Blogs from Chamonix, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 6

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Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix November 10th 2007

Arrived in Chamonix with my snowboard on Monday night and moved into my new home for Winter. Went straight out to the late night snack bar for something to eat and had a complete memory blank of French but somehow managed to order and exchange pleasantries in Italian which was surreal ! Chamonix is quite a scenic alpine town surrounded by snowy mountains. Its snowing here and quite cold already, zero degrees today I think. Until the season gets started properly we are working Mon-Fri with weekends off which is a novelty ! Everyone at the office seems very friendly so far and there a few familiar faces from my winter season 3 years ago. There's also quite a few other newbies so we've been out for apres drinks and office bowling last night for everyone ... read more
Cham Centre
Cham Apt

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix October 1st 2007

Chamonix Mont-Blanc Pure, dry cold air; amazing scenery; beautiful high mountains where ice and snow never melt; lots of fantastic rock climbing routes; charming towns and small villages... Chamonix is a very special place. I camped right at the foot of the Glacier Les Bossons for 2 weeks and was surprised to be able to walk around in the morning wearing a t-shirt when the thermometer showed 5°C. I got out-of-breath and nearly fainted when I walked too fast up stairs in the Aiguille du Midi observatory, some 3000m high. I felt comfortable climbing on my own using my rope clamp, but was even happier to meet up other climbers, have a real belayer and company to visit the Swiss and Italian borders. I seriously thought about staying in Chamonix to learn French and try a ... read more
My bike on Les 2 Glaciers
Charming Chamonix
Chamonix and the high mountains

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix September 19th 2007

Bonjour! So as I sleep soundly, Mom is busy coming up with what we need to tell you all in our next blog. A little random thoughts to go with random pictures. 1) The first thing we wanted to share with you was an experience we had with our two friends from Israel (father and son). We wandered along the trail one day and came upon them with their little stove blazing and asked us if we would like to join them. We hesitated and Dan, the father asked if someone was waiting for us in Cormayeur? No we replied, who would be waiting for us? They responded with what is the hurry then? SO TRUE. We sat and enjoyed a piece of their culture, "hell coffee" which is a mix of middle east spices and ... read more
Day 9, Glacier de Trient
Our tiny little room
Found a nice place to do some writing

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix September 18th 2007

Greetings from rainy Chamonix! We completed the tour yesterday and used our rain gear for the first time....for only about 10 minutes. We can not believe our good fortune....it is cool now, rainy and cloudy and as we look up, can not even see Brevent....2500 m above us were we stood yesterday. It was a long final day....over 9 hours and 2000m down. I think we are in shock a bit that we completed it and that everything went so well. We slept well last night and were at a loss this morning as there was no trail ahead of us! As neither of us are shoppers we tired of that and headed off to the pool. We had a great time on the water slide....seems like we crave the exercise haha! We got quite the ... read more

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix September 11th 2007

We are a bit behind in our blogs so this will be short. Can someone please give us a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a house in Chamonix? We spent a few days in Chamonix and it was amazing. The town is at the bottom of a valley with 4500m peaks towering above. The highlight of our trip so far was catching the Aguile du Midi cable car up to 3842m. Coming from the valley in two short cable car rides, about 6min each, we felt a little light headed pearing over the edge at the valley below! The next day we were a little more energetic and went for a half day walk in the hills, after catching a train up to one of the largest glaciers in the Alps, the Mer de Glace. ... read more
The view from the top of Agile du Midi, looking towards Chamonix
From the Agile du Midi looking back at the Cable car
The shadow of the cable car on the ride down to Chamonix

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix September 4th 2007

If you would like help compelting this race see www.mile27.com.au/online-coaching. Without any audible noise the race has begun. I stand unmoving waiting for the runners ahead to move forward through the narrow streets of Chamonix to allow me some space to start running. There is over 2300 runners all packed into a very small area behind the start line, each runner with a backpack and most with two trekking poles sticking out of the pack making it advisable not to get too close to the runner ahead. After what seems like several minutes but is probably only 60 seconds I move forward and start running. The first kilometer is through the town and is a stop start affair as we negotiate the narrow streets lined with hundreds of spectators urging us on with their chants of ... read more
At the start line the day before
Fuel for the race
Gear for the race.

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix August 25th 2007

Augustus 2007 Daar staan we dan op 23/08 op 4810m hoogte! Hier enkele indrukken en voorafgaande momenten: dag 1: met 't treintje richting 2200m om vervolgens met 25 kilo rugzakje naar de eerste hut lopen. daar vervolgens de tent opzetten want we hebben niets geboekt.... dag 2: Kou en ontberingen doorstaan, ondergesneeuwd wakker worden omdat je te weinig zuurstof hebt, de hele dag in de mist/sneeuw wachten om naar boven te komen. Anderen laten het voor gezien en vertrekken naar beneden, het wordt rustiger in de hut waar we wel koken en eten/kaarten/lezen/foto's maken.... Beetje oefenen op de gletsjer met touw en reddingstechnieken dag 3: Heen en weer lopen naar de volgende hut om hem te boeken. Op de terugweg de gletsjer als glijbaan gebruiken..... dag 4: Het weer wordt wat beter, lekker op tijd aankomen ... read more
tentje ondergesneeuwd
naar boven...
mont blanc vanaf de grond

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix August 8th 2007

Upon graduation, as an Abbott family rite of passage, my parents gave me the opportunity to travel to any destination (within reason) for an outdoor adventure of my choice. My sister Libby, not one to shy away from a challenge, chose to conquer Mt. Kilimanjaro at the young age of 17. Overcoming the altitude-related challenges was no small feat, but she summitted. With her graduation of college, she and dad climbed the more technical Mt. Hood in Oregon. Although less elevated, the climb turned the two of them off of technical climbing. When it came to planning my trip, Dad was now weary of accomplishment for the sake of accomplishment and heavily filtered through all my proposition. When I was a freshmen in high school, and already dreaming about graduation, I had envisioned dad and I ... read more

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix August 7th 2007

I am sorry, my French/Spanish/Italian/Latin is not so good. But I am getting around just fine. In Barcelona, I had a sudden fire lit under me bum that made me suddenly want to leave very quickly. In my rush, I thought, maybe I am supposed to meet someone that I otherwise would miss. On the train, I met Madeline. She is a French-American. Meaning her father is American, and her mother is French. She has been living in Toulouse for the past three years, and helped me acclimate to the French customs over the period of a few days. So let us break up a few myths about the French, shall we? The top myths I have heard is that the French are rude, that they hate Americans, that they won't speak English, even if they ... read more
Rolling a cigarette
Stealing a Shopping Cart
Moving to Colorado

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix August 1st 2007

And the adventures continue. Chamonix and Mont Blanc Wednesday 1 August was Switzerland's 'Independence Day' and to take advantage of this, two colleagues and I decided to rent a car and go to Chamonix (Cham-oh-nee), which is at the foot of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe. Besides being in the Alps and being surrounded by the coolest high mountains, you can also take a cable car up to 3,480m (over 10,000 feet) to get up close and personal with Mont Blanc. Chamonix is only about 1 hour away from Geneva, so it made for a nice day excursion. I was actually quite keen on seeing Chamonix (again) and Mont Blanc. The last time I was there, oh, 11 years ago as an exchange student in France, as part of the "Europe in 9 Days" ... read more
Chamonix
Me & Mont Blanc
Hiking down...




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