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Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 3: Notre-Dame de la Gorge to Les Chapieux

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Monday, August 3: a Roman road, a "nature break," and the highest point of the Tour Day 3 was the biggest day of the trip: the most miles, the most climbing, and, thanks to a detour nobody asked for, the highest point of all ten days. This is Day 3 of ten on the trail; the overview and the all-days map are in the trip summary post . The day in numbers: 11.7 mi / 18.8 km · 5,112 ft / 1,558 m up · 3,929 ft / 1,198 m down · 7h51 on the trail, 5h52 moving · high point 9,042 ft / 2,756 m on the Tête Nord des Fours · Notre-Dame de la Gorge 1,206 m to Les Chapieux 1,564 m (watch). A quiet morning Two of the group took the day off and rode ahead to the next stop, so it was a small crew at a very quiet breakfast buffet in Saint-Gervais. Early morning from the hotel balcony in Saint-Gervais The Roman road A taxi ran us up the valley to the trailhead at Notre-Dame de la Gorge, and the day started in the woods. Above the chapel the Bon Nant runs down a slot it has cut in the ro...
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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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