Experience The Adventure

The famous glamorous Chamonix. I showed up for 2 days, after being there for one day, I booked two more, the day after I booked one more, then two more, then one more….

Relaxing. Mountain biking. Hiking. Hanggliding.

Eight days later, I though I’d better get the heck out of there. Its like Jasper, except much smaller. It’s also in a small valley, with a lot of little towns connected by a small road, but mainly through a tiny little passenger train that runs through the valley.

Le Vegabond was the hostel I stayed in. It had a little kitchen in the bottom, with a coin operated stove, where everyone would gather for the evening. It was quite the good experience to meet people. Most people were climbers when I arrived, later on it changed to more young travellers, then it was mostly empty when I left. I roomed with the longtimer, and Auzzie who was there for 3 weeks so far and who recently got a job in town to stay for the summer.

The Best View

The view from the top of the Auguille du Midi is breathtaking. The only place so far to actually
make me gasp.

This picture is as close as I can explain to what it felt like and looked like being on top of the Auguille du Midi.

Took the Panoramic cable car across the glacier to the Italy/France border. It was neat to see, and I can appreciate the construction of that gondola having to go over the glacier.

Mont Blanc looks close, and quite easy to summit. Looked into it, and the price for a guide and equipment was ludicrous.

Going down the Auguillle du Midi, from the midway point, I hiked over to the Mer du Glace glacier. There were hundreds of people wandering about on the glacier. Most were very novice, with a guide, and had minimal rented equipment. This made me want to wander about without any equipment or guide whatsoever, but in the end decided it was not a good idea. They had closed some huge ice caves they carved and then closed for environmental reasons. I completely approve, they literally destroyed the glacier with these caves.

The hike down was very interesting, as the path was quite varied with everything from large rocks, metal ladders, to a nice easy path towards the bottom.

Mountain Biking

They day before I tried going downhill biking off
Telephonique Flegere, but after telling the rental store that, they
refused to let me go with anything less than a hardcore downhill bike,
and of course full body armour, stating its unlike anything you’ve
ever seen – and a price tag to match the gear, over a 100 euros per
day. Apparently someone had broken his arm the day before on the
hill, with only a standard downhill bike. So I rented a cross country
hardtail bike, we discussed routes and somewhere very early on I took
a wrong turn, ended 3/4 of the way up Brevent mountain, and decided
to go the whole way. Took the high mountain trail across the
mountains, which proved to be the most difficult trail ever, virtually
unridable at many points. I do realize black for biking trails means very difficult,
and thats what this was. At one point I hit a rock on the trail and
was tipping over the cliff. Deciding to try and save my life, I
kicked the bike out from under me, and the frame got caught on a rock
on the Edge. Still falling, I landed on the bike. Very happy about that.
It was a point where it was a good idea to reconsider this sport, but I’m over it now.
The only way down that I could find was The Flegere, at the end of this
trail. Needless to say, it was not a pretty route, but he was
exaggerating.

HangGliding

Tandem hang gliding with world Champion, Sandie Cochepain (97-00), who runs Les Ailes du Mont Blanc. The first thing you notice, is that she is the little petite French girl. Whenever she picks up a parachute pack that is almost as large as her, it looks like she’s going to fall over with every step. I had originally though it might be a good sport to take up because if you go hiking you can bring a parachute with you, but after carying a chute a minimum distance, decided it was not a good idea to carry it anywhere. We are using the Plan the Augille, the halfway point of the Auguille de Midi, somewhere around 2231m.

The takeoff was exciting. She brings us to a slope and we set up half way down this 20m slope. The rest of the hang gliders were starting at the top. She says, “its not a cliff, it just gets really steep. So keep running.” We stand awaiting the headwind, watching the windsocks. Run!

Its really neat when you’re only slightly above the trees. You can feel your speed. There are many deer grazing, all very visible from the air. We travelled over to the glacier on the right side and back towards our takeoff a couple of times, the headed around the point and over above the town. She explains, the thermals are better here because the town gives off heat.

At one point she asks, want to try some acrobatics? Heck ya. We go into a spin. The spin tightens and we drop fast. It didn’t feel great, but I want to see how far she will take it. It took a few hours to feel better after that.

It was pretty relaxing, chilling in the air. We got more gliding time than the rest of them who took off after us. 18 mins later, we landed on a small grass patch behind the sports center.

Misc

Get this, some Quebec girl showed us how to kill flies, and beat them with your hand every time. Ask me some time, and i’ll show you.

Great crazy Quebec government worker. Sabbatical after 4 months, and a world tour.

Met lots of really cool people in that hostel. Many travellers. Also the climbers make me want to take up climbing.

I’ve decided to go to the Matterhorn, Switzerland next.

Tags: Travel

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