It was that time for an overseas trip that was long in the planning and short on the execution. Some of us had eighteen hour connecting flights and others shorter due to their proximity to the destination.

Transit

Collectively we all met up in the Swiss city of Geneva that started off as an Roman settlement and bused ourselves to one of the oldest ski resorts in France.

France

Watching waterfalls cascading down the alpine landscape on our roughly one hour bus ride.

Hotel Sweet Hotel

The bus dropped us off at a stop in town and we dragged our suitcases down the cobblestone and asphalt roads to our pink hotel that started off as an 18th century mill. We checked in and were greeted with “Put your luggage in the dining room” and “Use the bathroom up the street.” What happened to bonjour? Ahh yes, the famous hospitality of the French that I’ve heard so much about.

Chamonix

We left the gracious hospitality and decided to explore the town. Everybody was accounted for with the exception of Robin who would be joining us later.

Casino de Chamonix

The gambling establishment in the middle of town started off as the Royal Hotel built in 1848, and hosted Napoleon III in 1860 as he was touring the territory that was just annexed from the Kingdom of Sardinia. We looked around but didn’t drop any euros as we had already spent enough on the trip.

McDonald’s

“You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Chamonix?
“They don’t call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?”
“No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn’t know what the putain a Quarter Pounder is.”
“What’d they call it?”
“Royal Deluxe.”
*Conversation updated as it’s somewhat dated, over 30 years old.

Chamonix

Dessert before lunch?

Chamonix

Bonjour, j’ai besoin d’aller aux toilettes. Go up the street.

Rose du Pont

We had lunch at the restaurant next to the Arve river that was being fed by the melting glaciers and experienced another dose of that famous French hospitality.

Chamonix

A day late and a euro short and you’re going the wrong way. Tom Evans was the finisher of the 174 km (108 miles) Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc race in 19 hours 18 minutes and 58 seconds. We also met one of the finishers who took 45 hours and change to complete the grueling trek, he said he was hallucinating at some parts of the race.

Paroisse Saint Bernard du Mont-Blanc

We visited the Catholic Church dedicated to Saint Bernard, the patron saint of the Alps.

Chamonix

Groot wasn’t here to mark his territory, so Chico did it for him.

Chamonix

We sampled the local gelato at Chamon’ice as our first choice had too many non-flying winged insects and that famous French hospitality.

Chamonix

Life imitating art. Chico and Ferlino mimicking the poses of Jacques Balmat and Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Balmat was the first person to climb Mont Blanc in 1786 and Saussure financed the expedition.

Chamonix

It’s not the Pont des Arts, but the splash of colorful flowers more than made up for it. We all soon retired to our respective hotels where some of us slept through the rainy night, others had seafood and burgers for dinner. No Deluxe Royal? Sacre bleu!

Tuesday September 2, 2025

Hotel Vallee Blanche

Our second day in France where we woke up and ate what was seemingly the standard breakfast fare in Europe – bread, cheese and cured meat. A far cry from Portugese sausage, eggs and rice.

Hotel Lyret

The group met up at the hotel that was more pleasing to the nasal passages, where Aida and Robin were engaged in the game that can trace its origins to India.

Chemin de fer du Montenvers

We took a short walk to the nearby rack railway line to visit the valley glacier. While we waited for the train, we checked out the impressive nearby vegetable garden.

Chemin de fer du Montenvers

All aboard the cog train ride that took roughly 20 minutes and gained over 1,000 meters in elevation to the Montenvers station.

Mer De Glace

Group photo nearby the Montenvers Refuge that was built in 1880 for mountaineers and visitors to explore the Alps.

Mer De Glace

Overlooking the sea of ice, which is the second largest glacier in the Alps.

Mer De Glace

We took the gondola down to the lift stop and descended down the 580 or 170 steps to the ice cave.

Grotte De Glace

Chico tasting the ancient ice, which some of the sections date back to over 12,000 years. No chlorination here.

Grotte De Glace

Aida preferred a more hands on approach to the ancient ice.

