Sabbatical - 8/14 - The Tour du Mt. Blanc Begins!
With Thursday's tune up hike in the books, it was time for the main event. On Friday, August 14 my group started the Tour du Mt Blanc. We rose to a gray, gloomy day and took a short van ride to Les Houches. From there we took the ski gondolas to the top of the mountain and started walking.
The nine miles we covered on this first day encompassed virtually every trail type that we'd see on the Tour. We started on dirt trails, which took us past ski slopes that have been used for skiing's World Cup. There were some gravel roads, some paved roads and a bit of grassy meadows. We walked past small farms, through an alpine forest and through a village. Really, this first day had some of everything, except sunshine. It remained gloomy throughout.
Most of the day was downhill from our starting point at the top of the ski resort. We had lunch near a hotel overlooking a valley, and the clouds even cleared enough to see things. The rain held off until the last mile as we walked into the village of Les Contamines. Fortunately, my roommate was the kind of Eagle Scout who makes other Eagle Scouts look unprepared, and had brought line for us to rig a clothesline in the hotel room. We hung up our gear, showered, and had dinner at our hotel, the The Christiana. This dinner (and most of the subsequent ones) were as a group as places that had been reserved in advance by the guides. I don't remember the details of the meal, but I had a truly impressive hot chocolate (or maybe it was the hunger) and a few beers and slept like a rock.
Many of you are probably familiar with the experience of walking for miles on hard surfaces and the foot pain it can cause. I've had friends refer to it as "Museum Feet" because it seems to happen in any extensive art museum. I thought that was bad, but by the end of this day I truly understood what being footsore meant. I don't know if it was my new shoes, or the miles, or the paved roads, or the grade (I live somewhere flat), but my feet were unhappy by the end of the day, to the point where putting weight on my feet was painful. I didn't have any blisters, but I did have a number of hot spots. From here on out every morning would involve me paper taping and bandaging my feet to protect them.
Photos twelve through eighteen in this set are from August 14.
The nine miles we covered on this first day encompassed virtually every trail type that we'd see on the Tour. We started on dirt trails, which took us past ski slopes that have been used for skiing's World Cup. There were some gravel roads, some paved roads and a bit of grassy meadows. We walked past small farms, through an alpine forest and through a village. Really, this first day had some of everything, except sunshine. It remained gloomy throughout.
Most of the day was downhill from our starting point at the top of the ski resort. We had lunch near a hotel overlooking a valley, and the clouds even cleared enough to see things. The rain held off until the last mile as we walked into the village of Les Contamines. Fortunately, my roommate was the kind of Eagle Scout who makes other Eagle Scouts look unprepared, and had brought line for us to rig a clothesline in the hotel room. We hung up our gear, showered, and had dinner at our hotel, the The Christiana. This dinner (and most of the subsequent ones) were as a group as places that had been reserved in advance by the guides. I don't remember the details of the meal, but I had a truly impressive hot chocolate (or maybe it was the hunger) and a few beers and slept like a rock.
Many of you are probably familiar with the experience of walking for miles on hard surfaces and the foot pain it can cause. I've had friends refer to it as "Museum Feet" because it seems to happen in any extensive art museum. I thought that was bad, but by the end of this day I truly understood what being footsore meant. I don't know if it was my new shoes, or the miles, or the paved roads, or the grade (I live somewhere flat), but my feet were unhappy by the end of the day, to the point where putting weight on my feet was painful. I didn't have any blisters, but I did have a number of hot spots. From here on out every morning would involve me paper taping and bandaging my feet to protect them.
Photos twelve through eighteen in this set are from August 14.