Technically today was to be another day off to explore Chamonix and its surrounds but there’s foul weather coming thanks to x-Hurricane Erin so I decided to get up early and attempt tomorrow’s hike today.  Matters were complicated a bit by the fact I was changing hotels so I took the first bus of the day at 6:45am to Les Houches, dropped my luggage at the new hotel, then walked 1.7 miles along the road to the Bellevue cablecar to get back on to the TMB.

Along the way I met many trail runners so obviously another race was happening. I didn’t know where or when they started but they sure looked tired. *I later found out they started Monday night in Courmayeur and are finishing this morning (Wednesday)!

I managed to make the 8am cablecar up and it was packed with hikers. I was squeezed in between some American ladies so we had a nice “where are you from?” chat and I ended up hiking all day with a solo hiker named Chris which made a rather gloomy day much more pleasant. We opted for the normal/lower TMB route vs. the popular/harder/longer variant as thunderstorms were forecast for 3pm and we wanted to be well and truly done by then.

It wasn’t a great day for photos, and not really a lot to describe about the hiking other than there was an initial long descent, first along a railway line, then following a road and gravel paths thru several tiny hamlets.  Eventually we crossed a wee suspension bridge then a series of heart-pumping climbs followed by quick descents thru forests, fields, and more little villages.

We only had one break after about 3 hours in a little shelter which I think might have been built over the towns sewage pits(!). It had just started to sprinkle and we could see thick clouds descending down the mountains and we still had just over an hour to go. The rain started in earnest the last 20 minutes of the hike however the rolling trail was deep under forest cover so we were shielded from the worst of it.

At 12:30pm we reached Les Contamines and I said goodbye to Chris; she had another 30 minutes to her refuge and I had to find the bus & train back to Les Houches.  First, though, I had a date with a large cappuccino as with my early start this morning I missed breakfast. My roadside table was right on the race route which was still going on and all the patrons were clapping as each runner went by.  And this was the same race that I saw runners go by in Les Houches 5 hours earlier! I enjoyed cheering them on so much I stayed for a beer too.

It took around 2 hours to get back to Les Houches, plus another 20 minute walk to the hotel. As the terrain was probably 1/2 track and half road today my bad knee is a bit angry with me. The day off tomorrow will be appreciated.

Oh, and the storm never came. Here’s my view at dinner….