Courmayeur

Courmayeur is sometimes called the "Italian" Chamonix--in many ways, however, we prefer it. It is more compact, less developed, less touristy. The Chamonix valley on the north side of the massif is broader, longer, the slopes less steep. On the south side of the massif, in Italy, there are two valleys, the Val Veny (west) and the Val du Ferret (east), meeting at Courmayeur. The slopes are much steeper, precipices mostly. And, from the Val du Ferret, Mont Blanc looks like the the monarch it is and not merely the super-sized snow hill one sees from Chamonix. Plus, the cuisine in Courmayeur is fontina cheese-based, which is lovely, if possibly not very good for your health, except in moderation, which is ridiculous. The only draw-back we observed is that the retail shops all take a 4 hour lunch break, noon to 4. Seriously.

After negotiating the one-lane mountain road

of Vicki's worst nightmares, we arrived at the

Campeggio Aiguille Noire, where we stayed

3 nights; the Aiguille Noire is sort of the

Italian Aiguille du Midi, except far more

steep and no cable-car; maybe two miles

from Courmayeur

Our camp-site; 15 euros a night

In Courmayeur, the Penzione Venezia, where

we stayed three nights in 2005; after a week

in refuges and the tent, horribly cold and

windy and wet weather, the incident with

the red fox, we thought the Venezia was

paradise; price for a double has increased

from 42 to 50 euros

I have a favorite liquor store in Courmayeur: it is the one

that sells the wine in bottles with little historical vignettes

--dozens of them--the owner avers there is nothing political

going on here; apparently all the FDRs, Trumans,

Wilsons, et al., have sold out; not to worry, however,

plenty of Mussolini, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Che, and

others remain

I wonder what Churchill would have thought of being

displayed with Lenin and Che

We also have a favorite restaurant in Courmayeur, the

Viele Pommier, which features fontina extravaganzas

View from our table, gazing up at the

massif, the Dent du Geant, and the

Grandes Jorasses

First course, for me, the crepes du Monte Bianco (crepes

in fontina cheese, cream, ham); for Vicki, the canneloni

with wonderful red meat sauce; the second (veal, ham,

fontina; frites) and third (myrtille mousse for Vicki,

lemon gelato for me) courses are not pictured because

we were too far into gluttony for photography

On the Piazza del Monte Bianco in

Courmayeur

Breuil/Monte Cervino

When we did the Tour du Mont Blanc (the 110 mile trek around the massif) in 2005, bad weather on the Italian side and some other circumstances prevented us from seeing some of the most remarkable Alpine sights. So we resolved to fix this by returning to beautiful Courmayeur, camping there for a few days, and piecing together what we had missed in 2005.

Alas, emerging from the Tunnel on the Italian side, we missed the Courmayeur/Val Veny/Val du Ferret signs, and continued along on the autostrada, 30k through more tunnels and bridges until the next exit. By that time we had decided to continue on another score of kilometers or so, well into the Val d'Aosta and through Aosta itself, to the Valtouranche, and up, up, up, to its end, the village of Breuil.

In mountainering history Breuil is as storied as Zermatt. It was from Breuil that the earliest attempts on the Matterhorn were made, including, I think, four of Whymper's seven attempts. Breuil sits at the very foot of Monte Cervino--what the Italians call the Matterhorn--and from the town one can examine the difficulties of the routes and appreciate why the mountain is so seldom climbed from the Italian side. On the Swiss side, one parks at Tasch, rides the train to Zermatt, and then is still some distance from the mountain and its relatively easy Hornli Ridge.

For me, it was a bit of a fulfilling experience. We've been to Zermatt two or three times, even climbed most of the Matterhorn, but I never thought I'd see Monte Cervino.

At the motorhome aire in Breuil

One for Roadtrek

The skateboard track, just below the nearly as famous

Dent d'Herens

And golf

Glacier below Dent d'Herens

Orange cat-fight

View from the beautiful little village of

Breuil, now a ski resort

Looking toward the summit

Driving back to Courmayeur, one of the 70 castles in the

Val d'Aosta

Chamonix Miscellany

I spent two days in Chamonix working on the %$#@ "Shurflo" water pump and macerator--some success on the former, none on the latter--and then another day being sick, all of which enabled us to visit the marche once more, and enjoy yet another poulet roti repast. Then we were off to Italy.

"Ye Ice-falls! ye that from the mountain’s brow

Adown enormous ravines slope amain—

Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,

And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!

Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!"

