Tour du Mont Blanc

Even though I usually plan and book our trips myself, this one definitely needed a tour company to handle the logistics. The trek consists of hiking around Mont Blanc through France, Italy and Switzerland. We planned for 11 days to cover over 110 miles. The company booked the accommodations for each night, and we stayed at some nice hotels and some refugios that were the only options when we got deep into the backcountry. We carried day packs with water, food, rain gear and camera, while a delivery service picked up our luggage bags each morning at the hotel and delivered them to the next hotel we’d be hiking to.

We started in Chamonix by taking a gondola up to the trail, saving 1-2 hrs of grueling hiking with no views -

It was very hot and sunny that day, and I was really suffering by the end. I was actually wondering if we had bitten off more than we could chew. This is indicative of the rocky trail we had for most of the day -

But the views were incredible -

Don’t despair… I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow recounting of each day. I’ll share the best stories and pictures as we went.

We spent the night in Les Houches, which is the historic starting point of the TMB, so of course, I had to get a picture!

We had awakened refreshed and ready to hit the trail bright and early. The views were alreay changing…

… and we saw a different side of Mont Blanc -

We would often hike down into a valley…

… to reach the next town we’d be staying in, and cooling off any way we could :) -

We frequently crossed rivers that were glacial runoffs, and towns often had flower boxes everywhere -

On our third day, Steve had picked up some kind of GI bug, but gamely started out with me, passing Notre Dame de la Gorge…

… and reaching an old Roman bridge…

… over a neat sinuous gorge…

… before he decided that he was just too weak to go on. He walked over 4 miles back to town to call a taxi, to meet me at our next accommodation - a refugio over the mountain. I really wanted to continue hiking because I was feeling strong, and he totally supported that. He gave me half the water he was carrying, and I gave him my heavy camera.

This is about where we split up, so this picture holds a lot of memories for me -

After I climbed up out of the valley, I looked back and could see the town, Les Contamines, we had left that morning -

This was one of the highest passes we were to get over, at 7,416 ft. Another look back over where I had come -

At times I felt like I was barely crawling along, just putting one foot in front of the other, but was actually reassured when I saw lots of young people doing the same. ;-)

The next picture is a panorama after I passed Col du Bonhomme (col = pass), with the col on the right side of the picture and a trail I wasn’t supposed to take snaking along into a valley -

The wildflowers really kept me going…

… with all their bright colors -

Spring Gentian are blue and Bird’s-foot Trefoil are yellow.

It was pretty rocky up top, but the expansive views more than made up for it -

As I descended…

… the valley we’d be staying in slowly came into view -

This part of the story has a happy ending. Steve arrived to the refugio just a few minutes before I did(!) - he after a two hour taxi ride, and I after 7+ hours of hiking about 13 miles (my GPS is wonky and marks me as weaving back and forth, adding mileage that Steve’s doesn’t) with over 4,300 ft of elevation gain. Steve was feeling much better and had been able to get rehydrated, so we both started out the next day in good spirits.

I’ll leave you here, for this post has gone on long enough, and we’ll rejoin our saga later.

Chamonix, France

We spent a couple of days here, getting acclimated to the (slight) altitude and doing some hiking, before we embarked on our big trek of the Tour du Mont Blanc {much more on that later!}

That’s Mont Blanc towering over us.

It was a neat town filled with both tourists and hikers -

On our first full day, we took two gondolas up to a trail heading to Lac Blanc. This was actually a side trail off the TMB, but it would have been on our 11th day of hiking, and added 2-3 hrs to an already full day.

The picture above is looking down on the first gondola station (near the pond), as we started our ~4 mile hike.

Luckily, there weren’t too many areas of the trail like this -

Lac Blanc was really sparkly in the afternoon sun…

… and luckily not too crowded -

The upper lake…

… was a gorgeous aqua -

I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of the stupendous views…

… but this was the best reflection shot I was able to get -

On our way back down, I took this video to share with you what it’s like to approach a rise in the trail and see the view ahead of you unfold -

(as usual, open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end of the email)

We were treated with views of both female ibex…

… and young male ibex -

Ibex are wild mountain goats, with the females having thinner and shorter horns, while the males have thicker, transverse-ridged horns that are longer and can curve quite a ways over their back. {again, more on this later}

That’s Chamonix below the Mont Blanc massif -

The next morning we took an early gondola…

… up to Aiguille du Midi, which is a 12,605 ft mountain next to Mont Blanc.

