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Camino a Santiago Day 0: Arriving in St. Jean Pied de Port
I’m not going to lie. I’ve been so focused on the fact that I’m sitting on a fully booked flight, that for a minute there I lost sight of the big picture. Until I didn’t. My Camino a Santiago had already begun. As we took off from O’Hare, on a non-stop flight to Paris, I opened the window for a moment and then it dawned on me. I’m leaving the U.S for the longest consecutive period of time since I first moved here 22 years ago. Wow. Pre-Camino a Santiago jitters No matter what happens, the next six weeks are going to be as much an exercise in managing that as…
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TMB Day 10: Argentière to Chamonix
Distance: 7.74 miles (12.5km) Ascent: 3,554 feet (1,083m) Descent: 1,023 feet (311m) Highest Point: 6803 feet (2,073m) It is done. The Tour of Mont Blanc is complete. One hundred miles (160KM) over ten days in some of the most beautiful terrain on Planet Earth is done and dusted. To say I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment is an understatement. I’m not going to lie. This was much harder than I imagined. Setting aside the couple of times today I legitimately thought I might kill myself, next time someone remind me to convert meters to feet when looking at elevation gain!! Seriously though. The TMB is always going either up or…
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TMB Day 9: Trient to Argentière
Distance: 10 miles (16KM) Asent: 3254 feet (992m) Descent: 3298 feet (1000m) Highest point: 7,245 feet (2,211m) One last border crossing. Coffee in Switzerland. A glorious lunch in France. Mont Blanc beconing us once more. Such are the days along the TMB. One day to go till we come full circle. We are now in Argentiere just miles from our final destination of Chamonix. It’s been tough. My feet are nearly done. My calves even more so. And yet, the days have been glorious. Perfect weather. But will it last? Tomorrow there is a threat of thunderstorms, so we will start early in the hopes of not getting caught up…
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TMB Day 4: Chapieux to Courmayeur
Distance: 8.53 miles (13.72km) Ascent: 2,534 feet (772m) Descent: 2,704 feet (824m) Highest elevation: 8,234 feet (2,509m) Leaving France behind, crossing the border into Italy and peach pie. This is pretty much all I remember. OK. Not quite. I’m writing this five days later, which makes it easier to block out the tough bits, and remember just the good parts, which usually is how it happens. In reality this was one of our easier days. The beginning and end felt like we were cheating as there were bus rides involved. The first was necessitated by a change in the refuge normally used by our travel operator (which as a result…
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TMB Day 3: Les Contamines to Chapieux
Distance: 12.17 miles Elevation Gain: 4,291 ft Elevation loss: 3,080 ft Max Elevation: 8,169 ft Calories Burned: 1,735 Epic. Legendary. Mind-boggling. These are all superlatives we tend to overuse these days. It’s unfortunate because they tend to lose their meaning. Today was one of those days that defies description. On paper it looked like a very difficult day. And it was. On the menu were the climbs of Col de Bonhomme and Col de la Croix de Bonhomme. But it was a manageable sort of difficult, without the super steep gradients of days one and two. And honestly we were stopping for so many Kodak moments, we didn’t lack for…
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TMB Day 2: Les Houches to Contamines
Distance: 11 miles Ascent: 2,000 ft Descent: 3600 ft Calories burned: 1700 It’s nearly 10pm on Day 2 and I’m not going to lie. This will be a short entry. I’m exhausted. Every fiber in my body is begging for sleep. It’s been yet another beautiful day. So different from yesterday. We started once again with a cable car ride. This time from the Village of Les Houches to the trailhead. For many people this is Day 1 of the TMB, which honestly I don’t understand. Yesterday being as utterly mind-boggling as it was, why would you cut it off? Today was gorgeous, but in a different way. A lot…
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TMB Day 1: Chamonix to Les Houches
Distance: 7 miles Elevation gain: 2,675 feet Elevation loss: 5,900 feet Calories burned: 2,300 What a day. There is so much I want to say. Not sure how far I’ll get, because frankly I’m dead. Didn’t train much, if at all for this, which, well, I may pay for in future days. I didn’t speak of this trip much beforehand, because, unlike the Everest Marathon where I had more than a year to look forward to it and plan, I honestly didn’t really believe this would happen until I actually set foot on the plane. Probably explains the lack of motivation to train too. Let’s just chalk it up to…
