Tour of Mont Blanc

Day 1. The first full day we were in Chamonix we spent it recovering from traveling and took a lift up to Aiguille di Midi.

Here we are at the top after two gondola rides! The view was spectacular in every direction!!!

We took a little lunch break within the cafe at the top. We bought a salt cured ham, cheese and bread to eat earlier that morning. Here we are celebrating Ben's first taste of meat since becoming vegan a year ago! We had hot chocolate, which was more like melted chocolate in a cup, which was absolutely delicious!!

Behind us is a little off-shoot where trekkers or climbers walk along the steep ridge, where they can walk to the Italian side of the mountain range. Definitely would not catch me doing that! One false step and game over...

Day 2. The first full day of hiking. We began our journey with a bit of rain early in the morning, caught the train to Les Houches and began our steady climb up along the TMB.

Small town that we walked through :)

Day 3. We began our hike in the rain after a night full of the same.

This is an example of all of the water fountains that are found throughout the areas that we hiked through. The water was cool, crisp and always flowing. Very different from the public water fountains found in the States. We filled up here after talking to a couple that told us that all of the Refuges were closed but that some of them have winter rooms that were open.

This was our typical hiking getup: long-johns under shorts (or in Ben's case just long johns), a short-sleeve shirt (depending on the weather of course!) and alternating between three pairs of stinky socks ;)

While hiking this day we saw many waterfalls just as pretty as this one :)

Stumbled across this natural land bridge in the middle of a gorge, which of course we had to check out!

Day 4. We camped in a meadow-y designated campsite. We gained 1700 m and hiked through 3 passes. It was a long day that started early but the views we saw were more than worth all of the effort!

Hike along the road that we did in the early morning.

Ben taking in the sight as we tried to hike up faster than the clouds were rising within the valley. Luckily, we WON!

Beautiful view from the first pass of the day!! Only two more to go X.X

On our hike down into the next valley we walked through a dairy farm that had a guard dog that was quite intimidating. After some apprehension of returning to the farm with the overzealous guard dog, I went with Kyle to buy some cheese. We came back with a HUGE hunk of cheese and a whole bagette. After eating only pro-bars, couscous and oatmeal nothing looked so wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed both. This cheese was the best I had ever had and we got it right where it was made.

Day 5. We only hiked through one pass, so it was not as intense as the day before but again we gained 1500 m. Still quite a lot of climbing.

Beautiful views we saw while hiking up :)

Mont Blanc is behind us and at this point we are in Italy (so technically Monte Bianco now)!!

View from the pass, where we stopped to eat breakfast.

Here we are hiking down from the pass on our way to Elisabetta.

Ruins found at the site where the Refuge of Elisabetta is. The Refuge was above and behind these ruins. We think that perhaps this building in particular was used as a strong-hold during one of the world wars...

Inside the winter room of Elisabetta. Looked quite cozy and later on that night we wished that we had decided to stay the night here.

While eating lunch we were invited into the home of a lovely couple that live in one of the cottages in the picture below for some coffee. They were both wonderful and the coffee was delicious especially on such a cold, windy day.

A couple of days later we actually ran into them in Courmayeur... we have met many sweet and helpful people along the way.

Hiking up again from Elisabetta...

Ruins we saw along the ridge hiking out of the valley that Elisabetta was in.

A small house we passed as we were hiking up the ridge. Oh the stories this place could tell... stories with inspiration from pirates...with justice only being done if you hear the story in person. 

Morning view of the sun rising on the peaks :)

Day 6. Today we hiked into Courmayeur, Italy and walked through this farm filled with ponies on our way down into the valley.

Our first Italian lunch. Pizza for all! It was so delicious and our waiter was especially attentive.

Day 7. We stayed the night in the only hotel that was open in Courmayeur. A bit more expensive than we wanted but after days of hiking in the dark before finding a campsite and then setting up camp with headlamps, the change was a welcomed one.

Courmayeur from a spot near the refuge of Bertonè.

Day 8. We decided to take a bit of a break and just go on a day hike. Restful and beautiful, something we had not experienced yet.

Hiking back to camp!

Day 9. The day we decide to head back down to Courmayeur there is a race up the mountain. We had to sit alongside of the trail because about 1200 people walked past us. Some people were wearing normal clothes while others were completely decked out in all kinds of costumes imaginable. Above is a dog dressed up as a duck, who was also a part of the race with his own number and everything :D

Here we have some people walking with boats made of cardboard haha quite a sight!!

There were even some musicans that hiked up with their instruments and then had an impromptu jam session along the trail. Lucky for us, they happened to stop a few feet away.

Back in Courmayeur :)

We decided to travel from Courmayeur to Aosta, where we had to wait for about 2 hours before our train left for Milan. We stopped at this happenin' gelato place that was filled to the brim with Aosta-ians ;)

A fountain right outside of the Milan train station.

After hours of walking around Milan at night we finally found a bed and breakfast to spend the night. Ben got this tart for me and thus we celebrated my birthday :D Thanks Ben it was very tasty!

A picture of the less crowded streets of Milan.

Here we are walking within a park following the end of a marathon that happened a few hours earlier.