The contrast of the sharp dark rock with the smooth white snow was mesmerizing to me…

… and I took tons of pictures -

As much of a fan of mountains and flying as I am, I was not about to sign up for climbing up there! I was actually surprised by the number of people hiking and climbing -

I also got a shot of someone just about to summit Mont Blanc -

you definitely need to enlarge this!

No matter how I took pictures of the highest point, it always looked canted (when in reality, it is most decidedly not) -

In case you were wondering, this is what people were doing in that glass box off the side of the building above -

So beautiful!

When I could finally tear myself away from all the stark beauty, we descended to the halfway point of the gondolas, to hike down and over a few miles to another glacier valley.

The wildflowers were out in full force…

… and Chamonix stretched out below us -

We approached our end point…

… and found a glacier valley ringed by sharp ridges…

… and with several waterfalls draining the opposite side -

We reached the refugio where we planned to catch a train back to Chamonix…

… only to be told there was a strike, and the train was not running. Our only option was to hike an additional 3 miles down the mountain, after we had already hiked 4! So… we carried on, grumbling every time we saw the empty train tracks…

… but luckily, most of the trail was shaded (although not nearly this smooth for most of it) -

To end this very long day, Mother Nature gave us a nice parting shot -

Lausanne

This is a city in the western tip of Switzerland, on Lake Geneva. We only spent 2 nights there, but made the most of them. Wandering through old town, we headed to the cathedral…

… where we marveled at the height of this Gothic church built between the 12th and 13th centuries -

There was no great way to photograph the cathedral in its entirety due to it being surrounded by other buildings, but you can see the bell tower at one end and the spire at the other, towering over the city streets -

The Swiss like their public drinking fountains quite ornate -

did you spy the cathedral bell tower in the back, up the hill?

There were some magnificent buildings in this city…

… and this is a hotel on the waterfront -

The Montreux Jazz Festival was occurring the same weekend we were in the area. Instead of visiting that town, we bypassed the crowds (sensing a theme here?) and headed past it to Chateau de Chillon…

The oldest parts were built in 1150, on a strategic island in Lake Geneva. The counts and countesses of Savoy controlled the passageway between the mountains and lake, obtaining tolls from pilgrims, merchants and travelers passing on the road.

The cellar/dungeon…

… was on the lake level -

Some of the Great rooms truly lived up to their name -

The Gothic windows were built around 1270 -

There has been quite a bit of restoration over the years, but I loved seeing all the different levels, and how they interconnected -

We took a cruise boat back to Lausanne…

… and saw some spectacular scenery…

… including vineyards and small towns -

The next picture shows a train passing along the water, and this reminds me to tell you about the impressive public transport systems everywhere in Switzerland. From the Metro, to the buses to the trains, they were almost always punctual (to the minute). Occasionally, the buses would get behind due to traffic, but the trains were great.

See you in the next post…

Zermatt

When we first arrived, it was a cloudy, intermittently rainy afternoon…

view from our hotel

… so we went on a short hike in the surrounding area. Practically every river we saw was raging -

Along the way I found these gorgeous Martagon Lilies (Turk’s Cap) -

We passed through some quaint villages…

… with several abandoned buildings -

We were aiming for the Gorner Gorge -

I loved how close the walls were, and the sinuous curves sculpted by the water -

That evening, the Matterhorn peeked out of the clouds very briefly -

Very nicely, the next day (our only full one in town) dawned clear and cloudless…

… for our train ride…

… up to Gornergrat -

We wandered around up top for awhile…

… marveling at all the glaciers…

… and trying to avoid the crowds as much as possible -

The next is a panorama, so it’ll look best on a full screen -

We spent the next few hours hiking down to a small town where we could pick up the train again, to get down to Zermatt. The views were really stark at first…

… but it was interesting to see various aspects of the Matterhorn as we descended -

The lake you can see at the bottom of the photo above…

… is called Riffelsee, and it gave spectacular reflection shots of the Matterhorn -

As you can see, we were blessed with perfect conditions that day -

It was really hard to tear myself away from that beauty…

… but we had several miles of descent to go…

… and wildflowers to admire -

As we got closer to Zermatt..

