Everyone should see the Alpine meadows carpeted with wildflowers at least once in their life…
The mountains around Chamonix are laced with hundreds of kilometres of footpaths - all accessible in summer. They range from forest paths to stony cols at altitude above the tree line,gentle rambles beside the river to strenuous scree ascents and even sections of ladders or fixed cables for handrails. We can if necessary access the grassy plateaus above the trees by cable-car, allowing the less fit or even children to wander amongst the carpets of wildflowers.
Wild narcissi above Montreux - from below cascades of white can be seen across the mountains.
As well as treks such as the Tour du Mont Blanc or Chamonix to Zermatt there are such fantastic one-day hikes using Chamonix as a base-it’s one of my specialities as I have designed and run the one-day hiking program for La Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix over the summers of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your projects-it’s my pleasure to give advice.
The Mont Blanc region,on the frontier of France,Switzerland and Italy is well provided for with mountain refuges in all three countries where you can sleep, get a hot shower and eat well. The refuges enable hikers to do multi-day hikes, accessing wilder terrain or linking circuits like the Tour du Mont Blanc.They are often conveniently placed to avoid long days, 5 hours being an average sort of day.
Equipment
For day-hikes you will need hiking boots with ankle support, a small backpack, water-bottle, waterproof anorak, hat, suncream, sunglasses, pullover or fleece top and chocolate or energy bars. For long trips vehicular support can make a long trip much less arduous and feasible for even less hardened hikers. I would strongly recommend vehicular support to transport spare clothing, small luxuries, books, medical supplies - in fact everything except a light day sack. It makes the difference between an arduous, painful slog and a pleasant holiday. It also permits us to supply out own lunches from delicatessens visited by the driver (normally an IML), transport members to doctors enable tired members to miss a stage etc. The drop-out rate without support can be quite high.
"I’m open to suggestions-let me know about your ideas."
Chamois feeding in the evening sunlight above an Italian refuge in the Gran Paradiso park.
Sunrise on Mont Blanc
The Bovine Refuge in Switzerland near the French Frontier on the Tour du Mont Blanc.
Above with a group of American hikers on the only snowpatch we found on the Tour
Glacier des Bossons, one hour on foot or ten minutes from a chairlift.
Butterfly landing…
The Mt Blanc massif-it takes more than a week to walk around…
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