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

Mele Kalikimaka!

We're back in Middle California, readjusting, readying ourselves for Xmas. Christmas eve will feature the traditional 3-course fondue, at Rebecca and Jeremy's, and Penelope's. It will be interesting to see what Penelope, today 8 months old, makes of the fondue. Surely she will like the green slime (aka Lime Bavarian). Anyhow, here is our 2011 Xmas letter:

Season's Greetings!

This holiday season finds us in a one bedroom cottage in Menlo Park, California. We are half a mile from daughter Rebecca's and her husband Jeremy's and thirty miles south of San Francisco. For the school year we are watching eight month old grand-daughter Penelope; and having a marvelous time. We now know why grandparents carry brag books (or used to anyway before smart phones) and go on incessantly about grandchildren. They are wondrous and, of course, Penelope is the best of the best. Or maybe that's because it is easy to have a happy baby when you have two adults to watch her all day long with no work responsibilities!

After three years of travel--Asia, the Pacific, Europe and Turkey--we do miss being on the road, traveling to new places, without any daily responsibilities. Hopefully in the years to come, we will be able to find a happy compromise between family and traveling. At this point, in June, we plan to fly back to Amsterdam, where our camper is in storage. From there we will spend the summer in western Europe and, if we stay into the fall, head for the Balkans and then possibly a return to Turkey. Or possibly something else. Stay tuned.

So there is not much news from us really. On December 10, we headed to Kauai to spend a week sharing a condo with Norm and Marie and Bob and Beth, Vicki's sister and brother. We also visited Maui for four days before returning home. In January Vicki is having her left knee replaced, which we hope will allow us to do more trekking in the future.

We have been truly blessed this year. Most of our European travel, from February to June, was in Italy. Rebecca and Jeremy had their first child, Penelope, born on April 23^rd. Daughter Rachel and Will's wedding in Missoula in August was beautiful and a most happy occasion for all of us. They are still living in Washington, DC. Details of everything are on our blog, www.roadeveron.blogspot.com. We occasionally post on Facebook too. Very occasionally. Our email addresses are vsherouse@gmail.com and mark.sherouse@gmail.com.

Hoping that you will have the best of holiday seasons and that we will hear from you; and that if your travels bring you to the Bay area in California this spring, we can see you,

Mark and Vicki

Whirlybirding Molokai

Our visit to Maui ended with an Air Maui helicopter tour of Molokai's great north-east sea cliffs, reputedly the world's highest. Vicki had been wanting to do such a tour since Kauai, and I of course will ride on anything that flies low and slow. Of course there's much more to the story, including a final drive all the way down to Makena/Perouse State Park at the end. But the helicopter ride was pretty incredible, and I'll just let the pix do the narration.

Ascent of Haleakala

Closely watching the completely unreliable weather forecasts, we reserved Monday for our ascent of Maui's big volcano, Haleakala. (I keep trying to tell Vicki that the intersections of alpine and maritime are really bad places for weather forecasts...). But first we visited pretty little Paia and then, after Haiku (no poetry festival), the beautiful Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center.

At the wonderful Visual Arts Center, Vicki

stands by perhaps the largest Norfolk Island

Pine I have yet seen

Fuller view; but now I wonder whether this

is really a Cook Island Pine--both "discovered" 

by Captain Cook--but the latter with a more

curved appearance; anyhow, it's a big one

We are now about half way up the 10023 foot mountain,

with a great view of southwestern Maui, looking toward

Maalea

Two nene, at the Haleakala National Park mountain visitor

center

Silversword plant, endangered, but thriving in this weird

environment

At the summit; the parking lot is at 10000 feet; it was a tough

23 foot slog, but I did it; Vicki joined me later, after a nap

Unfortunately the place was in a complete white-out, high

wind, rain, etc., with nothing to look at but the nearby

observatories

Well, there was the white rainbow like the one I saw on

Mauna Loa a couple years ago; properly called a "fog bow,"
I understand, or "sea dog" if you're a mariner

After an hour or so, it cleared enough to see a bit of the

"crater," actually a severely eroded canyon

And a bit of the lowlands

And some of the summit terrain

And the one thing I really wanted to see, Hawaii's two great

mountains in the distance

We rewarded ourselves with dinner at the Haliimaile General

Store, Vicki the ribs, me, the incredible cocoanut seafood

curry, with cocoanut porter; yum

Maui Sunset

Driving back from Hana, we finally caught our Maui sunset, at the overlook near McGregor Point.

Hana Highway, Part Two

A larger waterfall, near Haleakala National

Park Kipahulu Headquarters

A beautiful banyan in the Park; love those aerial roots

Older Hawaiian archaeological site

Lower pools emptying into the sea

Spider webs shimmering; I now know all the

words to "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Root-covered trail in the Park

Guavas, yum

Mythically-important island off Maui's coast, part of the

Hawaiian creation myth...(ask Vicki)