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 down. The number of miles, kilometers or whatever spent on the flat, or as we called it, on undulating balcony paths, was minimal. That makes it incredibly hard on the legs and knees of a poor sea-level flatlander such as myself. Every single time the road went up (which was usually for a couple of hours at the start of every day) I found myself shot out the back of the group almost immediately. Thankfully most days I could catch up once the road flattened out or went downhill or it would have been a very lonely ten days. 

I’ve been asked to compare the TMB to the Everest Base Camp trek. This is not a comparison I’m willing to make. Even though I’ve jokingly referred to this as the wine, cheese and croissants version of EBC, It really is apples and oranges. The comfort level truly is night and day, but beyond that, it’s not really possible to compare being in one of the most remote regions of the planet, with the European Alps. So I won’t. I will say both experiences were life-enhancing and shaping in different ways, and leave it at that. 

 To those of you who have, thank you for following along, whether with the text, pictures or both. It’s been fun to share this adventure and even more fun to be venturing the world once again. Till the next one!!