Chamonix was great. Talk about an extreme sports town. People come from all over to paraglide, climb, mountain bike, hike, you name it. Especially a lot of English.

I took a few days to buy my gear and find the right boots. Long story and a few blisters later, I found the right pair. Spent 3 days getting ready for Mt. Blanc by hiking the mountains outside Chamonix. Went up to a Refuge on the way to the Brevant Cable car, and up to the top of the cable car. Beautiful views and forests. It is hard to describe the way the mountains rise out of Chamonix, you really have to see it to belive it, but I would describe it as Vail with Mt. Rainier at one end of the street and the Grand Tetons running perpendicular right behind the main street. It is really incredible.

I met a lot of people while here before and after my Mt. Blanc climb. I stayed at a hostel called La Vagabond and there were a lot of really nice people. They also had a fantastic view of Mt. Blanc from there patio. We played cards one night and watched the mountain turn to pink with the setting sun.

I came to Chamonix to climb Mt. Blanc. Mt. Blanc is 15,770 ft and the highest mountain in Western Europe. It is heavily glaciated and as fore mentioned, rises right out of Chamonix. I met my guide, Freddy Grossniklaus, and we took a cable car and a train to the start of the climb. It takes about 4 hours to get to the Gouter Hut by way of the Gouter Ridge. From far away, the ridge looks pretty steep, but it is some nice scrambling. After sleeping about 2 hours ( and lying awake for about 2 ) we woke up at 2 am, got dressed, and started out. The views were amazing. It was pitch black so you could see the stars and you could see the city lights below. As we went up, you could see the sky start to get light, it must have just gotten dark in CA ( weird to think about ), and about 1/2 hour before we summited we saw the sun rise.

We made it up very quickly, I think in about 3 1/2 hours. The view was spectacular. The sun was pouring through hundreds of peaks in the main East-West Ridge of the Alps. You could see the Matterhorn and the Bernese Alps in the North.

Now for the hard part, the descent. Of course, you always forgot about this, but this was the hard part of the climb. We did what is called The Traverse. Rather than going back the same way, we continued over 3 other ridges to the Valley Blanche and the Aiguille du Midi. I got a little wiped out, but it was worth it. We saw some great views and had some interesting trekking through some ice fall fields and some crevasses. Walking up the ridge to the ice cave in the Aiguille du Midi was cool and I was sure happy to get into that cave. The downclimb took about 5 hours. A Japanese tourist asked us a bunch of questions. We are in someone's home movie!

Then we took the cable car back to Chamonix ( it was only 11:30 ) and had a beer! You have got to love the Alps. Freddy took very good care of me. It was a long day.