The Tour du Mont Blanc

Day 1: We Have No Business Attempting the Tour du Mont Blanc - Chamonix to Les Contamines

The Tour du Mont Blanc is a 103-mile trek with an overall 35,000 feet of ascent. For scale, it’s 12,000 feet from basecamp to the summit of Everest. So we’ll be walking from base camp to the summit of Everest almost three times. That thought makes me want to vomit. At least there will be plenty of oxygen on the TMB as opposed to Everest. And the weather should be slightly better. But still… What have we gotten ourselves into? I’m weak and old. I didn’t train enough. I should not be attempting this. I am dumb.

After a 26-hour journey from Asheville, NC to Chamonix, France, we settled in at the Hotel Heliopic and gave thanks that we’d brought our backpacks and most of our gear as carry-on. The luggage was lost by the airline (of course), but luckily the only thing of importance in the suitcases was our hiking sticks. We replaced those at a little shop a block from the hotel. The Heliopic was fancier than we expected it would be. We lucked out with a private apartment that featured a wooden hot tub on the deck with a great view of the mountains. We thought seriously about hanging out there for ten days instead of hiking.

Chamonix is a great little tourist ski village. The architecture and vibe were fantastic. We enjoyed a great pizza and steak frites dinner at Brasserie du Mont Blanc. After trying for years, Malena (our 19-year-old daughter) convinced us to become vegan about three years ago. Her arguments were airtight and we finally relented. My wife Jennifer and our oldest daughter Marcella made it a few months but then gave it up. I’ve had some cholesterol issues for years and after seeing my first vegan-induced lab tests - I decided to keep it up. My numbers had gotten dramatically better. Eating plants in return for a few more days of life seems like a reasonable transaction. That was three years ago and Malena and I are still going strong as vegans. My current rule is to throw that all away when I’m on a trip where I happily become an enthusiastic face eater. Malena decided to shift to a vegetarian diet for the TMB. This was the first time she’d eaten cheese in years. She enjoyed the hell out of it. So did I.

Vegan smeegan

The next morning we grabbed some cheese, bread, and coffee for breakfast. Since our luggage was who knows where we had to stuff everything we were leaving at the hotel in plastic bags. We walked down to the bus stop and immediately got on the wrong bus heading the wrong way. For those of you who followed my Trans America journey, this will make complete sense. I started that trip going in the wrong direction as well. Let’s call it a tradition. After realizing our (my) mistake we hopped out, waited twenty minutes for what we hoped was the right bus, and finally made it to the cable car in Les Houches.

It was a foggy ride up, but the scenery was already drawing back its fist which would get around to punching us in the face later in the day.

We hopped off the cable car, adjusted our packs, and took the first steps of the TMB. We were all excited and nervous. We were welcomed by a very nice hike through the forest, along steep inclines and rocky paths. And then the TMB decided it was time to let us know who was boss. The first long difficult climb up to Col de Tricot made it clear what we were in for. I should have trained more! There was fog at the top, so we couldn’t see the amazing view we were sure was there.

The trail down was a steep series of long switchbacks. As we descended the fog lifted and the view revealed itself giving us a glimpse of the little village of  Miage below. Knowing there was a cup of coffee on the horizon lifted everyone’s spirits.

We sat down and our waiter was Coach Beard from the show Ted Lasso. I wish I’d gotten his photo. In addition to being an avid reader and a man of culture, Coach Beard is also a friendly and excellent wait person. We had a glorious spread featuring a sandwich, omelet, and coffee.

We came from there

We talked about the difficulty of the morning’s climb. It’s not that we’d underestimated how difficult this hike would be. We’d had fear in our hearts for months, especially after doing several training hikes that were similar in elevation and length. But until you start, there’s no way to know what to expect.

After Miage we endured a fairly relentless uphill climb to Auberge Le Truc. If I were doing it again, I might have held off to do lunch and rest here. Miage was nestled in a gorgeous valley below a glacier with massive waterfalls, but the view from Auberge Le Truc was amazing.

The descent down into Les Contamines began on a wide gently sloping forest road that spit us onto a narrow trail through the forest, and then back out onto another forest road into the village. The downhill was starting to do a number on Jennifer’s knees, so we found another pharmacy and another knee brace.

We made it to the Gite Les Pontets refuge and enjoyed some snacks and a beer and played some cards before dinner. When I asked the girls what their favorite parts of the day were, the word “stopped” came up quite a bit. They liked stopping for a snack in Miage. They liked stopping to rest. They especially liked stopping at the end of the day.

This was our first introduction to dormitory lodging on the TMB. The showers were good (although not everyone had hot water for theirs (sorry Malena) and we had a room with four bunk beds. Our roommate was an older French gentleman who seemed to be quite proud of both his physique and his impossibly tiny pair of bikini underwear which we were given every opportunity to study in detail. We don’t speak French and he didn’t speak English, so we exchanged smiles and gave his underwear a thumbs up which seemed to make him happy. Dinner and an early bedtime ended our first day.