Day 2: Chamonix-Argentiere-Trient-Col de la Forclaz
Given the long travel day yesterday, we didn't rush right out the door in the morning. We probably didn't get up until about 8, and then we had a leisurely (and super yummy) breakfast. We also went to the grocery store and bakery to get cheese, salami, chocolate, and bread for lunch. This was our lunch of choice throughout the trip. We never bought lunches from the hotels or huts (and others who did, didn't have great things to say about them). We probably set off on our hike around 10 am.
Really sad that I blinked in this shot! The restaurant we ate at the night before is right along the river near the next bridge down. It was such a lovely town! Another reason to do the easy hike on Day 1, is that it would give you time to explore Chamonix a little bit.
These two pictures were pretty much the extent of our time in Chamonix.
We weren't sure how easy it would be to follow the directions in the Kev Reynolds book, but it was really clear what he was talking about once we were actually there in person. The "hike" from Chamonix to Argentiere was pretty much what we expected--a path just off the side of the road. You couldn't see the road, but it was just on the other side of the trees. It was all pretty flat walking through the valley.
We found some pretty nice views though!
At one point, we got over-anxious about taking a right turn up a hill, and we ended up going up the side of the mountain only to have to come back down again...By the time we got to Argentiere, I could already feel blisters forming (I guess that's what happens when you can't decide on a pair of shoes until 2 weeks before the trip.) We stopped to apply moleskin and eat our lunch. I'm kind of sad we didn't look around Argentiere at all. We just passed right through. This was actually the one other place we got a little "lost." We just weren't paying attention, and we missed a turn. We ended up doing a loop and coming back to where we missed the turn. It probably added half a mile or so. We laughed at ourselves when we realized how obvious the instructions in the book were if we had read them more closely.
The hike from Argentiere to the Col de Balme was our first major ascent. It wasn't crazy steep, but as with most of the hikes, it was a very long uphill, followed by a seemingly endless downhill.
About halfway to the Col, there were actually chair lifts running. I was seriously tempted to ride it up as the exhaustion was kind of starting to hit, but I knew Justin is a purist and would never want to ride up a chair lift when we could just walk, so I decided to tough it out.
We made it to the Col de Balme!! Behind me you see France.
Behind Justin you see Switzerland!
We now have something in common with the Von Trapps...we have crossed the Alps into Switzerland!!
We then started the long slog down the mountain. About the time we got to the treeline, it started raining. When we were under the canopy, it wasn't too bad. We did eventually have to put our rain jackets on once we came out of the trees (which kept us dry on the outside, but I'm not going to lie, it was like a sweat locker inside that thing... I was completely soaked from the inside by the time we got to the hotel!). I can't emphasize enough how long the downhill through the forest seemed. I was ready for it to be done about an hour before it actually was. We then walked along the bottom of a valley into Trient. I was incredibly disappointed to realize that the hotel we had booked was the structure that we could see halfway up the next mountain. Anyone planning on combining the first two days should really not plan on staying at the Hotel de La Forclaz. I was totally spent, but we had to trudge up, up, up. There was a point (probably 200 yards from the hotel) where the trail was basically a really big staircase. I totally hit the wall. I sat down on a step and told Justin I couldn't go any further and that I'd just stay there for the night. It was one of those times where I could feel that I literally had no energy left at all, and hence couldn't control my emotions either. Fortunately, Justin had some delicious chocolate handy, and two squares gave me enough energy to make it the rest of the way to the hotel. We arrived around 6 pm, which gave us just enough time to shower before dinner. Justin might have been a little tired, but I could barely walk up and down the stairs! Also, I realized that I really wished I had my flip flops with me instead of my sketchers. My feet were so sore that the last thing I wanted to do was put them into my stretchy elastic Sketchers. (I'd chosen them because I thought it would be too cold for flip flops. I was wrong.) Anyway, we had dinner that night with a couple from Israel who were just finishing up the Tour of Mont Blanc. One of our favorite things about the trip was getting to know people from all over the world. After dinner, I went upstairs, and I'm pretty sure I was asleep by 8 pm. I was totally exhausted!
