Bill Grabert's Tour du Mont Blanc 2024

  What a great hike!  The Tour du Mont Blanc was spectacular. It was hard but I was never concerned that I couldn’t make it. I never got sick or had any physical issues (other than somewhat sore feet) and for the most part had pretty good weather.  I feel very fortunate to be healthy enough to do this.   The Alps seem very different from other mountains I’ve been to in that they are so vertical.  Spires jut up many thousands of feet out of relatively low valleys. And they have glaciers!, at least for now.   Pictures from the 1990’s show the glaciers WAY larger than they are today.  It is very sad how fast they are disappearing.  Inside Mer de Glace glacier  Here are some final actual TMB statistics (just because I like that sort of thing) from my watch recordings. In the 10 days I was hiking: Distance - 106 miles (170 kilometers) Ascent - 35,140 feet (10,710 meters) Steps - 301,608 As all of you know, I have also been encouraging you to suppo...

I finished the Tour du Mont Blanc today with a hike up to Col du Brévent and a descent all the way down to Les Houches where I started on August 29. The ascent was not insignificant at 2,146 feet, but today was all about the descent. It was 5,552 feet!  Much of it was very steep and rocky.  I’ll make one more post on this blog with some last thoughts. Thanks everyone for following along with me! Support Tuleyome Morning walk in Chamonix to catch the cable car  The top of the Planpraz cable car Starting the hike looking up to the high point for the day, Le Brévent Getting closer  I finally saw an Ibex. She was eyeing someone’s jacket on a rock. I think she wanted to take a bite.  Find the trail  Lunch stop  A video of my lunch stop. The start of the big descent  I was delayed many times by blueberries (and raspberries too) The destination, the floor of the Chamonix valley  There were several places with ladders, chain holds, bolted steps, etc....