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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 8: Champex Lac to Trient
Distance: 10 miles (16KM) Ascent: 2,571 feet (784 meters) Descent: 3,287 (1002 meters) Highest Point: 6,505 feet (1,982 meters) Trekking through the misty mountains. And rosti. That’s all. Lol. OK, maybe not all, but definitely the highlights for today. Leaving our charming little hotel in Champex Lac this morning things looked anything but rosy. It had been raining for hours and we delayed our departure till 9am in the hopes the rain would end. When it didn’t we resigned ourselves to the inevitable and geared up with our waterproof jackets, pants and backpack covers. Wouldn’t you know it. That did the trick. Murpny’s Law right? Within a few minutes of…
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TMB Day 7: La Fouly to Champex Lac
Distance: 9.32 miles (15km) Ascent: 1,627 feet (496m) Descent: 1,995 feet (608m) Highest point: 5,281 feet (1,610m) What a lovely day. Probably the easiest, and shortest day on the trek, today was one that can in some ways be considered transitional, but also just a day where unlike most, we had the opportunity to walk through what can only be characterized as quintessentially Swiss alpine villages. Beautiful chalets, hundreds-year old barn houses just waiting to be renovated. I kept thinking these would make an excellent episode of HGTV’s Fixer Upper! There were raspberry patches and adorable chicken coops. I also made a new friend…or two…of the feline kind. And I’m…
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TMB Day 6: Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly
Distance: 13.06 miles (21km) Ascent: 3,020 feet Descent: 4,403 feet Highest Point: 8,457 feet Today we left our idyllic Italian mountain refuge behind, and crossed into Switzerland. Clocking in at 13 miles, it was the longest day of our trek so far. First, it was down the splendidly beautiful Val Ferret and then up the aptly named Col Ferret. At the top was the “border.” The crossing, as ever, was very official: a pile of rocks with the letter “I” on one side of the rock and an “S” on the other. I did pull out my passport and showed it to the rock just in case 😉 It was…
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Geneva, I’m in Love
WHAT-A-CITY. Beautiful, vibrant, international, and in a perfectly-sized package. Geneva is that and so much more. Where to begin? I guess you can put it this way. Luzern is that picture perfect town you go to visit for a day. Geneva is where you live. Yes, I have a French bias. I’m not going to lie. Understanding what’s going on around me, and being able to communicate again has definitely been a plus. But beyond that. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. From the moment I exited the train station I knew this was my kind of town. Extremely multi-cultural and diverse. It would be easy…
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24 Hours in Luzern
First impressions. This is exactly what I imagined a traditional Swiss city to be. When a conection change forced me to switch my arrival city from Genève to Zurich, my first question was, should I stay in Zurich for the night before moving on? I’m glad I didn’t. A direct train from the airport and an hour later I set foot in one of the most picturesque cities you could ever want to see. The best part was as I was arriving I could see the front entrance of my hotel from the train. Perfect. Exactly what I wanted for a quick layover here. Nice and easy entrance and exit.…
