Mont Blanc: Chamonix - Days 10 and 11 (click once on any photo to display full image)
7/27/2009 thru 8/8/2009
Chamonix (Days 1 and 2) France (Days 3 and 4) Italy (Days 5 and 6) Switzerland (Days 7 thru 9) Chamonix (Days 10 and 11)

Day 10 - Happy Birthday Li!

Today was bittersweet - it was Li's birthday but also the final day of our trip. After a shuttle ride back to Tres le Champ, we picked up right where we had left off yesterday. The trail wound uphill to the base of the Aguilles Rouge (the Red Needles), and we were now hiking on the other side of the Chamonix valley (we had hiked on the south side when we did our warmup hike on Day 1). 

The hike up the Aguilles Rouge offered great views of multiple glaciers, and of course, Mont Blanc. At the top, it seemed like we were meandering for a while, and we weren’t quite sure what Stéphane was doing, but it turned out that this was a prime locale for spotting wildlife. We saw a chamoix and an ibex (both have horns similar to mountain goats).

We found a cozy lunch spot where Li decided to walk a bit further uphill to get a better view. He snapped several photos of the scene and then assembled them into the single panoramic below. From left to right is the glacier du Tour, glacier d’Argentiere, the Aguille Verte (Green Needle) and Les Drus (the massive mountains in the middle), the Mer de Glace, and on the far right, snow covered Mont Blanc.

The main lunch time entertainment was down by the lake - some guy decided to go skinny dipping. ☺

The hike continued on after lunch for another couple of hours until we reached the telepherique station, where we took the cable car the rest of the way down the mountain. Bruno gave us a lift from there back to the same hotel where this adventure started. As if on cue, the moment we got out of the van, it started to rain - I guess mother nature knew we were done. Later that evening we had our farewell dinner at L’Atmosphere, an elegant restaurant in Chamonix. The group also surprised Li with a Happy Birthday treat (click for video)!

Day 11 - Geneva

We said our good byes to everyone in the group and then shuttled back to Geneva airport. Our flight didn’t leave until the next morning so we spent the day walking around Geneva. The first stop was at the United Nations campus where we took a tour of the main buildings. The photo below shows the most interesting meeting room that we saw. The Spanish donated money to pay for the artwork on the ceiling.

We also spent some time walking around Old Town - a neat place with lots of shops, restaurants, and some historic buildings like St. Peters cathedral.

The area near Lake Geneva was really crowded that day because their annual festival was going on, with interesting food stands (if only we had changed out money for some swiss francs), carnival rides, and live bands. To top it off, at 10:00 PM they had a giant fireworks show. It was a madhouse with wall to wall people, like Times Square at New Years.