Prologue – In true European tour form, our first full day in the Alps today (Friday) was a kind of prologue day.  After sleeping late to acclimate to the new time zone Erin, Brian, Leslie, and I took the tram up to the Aiguille du Midi at over 12,000ft where we were treated to spectacular views of the Chamonix Valley, the peaks around Mont Blanc, and a history on the climbing tradition in the mountains. How many places have you seen that goes from 3500ft to more than 12,000ft inside of about a mile or two. The steepness and vertical gain of these mountains is what is makes them so spectacular and impressive by the numbers.

We took the tram back down to mid mountain where we could catch a trail that traverses over to the Mer de Glace.  Before setting out we sat down on a rock for a traditional French picnic with salami, local cheese, French wine, and freshly baked bread. The plan was to run the 3-4mile traverse to the glacier and I figured a large lunch with some spicy salami might make the run more interesting. It was a beautiful warm cloudless day with a light breeze.

Brian and I set off down the granite strewn boulder trail at a comfortable pace and we would meet back up with Erin and Leslie at the Inn at the Mer de Glace. It was hard to keep my eyes on the trail with the views I was surrounded by but I managed not to sprain an ankle. It was amazing to me how many people were up in the mountains and hiking. We passed probably 40 people or more in a 3 mile section.

Brian and I arrived to a beautiful overlook of the Mer de Glace (sea of ice for those of you that don’t speak French, I don’t either). We hopped down the trail after a few pictures and ended up at one of the many refuges (kind of a lodge or hut with an Alps feel) in the trail network. This one was pretty large with an inn and a train station for the cog rail way that comes up 3000ft from Chamonix. Brian and I sat down for a beer on the outdoor patio to enjoy just being in the mountains on such a great day. And that we did, with the train rolling by every 20min or so, the aesthetics of the inn and patio with fellow hikers, alpine breezes in the pines and firs, and the glacier sitting below it is hard not to sit back, relax, and think to yourself, there’s really no place I’d rather be. It’s hard to put words to how being in the mountains in a setting like this can make you feel. As they say, a pictures worth a thousand words, and a picture never does it justice. So I would suggest ya’ll just experience it for yourself sometime.
To tune the legs for the next couple days in the mountains I decided to work the quads on the downhill back to Chamonix, so that’s what I did. It was a wake up call to how the mountains would test me over the next few days.

The others took the unique cog rail down and we met back for dinner in Chamonix with Fred (the MHW dude from Annecy), Sebastian (a local mountain guide and our videographer on Sun and Mon), and Scott (our photographer that would make the whole trip with us).  We talked logistics after a beautiful French meal and went over the maps with our route and the gear we would need. Then it was to bed with anticipation of what the next few days held during our run around the rooftop of Europe, around Mont Blanc.

Check out more pics on my Facebook page. And check out our route around the mountain at http://www.ultratrailmb.com/page/64/Visitez%20le%20Tour%20du%20Mont-Blanc.html.

Tagged as: brian metzler, chamonix, competitor magazine, leslie suppes, lisa jhung, max king, mont blanc, montrail, mountain hardwear, runners world, running times, topher gaylord, trail running, ultra trail du mont blanc