On Saturday, the whole Talloires group took a trip to Chamonix, the area right around Mont Blanc and at the border of Switzerland, Italy, and France. Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Europe, and it definitely looks the part. We didn't get to go up that face, since the entire trip takes two days of actual climbing, but we did take an awesome hike on one of the peaks nearby. Our day started super early (7:15) when we were picked up at our bus station. From there we went to pick up Bernard, Tufts’ own hiking guide, and then we were off to Chamonix.
As I said before, Chamonix is a small group of towns, though we only had enough time to explore one. The weather was perfect, and we all started our hike in good spirits. We were divided into five or six groups, each of about 15 people, and off we went. Our guide was really helpful and she seemed to know every single plant we saw. It wasn’t a difficult hike, and our guide was going super slowly, so it was good for making conversation and getting to know my fellow Jumbos. We weren’t in any sort of a rush to get to the top, and we enjoyed all the views and animals we saw.
At each stop we took, the mountains looked more and more beautiful, and by the time we got up to the top, I couldn’t believe it. The sky was perfectly blue with only a few clouds, and the mountains all had picturesque caps of white snow. It was warm enough so that we didn’t need jackets at all. We all had a nice picnic lunch tigether before headed back down to the village for some sightseeing. On the way down, I had the good fortune to run across a dashing ibex, a kind of mountain goat native to this area. I had seen one from afar earlier, but this one had no fear. It was actually pretty cute, though those horns looked like they would really hurt. It came a little too close for comfort, but it gave me a good photo op. After we were back in the town, my friends and I all got crepes and ice cream. After a day hike like that, we definitely deserved it. Mine was nutella and ice cream and it was an absolutely perfect way to end the day.