Tour Du Mont Blanc, 2

Our 2005 TMB continued:

On the third day or so, we took a variant, skipping Les Chapieux, across the Col 
des Fours, and up these slabs to the highest point on the Tour from which you can 
see Mont Blanc

Thus; it's the white one, more distant

And you also can see Monte Cervino, the Matterhorn, 50 miles away; the higher 
white one, left of center

In the refectory at Les Mottets, somehow, one of the refuges people always 
remember

Mainly because of the dormitory, a converted cow barn; coed

Vicki at the Col de la Seigne, one foot in France, the other 
in Italy

In Italy's beautiful Val Veni, the Aiguille du Noire

And our next stop, the Rifugio Elisabetta Soldini, in the Val Veni

In the dining room of the Rifugio Elisabetta, many memories; an instructive 
representation of the little red fox that hangs around the Elisabetta; unfortunately, 
the staff did not tells us about the fox; again, we ate in, but camped out; about

midnight, in the middle of a horrific thunderstorm, the fox attacked, first the stern 
of the tent, and then the bow, ripping a 3 foot tear and starting to haul off our food 
bag before I smacked him away; next morning, the staff said, oh yes, that would  
have been the red fox; my other memory ends with this injunction: whenever 
dining family-style with Germans, take all the food you think you might want the 
first time it is passed; nothing will be coming back

Signage in the Val Veni; the quality of the signage throughout the TMB is fairly good, 
but best in the more populated areas; here we are only a few miles from Courmayeur; 
evidently many hikers pass right through Courmayeur and stay at the next refuge up the 
trail; not us; we had repairs to make, excess baggage to mail back to the campground 
in Chamonix, food and drink to sample, hot showers, and soft beds and other luxuries 
to enjoy

Besides, it was the Feast Day of Santa Pantaleone, patron saint of Courmayeur

View from our balcony at the Penzione Venezia (42 euros back then); underneath the 
terrace is the little hardware store where we bought "American" (duct) tape to repair 
our poor little tent

A Mont Blanc in butter; or Mont-Blanc dans le beurre; or better, 
Monte Bianco nel burro; it was on these days in Courmayeur 
that we acquired our taste for fontina; also polenta; also ham and 
veal smothered in fontina; salted meats...

Back on the trail after our respite in Courmayeur; more signage; and a 2000 foot 
climb ahead

Nearing the Rifugio Bertone, looking back to Courmayeur

To be continued...

Tour Du Mont Blanc, 1

Many of our posts in the last two years have mentioned the Tour du Mont Blanc, which we did in 2005. Indeed, in 2010 and 2011, I re-did several parts of the TMB and blogged accordingly. (See TMB in the label cloud at the bottom of the page). But the pix from our 2005 TMB circuit remained in an SD card stored in Missoula the last several years. I recovered the card last October, and am now pleased to present these "out-takes" from our 2005 experience.

The TMB is one of the world's great Alpine hikes, encircling the Mont Blanc massif, passing through parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland, anywhere between 105 and 120 miles, depending on variants, with some 33,000 to 36,000 feet ascended/descended in the course of its dozen or so passes. Typically, it is done in a counter-clockwise fashion, beginning at Les Houches in the Chamonix Valley, and goes on for 10-11 days, with over-nights in the many refuges or towns along the away, or in one's backpacking tent. In the annual TMB ultra-marathon, some runners do it all in less that 24 hours. Not us.

Vicki had read of the TMB sometime during our several previous visits to the region. Despite training on Black Mountain (our home was on Horseback Ridge) and Blue Montain near Missoula in the spring, we took the better part of three weeks to do the circuit back in 2005, including a false start, sometimes staying in the refuges, sometimes in our little tent, and three nights in a penzione in beautiful Courmayeur. We were in no rush. Our guide was Kev Reynold's The Tour of Mont Blanc; anything by Kev Reynolds or published by Cicerone is simply the best there is. We flew from Missoula initially to Ft. Lauderdale, to see my mother and sister and her family, and then on to Geneva. The bus took us to Chamonix, where we camped at Camping de L'ile des Barrats, got organized, and put excess baggage in storage. And then we were off to Les Houches and onto the TMB.

Despite the usual apprehension about travel and new experience, we had an easy and fine time. (Except for the red fox, which we'll get to later.) The refuges are all connected by phone and will make reservations for you at your next stop very easily. The food and drink are all regional and wonderful, and you are rarely more than a couple miles from good French, Italian, or Swiss fare. Everyone speaks English, or enough English to get by. The best part--the very best part--is all the people you meet on the trail, in the refuges and in the towns. Every European nationality and then a few. It is as good as an international experience can be. We even ran into some Americans on an REI tour on the Italian/Swiss border. And then there is the scenery....

