Anne, Lynne, Hennie and I came to Switzerland primarily to do the Haute Route, a hut-to-hut hike from Chamonix to Zermatt. While we did lots of hiking in beautiful places, we did not complete our trip as planned. This is the first of a few belated posts.

22 July – In Transit (from London)

We arrived at the Geneva airport around noon, got Swiss francs from the ATM, and caught a van ride to Chamonix, a beautiful city in the French Alps. We didn’t have reservations and were lucky get seats on two different vans. After checking into our hotel, we explored the town and had dinner at an outside table. Had we had weather ESP, we would’ve written the cable car to the top when we arrived. Rain and thunder started just as we finished our meal.

23 July – Chamonix

We had hoped to take the car able car all the way up to Aiguille du Midi and from there ride the Mont Blanc cable car across the glacier to Italy, but the winds were too high and the top shrouded in clouds, so we got off at the halfway point, Plan du Midi, and hiked to Mer du Glace, stopping at a small alpine lake on the way. Posted for 2.75 hours, it took us about 3.5. It was more cloudy than sunny, but the peaks showed their faces now and then. We had lunch overlooking the glacier, enjoyed a beer near the Montenvers train station, and took the cog train back down to town. We decided not to go in the ice cave, which in hindsight would have been worthwhile.

The cable car to the top was running when we go back down to town, so we paid for an upgrade and hopped aboard. By the time we got up, fog had totally encompassed the peak, and it was cold, so Anne and Hennie headed right back down. Lynne and I were rewarded for our short, chilly wait with brief, but awesome views of Mount Blanc and surrounding peaks. It then took us 1.5 hours to get back to the bottom since it was late afternoon and lots of people were lining up for the last cars down.

We picked up food for breakfast and lunch (our rooms have mini-refrigerators) and had a long, outdoor dinner which we cooked on a grill. We got to bed late that night and fell asleep worried about rain (justifiably).