Leaving the small Swiss village of Trient in the early morning sunshine, I climbed up through the woods as the trail continued to an open meadow with wildflowers. The highest point of the wildflower hill, Col de Balme, (Balme Pass, 2,195m, 7,201 ft) is on the Swiss – French border above Chamonix Valley. My journey along the Tour du Mont Blanc trail 110+ mile (170 km) was approaching the end. I could see, in the distance, the picturesque mountain hut on the pass among the flower field. As I climbed higher, the massive Mont Blanc showed up again after a long absence!
The last part of Tour du Mont Blanc trail was supposed to
have the most spectacular views of Mont Blanc.
The trail climbs up high into the mountains across Chamonix Valley, and
continues parallel to the Mont Blanc Range – the front view of Mont Blanc for
the next few days…
However, it was raining during the night, and it started
raining again when I hiked up the steep trail through the woods. When the trail opened up to the rocky terrain and approached
the famous metal ladder on the vertical cliff, the rain got serious. I had to climb up the sets of slippery metal
ladders in drenching rain with a heavy pack.
If I slipped and fell, I would fall several vertical feet! I was careful climbing up one step at the
time…
Strangely, I felt someone’s eyes on my back! An ibex (a kind of mountain goat that lives in the Alps) was hanging on the cliff at my eye level only several feet away! He was staring at me with his big round eyes! We were looking at each other, eye to eye for a moment. It was a great opportunity to capture him up close… but I was hanging onto the ladder on the cliff, there was no way to take my camera out from the backpack… I snapped a few shots with my point-to-shoot which was in my pocket. So, this image of ibex is not as good quality of my other images, but hey that was the best I could do.
After negotiating the rock walls with some ladders, I came up to the higher rocky trail… It was raining hard all the way to the mountain refuge for the night… and the next 2 days were non-stop rain…This last section of trail was supposed to be the most scenic view of Mont Blanc, and I planned to spend an extra day in order to photograph the front view of Mont Blanc at sunset. However, clouds and fog filled Chamonix Valley, and Mont Blanc hid behind it. I just had to finish my journey in the miserable cold rain…The image above is the last view of Mont Blanc before serious weather moved in…
The Chamonix town below...
Here are the ruins along the trail… Due to bad visibility, I missed a turn and took a wrong trail for 2 miles… an extra 4 miles round trip in the rain wasn’t fun with a heavy pack.
Day 15 of my Tour du Mont Blanc journey, I made
it back to Les Houches, France (South of Chamonix) where I started. I completed an entire 110+ miles (170
km)!
I'll post some more photos from Mont Blanc area on next update. Please check back!