… we had still another view and aspect of the Matterhorn revealed -

This interesting juxtaposition made me smile -

The next morning at 0530, it was me and about 100 Asians waiting to capture sunrise on the Matterhorn -

This was literally the second that color appeared…

… and it very quickly brightened…

… and spread -

It was really interesting to see how different the light on the mountain looked by the naked eye, vs my regular camera, vs the cellphone.  The cellphone pics definitely accentuated the Alpenglow.  As you may already know, I use no filters or post-processing on my photos here.  If I catch the photo in natural light, then I share it.  If not, there will be another one next time...hopefully.

I’ll end this post with one last sunrise shot, but pulling back to show the moon joining in -

The Oberland continued

Steve joined me on our next adventure in Mürren, which was to “hike” a Via Ferrata. This is a mountain route along a fixed steel cable and utilizes metal rungs, ladders and suspension bridges. Your gear consists of a helmet, a harness and 2 carabiners attached to a shock-absorbing lanyard -

Steve will demonstrate how you remain safe while being attached to the cable at all times. (video alert - open the post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the email) -

It was less than a mile and a half, but took us and our group of 8 over 3 hours to complete!

The views were literally jaw-dropping…

… along with the descent down the cliff face -

Every time I pulled out my cellphone to snap a shot, I worried that I might drop it, and that made my hands even sweatier! Our nephew who had recommended this to us, told us later that he had bought a special cord to attach his cellphone to him while he was climbing. Thanks for not telling us ahead of time, Josh!

We got to do a zipline…

… climb down a series of ladders (by this point we were really noticing how much of an upper body workout this was!)…

… walk a tightrope…

… and traverse a very long, bouncy suspension bridge -

Did I mention the epic views??

That night there was an Alphorn concert on the patio where we had dinner, and I got a much better video of it this time, as I had promised earlier -

For our last big activity in the area, we took a train to a neighboring valley, and then boarded a cogwheel train to take us up into the highlands to start our 10 mile hike. On the way up, I caught views of misty mountains -

For those who might be interested, we hiked from Schynige-Platte to First. After the first ascent we were overlooking Interlaken…

Thunersee (Lake Thun)

… and the lakes it lies between -

Brienzersee (Lake Brienz)

And the views kept rolling on…

… and the flowers blanketed the slopes -

These next two pictures will give you a sense of the height and scale we enjoyed. This was our first peek at this lake and “pointy” hill (I have no ideas of their names; they were just very cool to see, and quite distinctive) -

As we got closer and climbed higher, the perspective changed -

That photo above was taken near the top of our hike, over 8,500 ft, and the variety of flowers present at that elevation was really neat to see -

enlarge the picture so you can see all the different colors in the tiny flowers

This was our lunch spot on the other side of the pass we crossed, and you can see how the clouds had really come in -

It was a long descent to that lake…

… which gave the clouds time to lift a little, and us to watch some marmots -

The views of the mountains and glaciers hanging over First and Grindelwald were awe-inspiring in their scale…

… and gorgeous in their majesty -

As we left Mürren the next morning by gondola, it was raining, and we caught a peek of some of the myriad waterfalls the valley is known for -

The Bernese Oberland

That title encompasses the central highlands in the Canton of Bern, and includes towns such as Interlaken, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, and where we stayed - Mürren. The scenery was spectacular! On the train ride in, we passed this gorgeous lake…

… before entering the Lauterbrunnen valley (known for its 72 waterfalls) -

You can’t see it in the picture above, but Mürren is perched on the edge of the cliff deep in the valley on the right side.

