Europe Adventure 2007

We have been to many mountain environments yet cannot get enough so we decided to make a short detour via Chamonix in France before heading to Geneva. This may have been influenced by the fact that we have been craving the food a little, in part the ease of using the little French we know and most importantly because we are here anyway so why not.

Chamonix - Vallee Blanche est tres formidable - 18 - 20 July

Regardless of our surrounds, once we arrived in Chamonix we were interested in little else than relaxing by our perfect campsite in the forest, going shopping for muesli, cheese and salmon and most importantly admiring the glaciers which can be seen from every avenue. Day 1 was spent as mentioned above without variation except for an incredibly loud thunder storm to lullaby us to slumber. Today, 20 July we topped our mountain experiences yet again with a magical adventure.

We started our walk from Le Mont in the valley at 1054m aiming our sights at Les Pyramides on the Bosson Glacier at 1890m. This seems like a reasonable stroll up the mountain path for around 2.5 hours, yet the most difficult aspect of the walk was peeling ourselves away from each vantage point as they appeared between the trees.

Climbing higher we were enjoying the sting of exercise after yesterday evenings indulgence of beer, wine and smoked salmon and blue cheese sandwiches (the later prepared out of the back of the car under another spectacular glacial further up the valley). Our destination at Les Pyramids was reached in the good company of a German teacher living in France teaching German (if you catch our drift). Steve spent his final gasps of breath trying to establish what small-talk basics his language skills allowed. In the meantime Camilla had selected the perfect lunch position to have a stunning view of the sheer cracks and crevasses in the glacier.

During our time near the ice stream we were lucky enough to witness the marvel of a car sized hunk of ice breaking from the mass and crashing into the rock below. As if this environment does not present itself as a hostile place, a thunder storm erupted as suddenly as the fall of ice and we found ourselves surrounded by the rolling sounds as we descended through the clouds, sun shower and forest back to the safety of the internet cafe where we now sit. Chamonix has been the sophisticated, beautiful and challenging finale to our alpine experiences on this trip, and what a finale it has been, bravo bravo.

Note: To all readers, we are ecstatic to be featured on the front page of the Travellerspoint website, thanks for your interest in our escapades and kind comments during the trip so far.