Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Read the complete TMB series :  Part 1    Part 2     Part 3    Part 4   Part 5   Part 6     Courmayeur Rest Day #1 After about 5 days of significant hiking, we were happy on our first day in Courmayeur to just play tourist in a lazy fashion. We did a walking tour of town, including the old town of Dolonne across the river, before returning to our hotel to spend the afternoon resting. The morning started with beautiful sights indoors... ... and out.      Old Dolonne. I am always fascinated by the ancient walls and doors in places like this. By way of contrast with all the old buildings, we found this very modern sculpture tucked into a courtyard not far from our hotel. I could find no markings indicating title or even who made it. For the record, our restful wanderings totaled about 4 miles. Courmayeur Rest Day 2: Mt. Blanc Skyway Our second rest day was more exciting, and involved much less walking. Having figured out how the day before, we took the bus up the valley a bit to take

Read the complete TMB series :  Part 1    Part 2     Part 3    Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   TMB Day 3: Les Chapieux to Rifugio Elisabetta We enjoyed our hostel-style breakfast (i.e., communal rather than separate restaurant tables), again with our new British friends, before heading out. (A note on that: to do this trip at all required a certain level of denial about the risks of COVID. There was just no way to avoid a fair amount of contact with others, especially in dining environments.) Our way led up the valley, at first on road then on a trail that paralleled the road but across the river. The guidebook said that this was a good part to skip by taking a taxi or shuttle, but I thought the hike up the valley was very pretty. Despite having somewhat heavier packs than usual, as we would not have our luggage that night at the rifugio, we didn't mind walking. Looking back the way we'd come. The end of the road is in Ville Des Glaciers, which appears to be named for the glacier

Read the complete TMB series :  Part 1    Part 2     Part 3    Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   TMB Day 1: Les Houches to Les Contamines This is it! July 3, the first day of the official TMB!  We began by taking the bus to Les Hoches, cutting out a bit of the actual trail that we'd hoped to do as a dayhike but skipped due to me feeling ill. We then did what we always did when possible: took a cable car up to start the hike at Bellevue. Happy hikers, ready to begin! I'm on the right.   The walk was a fairly easy and pleasant descending traverse until we dropped steeply to cross a glacial river. That marked the beginning of the climb to Col de Tricot. Only after the crossing did we see the sign about one hiker at a time on the bridge. We were having mixed sun and clouds, but still got good views of the glaciers coming off the south end of the Mt. Blanc massif. The climb to the pass proved to be easy, and we topped out shortly after 11, despite a relatively late start, unprepared for