Getting to the Tour de Mont Blanc

Our trip to trek the Alps is probably the simplest logistically of any of the treks I’ve taken. It was a stark contrast to traveling to my other treks. No long multi day excursions with long layovers. A relatively quick red eye from Philadelphia to Paris and then a connection to Geneva and we were then just a bus ride away from the start of the trek called the Tour de Mont Blanc (TMB). Sadly, nothing is simple when flying today. The merged our flight with a later one. In the olden days of as early as a year ago we called this having our flight canceled. At least Air France was generous enough to give us an $8 voucher for dinner and rebook our connecting flights.

Still things went relatively smoothly and we were checking into our hostel in Les Houches before 5:30 PM the next day. The small quiet Swiss town was nestled in a series of mountains that we would soon be circumventing. We found our hostel in about five minutes. Cheapest place in town, but not “cheap” when compared to the 3rd world standards I was used to when on treks. The exchange rate will not be kind on this trip. Where in the past the large sums of bills we eagerly received for our U.S. dollars, we now received far less Euros than dollars at the exchange. So after dropping our luggage, we headed out to a supermarket to try to reduce our expenses. We purchased dinner, breakfast and lunch for the next day for both of us for about $25. We are nothing if not frugal shoppers.

We cooked dinner at the hostel and then started the arduous task of sorting our gear, splitting supplies for both treks, and lightening our load. Light of course is relative when you are a tech head like Jennifer, whose has grown an affinity two our new e-book reader. On a serious note, when carrying all of your own stuff and having a ridiculous amount of camera gear and no 6’ tall friend to share the load, decisions become tough. I hate leave my laptop behind, so I took it without the battery. I am guessing that luxury only cost me two plus pounds. We also left the water filter, tent, stoke, pots, etc and will be roughing it through the refugios along the way. This means buying food at each stop, but greatly lightens the load on the back, the chores each day, and of course many euros from our wallet. We did take two emergency meals that can be reconstituted with water. Hopefully, we won’t need them.

This trip is different that the others as my Great Treks companion the “Mighty” Kirk and Chuck my neighbor were left home, but instead my beautiful new wife Jennifer has come along. She is veteran of the trail (thru hiking the Appalachian Trail and the International Appalachian Trail by herself), although not the altitude or massive elevation gains and losses of the Alps. While I used to joke about the “Nepalee Flat,” the many ups and downs along the trail, the Alps are brutal in terms of daily gains and losses in elevation. One day alone we will climb a vertical mile only to give it back the following day. In all we gain and lose almost 31,000 feet without climbing much over 10,000 ft.

The story continues...