Day 7 Trekking Champex-Lac to Trient 10 Miles, 2300 ft Ascending, 2500 ft Descending I’ve deduced on this trekking trip around Mont Blanc that “steep” has multiple definitions, most of which are completely disagreeable to the human body. There’s regular steep, which means I will huff and puff and perhaps mutter a bit under my …
Day 6 Trekking Arp Nouvea to Champex-Lac 9 Miles, 2500 ft Ascending, 3300 ft Descending If I had a Powerade and a Magnum bar right now, I could rule the world. Much to my dismay, only one is available and probably not the one that’s best for me in my current state of heat exhaustion …
Day 5 Trekking Courmayeur to Arp Nouvea 11 Miles, 3000 ft Ascending, 2500 ft Descending I’m pretty sure I’m hallucinating, as I lay here in the grass in front of our evening accommodation, staring at the blue sky and granite peaks overhead, unable to move after being laid to waste over the past hour of …
Day 4 Rest Day Courmayeur I’ve skinned my elbows. Not from tripping and falling down on the trail, which might be predicted and/or expected, but instead from erasing 46 years off my age and choosing to go down the children’s slide. Some may think that’s an odd choice for my age, but how often does …
Day 3 Trekking Le Ville de Glaciers to Courmayeur 10 Miles, 2400 ft Ascending, 2700 ft Descending I’m pretty sure that heaven and earth meet here, in La Ville des Glaciers, in perfect harmony. How can I be sure? Because here I stand, in a beyond breathtaking valley, surrounded not just by mountains and all …
Day 2 Hiking Contamines-Montjoie to Les Chapieux 11 Miles, 4300 ft Ascending, 3000 ft Descending “This is the best tasting gum I’ve ever tasted” said Carolyn of Canada. These are the small delights one enjoys after having hiked for 8 hours, about 5 of which were up up up and the other 3 down down …
Day 1 Trekking Chamonix to Cotamines-Montjoie 9 Miles, 2200 ft Ascending, 4000 ft Descending The word in French is “Col”, which, loosely translated, means “You will sweat like a beer bottle in the sun both ascending and descending”. We are heading for the Col de Tricot, a 7000 foot pass between two taller peaks. This …
29 July 2018 Frankfurt to Chamonix via Geneva I’ve had 4 cups of real European coffee and it’s not even 6:30 am. Given that I’ve been up since 3:30 am, this seems mathematically okay. Plus, it’s my most favorite part of the day so this is a little like heaven if heaven also includes alarm …
27 and 28 July 2018 Seattle to Frankfurt “Are they crazy??” These are the three words I hear Gina exclaim while reading the in-flight menu card for her Condor Premium Economy seat. I will hear these three words again about 9 time zones from now only in a different context, one that I thankfully don’t …
16 to 23 May 2017 Seattle, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay National Park, Ketchikan, Victoria BC, and Seattle (Home) Again My sister has dragged me down into the bowels of the ship, into the overpowering darkness of Medusa’s Lounge, the sea siren’s sinister glowing eyes and tentacled hair glaring at me from every wall (do ships …