Tour du Mont Blanc and Walker’s Haute Route

This morning we got a nice taste of French bureaucracy. So yesterday when we took the shuttle to the campground, we checked the earliest departure time the next day, which was 7:30 from the campground. It was a little later than we normally leave but fine. So today we woke up and since we knew the shuttle was small, lined up early to get on the 7:30 shuttle. 45 minutes early. There wasn’t much of a line. When the shuttle arrived and we tried to board, the driver told us to wait, while everyone else with white tickets was allowed to board. Ours were blue as they were purchased from the bus driver the day before. Evidently the white tickets were timed bus tickets so all those people had reserved a spot on the 7:30 bus. Our tickets could only be used after everyone with reservations arrived or didn’t show up. So the blue tickets we purchased yesterday were inferior to these white ones which you could only purchase from the machine at the campground. And get this, apparently there was a way for us to go into the office when it was open, yesterday, and exchange our blue tickets for white ones for the following day but guess who told us this? The same fucking bus driver who said, sorry there’s no room left on this bus you’ll have to wait. There is no signage indicating this, the bus driver yesterday didn’t do anything to explain any of this, and the bus driver today just repeated, what I imagine he has to repeat EVERY FUCKING MORNING, to people like us. But no, it’s not “his fault” it’s just “the rules.” He doesn’t make them, he’s just enforcing them. The fact that he hasn’t taken any initiative to fix what must be such an obvious, daily issue makes him, in my mind, just as much of a problem as this entire stupid, hidden reservation system. I’m glad we stood around for 45 minutes, to be rejected on a bus that we paid for yesterday, only to be driven downhill. We angrily walked the 3 miles back up the road to start our day. Screw them and their shitty bus system. Make a damn sign you lazy sacks. ...

We had a nice campsite near a creek. The tree overhead obscured our view of the glacier, but that’s one thing I never understood. Whenever I’m in my tent, I’m basically sleeping or going to sleep and never admiring the views outside. So I never understood people’s obsession with giving their tent a good view. I’ve also had the experience that the best views usually come with the worst conditions (wind). Anyway I slept great but apparently someone showed up at 11:30 and shined their headlamp everywhere, according to Zoë. ...

Well our plan worked pretty well today. We woke up, had breakfast at our campsite, left everything in our tent, and took all our warm clothes with us to the bus. We rode the bus for 30 minutes from Les Houches to Chamonix, where we purchased a one way lift ticket and met our paragliding guides. As we rode with them up the ski gondola, they conversed with each other in French. Zoë would later say, it was totally fine, but very French and not American where they are very service-oriented, trying to earn a tip. At the top, our guides basically found a free spot to lay out the chutes, strapped us in, and told us to run. Before we took off, my guide pointed out another paraglider and told me she was the world champion in paragliding acrobatics. Pretty cool. ...

Last night we had a nice sunset with an artificial lake providing some photogenic reflections. After snapping some photos though, I went straight to bed. We woke up at 6, in the dark. There were quite a few tents around the lake with us. We left at 7 and headed up the nearby hill where a ski lift topped out. Like the other days, the trail was pretty quiet at 7:00. There were a few people out, but not many. We traversed ski areas, so aside from the nice mountains above us, our immediate surroundings were a bit lackluster. ...

I think I fell asleep around 18:30 last night. I was wiped. I think the transit before the hike must have done me in. Before I passed out, I talked with some TMB hikers. They’re about finished with their loop. Zoë learned more from them after I went to bed but it seems like even amongst the campers, which is who we talked to yesterday, it is uncommon to carry most or all of your food. It sounds like most people were eating meals at restaurants and buying snacks for the next day, one day at a time. I also think, it’s many people’s first backpacking trip. Props to them though, picking something this tough. ...

Well another day, another trail. And a new country. Allow me to fill you in on what you missed. Today is Tuesday. We finished hiking the Alta Via 2 on Saturday afternoon and spent a night in Feltre, Italy. We spent most of Sunday traveling via train, to Martigny, Switzerland. We spent Sunday and Monday night at a campground in Martigny and today we woke up and took trains and a bus to Champex Lac to start our next hike. ...