Mont Blanc, Chamonix

Bonjour tout le monde!!

Today started bright and early at 5 am. We had to meet at the library at 5:45 to board our bus to the mountains. Today we spent the day in Chamonix! We were told to pack winder clothes and to layer, and that we would be hiking a glacier. The bus ride was three hours long, so I read some of my book, listened to music, and slept.

When we arrived and we all started waking up, we were surrounded by the Alps. They're breathtakingly beautiful. Similar feeling to the Rocky Mountains, but even better. Chamonix is a cute mountain town, which I love.

After driving through the town for a little bit, we got off the bus and walked to a ski shop. There, we were given boots, crampons, a helmet, an ice axe, and a harness. I also rented a rain jacket from them because it was supposed to storm. None of us really knew what we were getting into, and all of the gear took me a bit by surprise. I was really excited though- if I could stay in the mountains forever I would.

After everyone was situated with our gear, our program leaders asked us which group we wanted to be in- the easy group, the medium group, and the sporty group. Parker, Brett, Will, Talia, Andrea, and I all picked the sporty group. Another kid on our program named Jonathon also came with us into the sporty group, and everyone else divided between the easy and medium.

the mountains and the town

We had to take a train up the mountain. As we climbed the views got better and better. When we got off the train, we came to a beautiful overlook of the glacier and the mountains. After we enjoyed the views, we got into gondolas that took us down towards the glacier. After we got off the gondola, we had to climb down what felt like a million stairs. As we got lower, the stairs got narrower. On the way down, there's markers that show where the glacier used to be in years past. It was really interesting to see the rate at which the glacier is melting.

me waving on the top of some stairs; Andrea, Talia, me and Parker on the train; more mountains

When we finally got to the bottom of the stairs, we came to an ice cave. I've ever been in anything like this before. The walls reflected blue and yet also transparent. There were sculptures inside, like a big polar bear and some chairs and even and little house. We walked around and took pictures, and then went back outside.

Talia, Andrea, and I in the ice house; ice cave pics

Here, we left the grate pathway and were lead through a gate and onto the glacier. The sporty group was then told to put on our crampons, and that we would be glacier climbing first. The other two groups when on a hike, and we would meet up with them later.

Parker and Talia had been rock climbing before, but the rest of us hadn't done much like this at all. We put on our crampons and tightened our harnesses. We climbed up next to the wall of the ice cave, where there were two ropes waiting for us. Andy, our guide, gave us a quick run down of what we had to do. We are tied to him, so if you fall the rope and Andy catch you. Parker volunteered to go first, and he scaled it pretty quickly. We each took our turns trying it out. Its a really unnatural feeling. You have to kick the ice straight on, while also keeping your heels really low. Then once the front spikes of the crampons are stuck in the ice and you can stand, you swing the axes into the ice and pull yourself up a little, then re-stick your feet and so on. You also have to keep your hips in but your shoulders out. There is alot of things to remember to do, especially when you remember that you've got about 6 spikes keeping you in the ice. The wall we climbed was probably about 30 feet tall too. When I climbed, I slipped once or twice, and it's really scary to not have any spikes in the ice and be dangling by the harness. Everyone tried a couple times, and it was a really cool experience. There's not many places, especially in the states, where you can go ice climbing like we did. It was also really empowering to see what your body is capable of. I'm not particularly strong, especially not in my arms, so it was really cool to push my body and see what I was actually capable of.

me climbing, me and Andrea in our gear, me almost at the top

We all took turns climbing and eating our lunches. Since we were next to the entrance to the ice cave, other people kept stopping and watching us climb, which we thought was funny. After a couple hours, it started to sprinkle and you could see clouds starting to roll in. We decided to start our hike and meet up with the other group before the storm hit. Hiking a glacier is really interesting, because it looks like just a bunch of rocks, and then every once in awhile you get a glimpse of solid ice underneath it all. It also can be really slippery, especially when it's raining. We hiked to an overlook, and took in the views. Then we hiked down the side on the overlook and met up with our friends. We also chipped off some small pieces of ice to try. Pretty sandy, but good I guess. It started to rain harder and the tour guides thought we should go back. My group didn't get to hike very long which was a little disappointing, but we did get to climb, which was pretty fricken cool. We hiked back towards the ice cave, and began to climb the stairs. On the way up, the stairs were brutal on all of us. Especially because we were already physically tired, going up tons of stairs was rough. We had to take a couple breaks, but we made it to the gondolas eventually. We rode back up, took some more pictures on the overlook, and boarded the train to go down. Several of us fell asleep on the train ride down, and I dozed on and off. There was a cute puppy sitting diagonally behind me, so I pet them for awhile, and they fell asleep with their head in my hand. The only thing better than mountains is a puppy in the mountains.

group pictures of our entire program!

note: I finally started looking at the pictures Clarisse sends us, so I have more pictures now

When we got back into town, we went back to the ski shop and returned all of our gear. Since our hike got cut really short, we had a lot of free time in the town before dinner. We sat near a river for awhile, and wandered through some stores. A few of us bought some things at a tourist shop, and Parker, Talia, and I bought shirts at the North Face store. Parker and I got these really cool shirts that have the coordinates of Chamonix on them. We also got some ice cream and enjoyed the mountain air.

me at the river in town

At 6 we met the rest of the group for dinner. Tonight we went to a fondue restaurant to have some traditional French fondue. It was made with white wine, which you could taste more than I had anticipated. We ate our weights in bread and cheese. Parker made me try an apple in fondue, but I wasn't a fan. Wayyy too many textures going on there. After we had eaten all the bread in sight, the waiter brought out sorbets. We eat got a scoop of raspberry and a scoop of lemon and it was really good. I sat between Parker and our program leader Tara, and it was really fun to talk to Tara more and get to know her better. We had a lot of great conversation over dinner.

our fondue; our table at dinner (left side from the front around: Clarisse, Talia, Andrea, Sam, Parker, me, Brett)

We ended up running late for our bus, so we had to walk quickly through the town to get back after dinner. Most people slept the whole way home. I fell asleep for the last hour probably. Sam, Parker, and I talked for awhile before Sam went to sleep, and as the sun set everyone else followed suit. We woke up back at INSA around 11. Everyone said goodbye and went straight to bed.

Every time I'm in the mountains, I never want to leave. A trip to Colorado might be in order when I return to the states.

À plus tard,

Maggie

(written for June 8)