Grotte De Glace

This is a larger than life ice statue of the Le Tardigrade which are .5mm long eight-legged micro-animals known colloquially as water bears, moss piglets and slow walkers. They inhabit mountains, oceans, rainforests and glacier ice. Who made the right choice now?

Grotte De Glace

Walking around the artificial ice cave that was first dug out of the Lower Grindelwald Glacier in 1862 to attract tourists to the area. A decade later, it was moved to the Bossons Glacier. From 1946, the ice cave has been annually dug out in its current location.

Grotte De Glace

Group photo in one of the smaller rooms in the cave.

Grotte De Glace

If this is an ice bar, where are the alcoholic drinks? Tell me, they at least have bottles of Coca-Cola!

Mer De Glace

Walking up the ever expanding steps to the gondola that would take us back to our red train. The glacier has lost over 520 feet depth in the last 35 years due to climate change that will drastically affect the ecosystem if continued unchecked.

Mer De Glace

Riding our way back down to the town of Chamonix.

Chamonix

We wandered around the town square, armed with two recommendations from the hotel, on where to eat lunch.

Chamonix

Both were closed, what luck. So we settled on Satsuki, Japanese food for lunch. It’s not like we can get this at home. Sorry sir, enfant menu is for children only. Biologically and not mentally.

Chamonix

Walking around the town square with snow capped mountains in the background.

Chamonix

The group eating Italian gelato, the frozen dessert is different from ice cream in that it has less air and fat which makes it denser and smoother.

Cascade du Dard Trail

Deborah suggested a quick hike to a nearby waterfall to end the day.

Cascade du Dard Trail

Walking next to the river called Torrent des Favrands, known as the Tissourds.

Cascade du Dard Trail

The group crossing over a small footbridge.

Cascade du Dard Trail

Walking alongside European Route E25 that stretches from Holland to Italy.

Cascade du Dard Trail

The group making their way down to another bridge crossing after a short and stiff climb through the forest.

Cascade du Dard Trail

Making our way down to the waterfall fed by the Torrent du Dard.

Cascade du Dard

Solo shots with the picturesque 20-30′ meter high waterfall.

Cascade du Dard

Group photo in front of the largest waterfall in the Chamonix valley.

Buvette de la Cascade de Dard

Nobody grabbing an iced coffee on the way out?

Cascade du Dard Trail

Ferlino balancing on the bridge and failing to have three points of contact. Somebody call Inspection du travail.

La Caleche

We made it back to the hotel with ten minutes to spare for our six o’clock meeting with our guide, Sylvia Frappier. The theme of the meeting was “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” She gave us sleeping bag liners and towels after the company told us we had to bring them ourselves. The biggest issue was that they would provide the hiking poles. Non. In the end, she found us rental poles and somebody got their Black Diamond poles that they had been wishing for. We met later for a paid dinner at the restaurant specializing in alpine cuisine and retired to our rooms to start our TMB trek tomorrow.

Photos taken by Aida Gordon, Chico Cantu, Deborah Tom, Ferlino Carinio, Mari Saito, Patrick Tom, Robin Farr, Roger Schiffman, and yours truly. Not necessarily in order.

Note: I have been made aware that some hikers have been using my blog as a hiking guide and getting lost on the trails. Please note that this blog was made to document the hike for the crew(s) that did it. That is why some of my comments will seem to have no relevance or meaning to anybody outside of the crew(s) that hiked that trail. My blog was never meant as a hiking guide, so please do not treat it as such. If you find inspiration and entertainment from these hikes, that is more than enough. If you plan on replicating these hikes, do so in the knowledge that you should do your own research accordingly as trail conditions, access, legalities and so forth are constantly in flux. What was current today is most likely yesterdays news. Please be prepared to accept any risks and responsibilities on your own as you should know your own limitations, experience and abilities before you even set foot on a trail, as even the “simplest” or “easiest” of trails can present potential pitfalls for even the most “experienced” hikers. One should also always let somebody know of your hiking plans in case something doesn’t go as planned, better safe than sorry.