the morning is low enough that they are dark pink when we first set out. After hiking 4000ft up, my body temperature is much higher but the air temperature still cool, resulting in dark pink nail tips and light pink otherwise. I’m like a walking thermometer!!!
Here’s the view down the other side of the saddle…the tiny cluster of buildings in the bottom middle of the photo is the refuge we are heading for.
It was an extraordinarily steep and knee-straining descent to Refuge de Miage. As usual it’s impossible to really capture steepness in photos!
At the refuge, very welcome ice cream, coffee, and sparkling water.
After a quick trip to the loo (French loo technology hasn’t changed from hole-in-the-ground at places like this, though as I’ve learned more about the benefits of squatting, I’m much less judgmental than I used to be!) I almost took a photo of the loo, but decided that was too tacky. So took a photo of Mont Blanc instead 🙂
Here’s a look back at the descent from the Col de Tricot.
And a close up, in a desperate attempt to depict the steepness!
Up and over another hill via the Auberge du Truc (we didn’t pause…couldn’t quite justify another snack so soon!)
Then some slightly tedious dirt road switchbacks before we branched off down a steep wooded trail toward Les Contamines–still a couple of miles or more to and through the town. As ever on these hikes, it’s this last couple of miles that does me in!
We arrived at Hotel La Chemenaz feeling sweaty and exhausted, hoping to collapse into our room. But first we were instructed to go back outside to retrieve our luggage from the baggage room around the side of the building, then leave it in the lobby while we went down to the boot room to shed our hiking footgear and poles, before coming back up and being checked in. Nice room once we were finally in it though!
Well deserved re-hydration…
At yesterday’s dinner in Les Houches, I really didn’t like that we were restricted to about half the menu because dinner was included. There was no option to pay more, and little apparent logic for what was excluded (Steak? OK! Spaghetti Bolognese? No!) But today I gained new appreciation, because here in Les Contamines, we had only one choice–a merely OK ravioli. I’d much prefer to not have dinner included in the price and instead have access to the full menu. These are the faces I make when faced with food that my picky self is not thrilled with 🙂
On a more lighthearted note, Dave’s company is ClockTree so it was fun to see ClockBike here 🙂
This entry was posted in Tour du Mont Blanc 2018