--Coleridge,

"Hymn upon Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni"

Mssr. Paccard, first to climb Mont Blanc,

always seems surprised to be sitting in a

main square in Chamonix

The repast (second)

And then, Sunday, we're off to Italy through the Tunnel

(to be explained)

Air Show

There's always an airshow going on in Chamonix--if not the skies and mountains, then the helicopters, the parapentes (parasails), or the gliders

French TV covering the Marathon, and us

Up close and personal

Air traffic control and the launch point for parapentes,

Plan Praz

Mornings often see them fill the summer sky

Spiralling down for landings at the athletic

field

A parasail in the Chamonix Aiguilles

Another

And a glider in the Chamonix Aiguilles

Grand Balcon du Nord

And on Tuesday we took the first stage of the Aiguille du Midi telepherique to Plan Aiguille (the second stage goes on up to the Aiguille du Midi, which we have done at least a couple times before), in order to do the Grand Balcon du Nord trail. This trail crosses the area between the Glacier des Bossons and the Mer du Glace, at tree-line, just below the famed Chamonix Aiguille (big pinnacles, hundreds of them). Normally, one takes the telepherique up, hikes the trail to Montenvers, then takes the Montenvers train back down. Alas, rockslides had closed both the train track and the trails down from Montenvers. We wanted to do the hike, so we decided to walk in the direction of Montenvers as far as we wanted, then walk back and take the telepherique back down. Vicki notes that this trail is far better than the Sud, less gravel, etc.

Lady of Pain I adore you...this is how the baguettes get to

the refuges, cafes, restaurants, up high (stepping off the

telepherique)

The upper stage of the telepherique--enlarge

and you'll see a cabin decending from near

the top

Another view

Warning

Alpine donkeys with dreadlocks; seriously; Vicki theorizes

they are intended to protect the donkeys' eyes, like

sunglasses; I believe they are merely another French

fashion-statement

Chamonix below and part of the Aiguille

Rouge

Randonneur Vicki

Beneath some of the Chamonix Aiguille

More warning and signage

The trail down to Chamonix really was closed (not that we

wanted to walk down 4,000 feet)

Vicki stopped at this point, not wanting to over-do her knee

(she's doing well); I carried on to Montenvers and its great

views, this of the Dru, one of Chamonix' many landmarks

And of the Mer du Glace, the Grand Jorasses, and more of

the interior

The whole area is cairn-city, big cairns

But the prize of this hike was grabbing this discarded sign

(with permission) for our sign collection back home

Lac Blanc

Monday I took the same La Flegere telepherique back up the Aiguille Rouge and walked the other way, mainly up, taking the trail to Lac Blanc, a high tarn with celebrated views of the Mont Blanc massif.

It's all in the Aiguille Rouge national park;

they don't even allow tenting here! Other

places around the massif, in France, you

can erect a mountain tent only between

7PM and 7AM; in Italy, only above 7,000

feet; in Switzerland, no place, no how.

Jeez.

Looking across the valley to the Mer du Glace

Lac Blanc was still frozen

But the view was great

Like seals on a rock on the California coast, oui?

Marathon du Mont Blanc

Friday we lazed and reconnoitered, re-acqainting ourselves with the lay of the land, the city, our old campground, the TI, wifi, the bus routes, the trails, etc. Saturday we made our usual visit to the marche, purchasing cheeses, olives, raspberries, potatoes, and the wonderful poulet roti with lots of jus, for our traditional Chamonix repast. After the repast, naps, then more shopping ventures into town. It is touristy, yes, but it is the oldest of all mountain resort towns, still going strong (four seasons), and, well, French touristy is a good thing.

Chamonix is on the north side of the Mont Blanc massif, in a glacial slit trench between Mont Blanc and the lesser but still rugged Aiguille Rouge to the north. It is from the Aiguille Rouge that one gets the best French views of Mont Blanc, and it is from the Aiguille Rouge that most parasail launchings occur. Anyhow, we decided to walk the Balcon Sud, the trail that goes along the Aiguille Rouge from La Flegere to Praz Plan, east to west, three thousand feet above the valley. We knew that we would be sharing the trail with the Marathon du Mont Blanc, its final kilometers before ending at Praz Plan, but we figured that, with a late start, we would not have many runners, certainly not the competitive ones, to contend with. Besides, it would be exciting to watch, and, yes! mountain bicylistes had been banned from the trail for the day. We rode the La Flegere telepherique up the mountain and hit the trail a little after noon. We saw runners throughout our walk, always yielding the right of way to them, offering such encouragement as we could; what an ordeal they had undertaken!

But the nice thing about running a marathon in the French

Alps is that you can always stop at a cafe, have a glass of

wine, maybe an expresso and croissant; but in this terrain,

you also have to carry your hiking poles

And use them; the terrain can be demanding, even the level

parts

But the scenery is good

Very good (the Chamonix Aiguilles)

It is all part of the 110 mile Tour du Mont Blanc, which we

walked back in 2005

Chamonix and Mont Blanc from the Aiguille

Rouge

Another kilometer and a couple hundred meters' climb to

the finish line (we were tired, too, by this time)

Le home stretch, agonizingly up-hill; but supporters lining

the way

The finish line, nicely framing the Mountain; we took the

Praz Plan telepherique back down to town and spent the

rest of the day recovering