Mont Blanc

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It's official - hiking the Mont Blanc trail got off to a good start this morning at approximately 8:50 am and the day finished at 3:51 pm. Boy was I tired and ready for a beer along with a refreshing shower when I got to my hotel. Very warm day that had a lot of uphill and a lot more downhill. We took the cable car from Chamonix up to Planpraz and started the hike from there. Photo 1 was taken right before we started this morning when I still looked fresh - definitely didn't look that good when we finished. There were a lot of people on the trail at the beginning but it thinned out as the day went on. Photos 2 - 6 and 8-9 show some of the terrain we hiked on this morning which at times was very rocky. Joy, my guide said this was probably the worst rocky path we will have. As we were walking on the trail I just happened to look to my right and saw these prayer flags hanging - photo 7. Photo 10-11 shows the ladders we climbed up which was fun. Found out this morning from Joy there is a tunnel that runs through Mont Blanc that takes you from the France to Italy in 30 minutes. You can see the tunnel in photo 13. Photo 14 is a little hut we stopped at so Joy could buy some water and we could use the toilet. Of course I had to take a picture of this very unique toilet as I have never seen one like this nor have I ever used one before today - photo 18. Guess there's always a first time for everything. We stopped and had lunch today at the place you can see in photo 17, When we walked up to the spot it made me think of Sound of Music. While having lunch, there was a glider plane that keep flying around us - photo 16. Once we left the hut it was a very steep downhill hike as you can see in photo 18. Photo 19 is an unusual looking mushroom growing on a stump we saw on our way down from the top of the mountain. As we were coming down from the moutain there was a deep gorge that we had to cross which required us having to use the hand rails that had been installed. Thank goodness for the hand rails as it was a narrow path and a very long drop down (sorry no photos as hanging onto the hand rails). Photo 20 is a huge statute that is at the base of the tree line shortly before we got to Les Houches. Unfortantely I failed to ask Joy who it represents. It was a great first day and ready for tomorrow!

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