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Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 2: Bellevue (Les Houches) to Les Contamines

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Sunday, August 2: a swinging bridge, the first big climb, and an omelette Day 1 was mostly downhill. Day 2 is where the Tour du Mont Blanc starts asking for something back: a suspension bridge over a glacier torrent, the first real climb of the trip, and two descents for the price of one. This is Day 2 of ten on the trail; the overview and the all-days map are in the trip summary post . The day in numbers: 7.0 mi / 11.2 km · 2,038 ft / 621 m up · 3,968 ft / 1,210 m down · high point 6,896 ft / 2,102 m at the Col de Tricot · Bellevue 1,798 m to Les Contamines 1,209 m. First on the lift Buffet breakfast at the hotel, then the Compagnie's van ran us across the highway and the valley to the bottom of the Bellevue lift. Our guide made a point of us being the very first people on it when it opened. That turned out to be a theme of the whole trip: avoid the crowds. We went out of our way to get ahead of them, or off the beaten path, and it meant great moments of solitude (in our ow...
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Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 1: Le Brévent (Chamonix) to Le Coupeau (Les Houches)

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Saturday, August 1: Chamonix to Les Houches, mostly downhill Ten days of walking around Mont Blanc, and the first one starts with a cable car ride up and a hike down . The Alps have a sense of humor. This is the first of ten day-by-day posts; the overview and the all-days map are in the trip summary post . The day in numbers: 5.9 mi / 9.5 km · 846 ft / 258 m up · 3,915 ft / 1,193 m down · high point 7,600 ft / 2,316 m · 10:09 to 15:34, 3 h 35 min moving. Chamonix, 8 a.m. Woke up at our friend's flat in Chamonix. Packed the bag one last time and left a pile of warm-weather clothes behind, which felt optimistic at the time. Walked down to the square in front of the Compagnie des Guides office on Place de l'Église and had a pastry and coffee at La Panière , which is exactly the breakfast you want before a day in the mountains and exactly the one your doctor doesn't. Met up with the rest of the group and our guide from the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix . And off to the rac...
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The Three Saints, Part 3: San Jacinto (Fifth Time's the Charm)

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On Sunday, October 18, I finally stood on top of San Jacinto. It was my fifth try, and it finished off the Three Saints: Mount Baldy on September 26, San Gorgonio on October 9, and now San Jacinto, 10,834 feet. If you read the interlude , you know how the first four tries went. Every one ended with a turnaround for lack of daylight, and none of them started before 9 AM. This time I fixed the two things I could: I started early, and I decided my turnaround times before I left the car. If I was on the summit by 12:30, I'd finish the loop down the gentler west side. Between 12:30 and 1:30, I'd come straight back down Marion Mountain. If I wasn't on top by 1:30, I'd turn around wherever I was. Up Marion Mountain I left home at 5:13 AM and was on the trail at 7:22, from the same Marion Mountain trailhead where three of my four tries had started. The sign there says 5¼ miles to Mt. San Jacinto. I knew from experience it feels longer than that. Hello, old friend... I...
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