This was the view from our hotel balcony, looking onto the Eiger and Munch mountains -

We arrived in the early afternoon, with plenty of time to make my 3 pm appointment to fly!

Yes, I went paragliding again (the first time was in Columbia in 2022, and was a relatively short flight). I had booked an afternoon time slot to help ensure that I could get a “double time” flight with the rising thermals that occur. Steve was my photographer for the takeoff. This is a video, so the usual comment applies - open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end of the email -

My pilot took lots of stills while we were flying…

… and that one above was my favorite because of the enormous waterfall we flew over. The next shot shows how high over the valley we were before we descended -

did you notice who had the “controls” ?

Steve captured the descent and landing well, but you’ll have to forgive some of the issues in the middle. He was using my Nikon to film, and he doesn’t have all the hours with it that I have. :)

For those of you with weak stomachs, I won’t share the video we took while we were looping. It felt like riding a roller coaster that did 360 degree loops. Super fun!

The next day we did a “short” 4 mile hike near town and enjoyed fabulous weather…

… and views…

… and met some local friends -

And that evening, we got to see a family of wild goat-antelopes called Chamois -

be sure and enlarge the picture to see the beautiful facial markings

Mürren is a beautiful little town filled with flowers…

… and blessed with drop-dead backgrounds -

We were treated to a beautiful post-sunset sky as we enjoyed our al fresco dinner. Stay tuned for more adventures from the highlands!

Lucerne/Luzern

With the benefit of hindsight, we realized how spoiled we’d been with the peace and noncrowded conditions in Scuol, when we hit Lucerne. We’re in the middle of the high season, and the crowds everywhere reminded us of that.

The Chapel Bridge was built in 1333 over the Reuss river, near its origin from Lake Lucerne…

… and it’s the oldest covered bridge still existing in Europe.

We wandered a little through the old town…

… and filled our water bottles from a continuously running fountain -

We also took a cruise on Lake Lucerne, checking out the water front…

… ogling the places we didn’t stay…

… enjoying the scenery…

… and watching all those cooling off in the lake, avoiding the 90 degree heat.

All manner of watercraft were out…

… including cruise boats -

Ours was just a little smaller ;-) -

This looked like a fun apparatus for the young people -

Interesting architecture abounds…

… and boat houses are quite substantial -

The next day, we took a cogwheel train (the steepest in the world, with a maximum gradient of 48% !) to the top of Mt. Pilatus -

At the top of this 7,000 ft mountain towering over Lucerne, we were treated to awesome views of Lake Lucerne and the surrounding mountains. This is a video, so be sure and open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the end of the email.

We went for a long walk around the mountain side…

… checking out the wildflowers, like this Round-headed Rampion (aka Rapunzel Flower)…

… and when we returned, an Alphorn concert was going on!

The video I shot was just so-so, but I grabbed that shot of the instrumentalist, so you could see the horn and its immense size. In a later post, I’ll share a video of an impromptu concert we had during dinner one night.

(Just a note regarding future posts from this trip. They may be posted quite far apart, as we have just started our 11 day hiking adventure of the Tour Du Mont Blanc, and I expect to be wiped out most evenings, with little energy left for blogging. We’ll just have to see…)

I’ll close this post with an artsy shot looking back at the incline near the top, and the hotel there.

Scuol, Switzerland

We started our two week exploration of this beautiful (expensive) country in the SE corner where Romansh is the official and primary language, followed by German. This town came to my attention because of the sgraffiti used on the architecture -

This is a decorative technique that scratches through a coating on a hard surface to reveal an underlying layer of another color -

Just about every building in town had this…

… and almost every home had a rounded entryway -

There was a church on a hill that was very picturesque, but quite bothersome to me. It chimed the quarter hour all night and day [and we needed to have our windows open for breezes during the heat wave].

We did a little day trip to a nearby town, Tarasp, to tour a medieval castle built in 1040 -

The interior was neat (we couldn’t take pictures) but the views from the top were awesome -

Back in Scuol (pronounced “shkool”), we wandered around in the evening admiring the light of the “golden hour”…

… and I decided the siting of the church was pretty great, even if it was noisy. :)