We were three weeks on the trail and in Chamonix and Courmayeur, and, even then, before my current photo-excess, took hundreds of pix. I've culled them down to a mere 60 or so, to be divided into 4 posts. Below, first, is a map of the TMB, from mappery.com.

Click to enlarge; from mappery.com; best I could
find online

Lewis and Clark; wait, no...

Main drag Chamonix, July, 2005; many French-type

personnes

The Aiguille du Midi, from Chamonix; a cable-car goes to the

top of the Aiguille

From Chamonix, looking up toward the summit of Mont Blanc

and the Glacier des Boissons

Me, on our first day, on the route above Les Houches; boldly

setting forth...expecting rain

View of Mont Blanc from near Bionassy

Small French-type personnes learning to climb, near

Contamines

Beyond Contamines, our second day out (after

the false start), on the slabs (placed there by

Hannibal or some Romans or someone else)

We spent our first night in a refuge near Bionassy, and had a

wonderful French dinner; but we camped out our second night,

beyond Contamines, dining on freeze-dried backapacka fare;

in the French national park system camping is allowed only

some distance from structures and settlements, and tents may

be raised only from 7PM to 7AM (in Italy, only above 2000
meters, as I recall; in Switzerland, nowhere, no-how)

Me, two days on the trail now, still smiling...

Vicki napping, same site

Next day, en route to the Col du Bonhomme, some crazy

French bicyclistes; these people, French and Italian, will

bicycle on anything

Vicki at the cairn at Croix de la Col du Bonhomme

The refuge at the Col du Bonhomme; we ate in but camped

out; here, I believe, I had my first-ever vin chaud; probably

also my second-ever vin chaud; it was cold outside

Next day, trail down

And On To Courmayeur

We finished Milan and drove on late in the afternoon, stopping at a little town called Cavaglia, over-nighting in its large mercato parking lot. Alas, we noted upon leaving there was a sign on the outskirts of town that said no camping. Oh well.

Cavaglia is remarkable, totally remarkable, for having a

stone circle next to its civic center; this has got to be recent

and artificial; but no less impressive

Up the road a bit, at Pont St. Martin perhaps, a beautiful old

Roman bridge

And thus we are back at Courmayeur, a favorite Italian town,

at the very foot of Monte Bianco, at our favorite restaurant

there, Le Vieux Pommier, enjoying our favorite totally

decadent Alpine meal, the crepes Mt. Blanc (prosciutto

rolled into crepes, drowning in a soup/sauce of fontina cheese)

Followed by veal topped by prosciutto topped by melted

fontina (frites for Vicki, cheesy polenta for me); the vino

rosso really helps to cut through though all the white stuff;

all followed by a  sort of berry-ish creme brulee thing that I

always forget to shoot

So, this time in Courmayeur, we found the mercato parking

lot, a few hundred meters from the centro, and stayed there

four nights, reading, planning, researching, lazing; I did a

couple of hikes, more or less repeating hikes I have done

before in this area; first, up the Val Veny, toward France,

stopping at the Lac du Miage and its 10k moraine; above,

one of the remnants of the lake, a pot-hole at the lateral of

the giant moraine; I sat there for a while, watching the

continuing trickle of scree into the bottomless pot-hole: a

reminder that this giant thing is alive and moving; I didn't

venture further 

Above now, on the balcony overlooking, some of the Miage

Glacier moraine, Mt. Blanc proper on the right

And, a bit higher on the balcony, working my way back

toward Courmayeur, more of the moraine and the Innominata

Face of Mt. Blanc; don't be deceived: it looks like rock, but

it's all ice underneath, digging out a huge canyon of the future

The Grandes Jorasses, further on the massif; Le Geant on the

left-most

In the distance, from a refuge on the hike, one of Italy's many

great mountains, Gran Paradiso

Another day, another hike, another balcony, up the Val Ferret,

toward Switzerland: looking across at the Grandes Jorasses

glaciers

And, from my favorite Refugio Walter Bonatti,

another look at Monte Bianco

Val du Ferret

On Friday (Thursday was a domestic day, another bus ride into Courmayeur), we drove up the Val du Ferret to piece together the bad-weather day we had in 2005 between Rifugio Bertone and Rifugio Bonatti. This I did on the middle corniche, so to speak, from Arvenin to Bonatti, following a 6200 foot contour mostly, and then back down to the valley. The weather was decent, though a bit hazy.

Monte Bianco and the Aiguilles Noire, from Val du Ferret

Closer up of the summit

Italian side of Grandes Jorasses

And its glaciers

Rifugio Walter Bonatti, the best of all the TMB refuges;

Bonatti was a famous Italian climber

Dining room in the Rifugio Bonatti

Table with a view

Back down in the valley, a trout pond

And, in a clear stream by the path, a fugitive trout

After resting up (Vicki hiked the valley, again favoring her knee), we Tunneled back to Chamonix and our spot at the Aire Grepon.