Thursday, July 25, 2024

This was the stunning view looking south out our hotel window on Thursday morning. That’s Glacier des Bossons, the longest glacier in Europe at 7 km long, creeping slowly down into the valley. The glacier was named for the small village of Les Bossons in the valley below. The sharp peak to the right is Le Gros Bechard (8,471 ft).

The map below shows what we did this day.

On Thursday morning, John, Karen and Ray headed up the Planpraz gondola, while Patty and I caught a quick breakfast of quiche, pastries and fresh-squeezed orange juice at La Paniere, and headed over to the Chamonix Office de Tourisme soon after it opened. There we spoke with a very helpful gentleman who advised us on hikes we might take the next couple of days (He also fixed us up with “Carte D’Hote” (Guest) cards that would give us discounts for transportation and activities around the Chamonix valley.).

From there, we too headed up the Planpraz gondola and met at our first overlook TBD ft over Chamonix.

First thing that morning, John, Karen, and Ray took the Planpraz gondola up to Planpraz (6,558 ft). Patty and I caught some breakfast at TBD, and then went to the Office de Tourisme to get some advice regarding hikes and transportation in the area. Then Patty and I rode the Planpraz gondola up to meet John, Karen, and Ray.

Here are Patty, Karen, Ray, and John.

This was the view from TBD. TBD above and 4.3 miles beyond Patty’s left shoulder is the peak of Aiguille du Midi (12,605 ft), which Patty and I would ride up to on Friday. Far below in the valley, there is the entrance to a tunnel that runs all the way to Italy.

This was the view south as we hiked north. We had to be careful at this point, because there was another path heading higher up the slope that was actually part of the Tour de Mont Blanc.

TBD.

One of many selfies.

Here between us, you can see the path we would be taking.

The crease between the mountains far ahead and to the right is TBD.

This is looking back toward Chamonix below, and Aiguille du Midi far above.

TBS.

There’s Patty, in her element.

The crease on the far mountain rising to the left is the TBS.

TBS.

This is where we first caught sight of our destination. The path on the left was how we would get there.

That is the northern end of Chamonix, TBD ft below.

TBS.

TBD.

This was one of several rockslides that we had to negotiate in the last half of the hike.

Nothing treacherous.

Here are some fellow hikers up ahead.

This shows the slope we just crossed.

TBS.

Oh no! Another rockslide.

This is near the end, looking all the way back to where we started.

I’m sure these stairs were just to make things interesting.

This is the last stretch, heading up to TBD.

4 hours and 10 minutes (At least 30 minutes of that was me stopping to take photos.).

After that hike, I needed to do some carb-loadng.

TBD.

After our snack at the end of our trek, we went for more. Patty and I took the 6-person Index chairlift even higher up the slope, to I’Index (7,856 ft).

Here, we’re getting ready to head back down to Flegere. When we went back down on the chairlift, the wind coming up from the valley made the trip a little cooler. But the views were even more amazing.

TBD.

This is a view looking across the valley.

This is the Mountain Rescue station at TBD.

This is a zoomed in view of the TBS.

This is a closeup of Signal.

This is a closeup looking east across the valley towards Montrevers. You can see TBD.

The last photo from our hike. Where is this?

From the bottom of the chairlift, we took the Flegere gondola down to the north end of Chamonix. But instead of catching a bus or train back to town, we hiked it, walking roughly 2.5 miles along the shaded Promenade de Econtres, which runs along the babbling L’Arve brook. We got back to our hotel in about an hour.