Update: If you click on a photo, it links to a much larger image. Chances are your browser will shrink it to fit your screen. If you want to see it full res, click again (your mouse might look like a magnifying glass) to see it full size, probably so big it doesn’t fit and you have to scroll around. OK, enough with the technical talk!
I’m organizing my photos from the trip now. My favorite are the panoramic vistas, and I’ve stitched together multiple shots so that you really get a sense of the landscape.
This was a few days into my trip. The trail crosses over into the pastoral setting of Switzerland. I took this photo just after eating an egg and cheese omelet, both of which was from the farm/refuge that cooked it.
This one was taken a few days walk later, two days before arriving in Chamonix. Google Maps link to location of photo.
This next one was taken a few hours later, at the Col d’Anterne.
I slept outside that night, in a refuge just barely visible in the above shot, only 30 minutes walk from the Col d’Anterne. This is my view of the Mont Blanc massif, just as the sun sets.
The next day I hiked up to the peak of the Brevent (nice, but no stunning photos) and then down. And down some more. 1500 meters descent – that’s what did me in for a few days! I slept in a gite in Chamonix, and took the awe-inspiring journey up to the Aguille du Midi, and then the cable car accross the Vallée Blanche and the Glacier de Geant.
The first shot is mostly to give you an idea of the scale. Look carefully in the center of the picture for an orange dot. That’s a mountain rescue helicopter flying in. The gray ridges and valleys the helicopter is flying above is actually the glacier. Those valleys are giant crevasses.
This is a similar shot. Look carefully again, and you can see 7 people crossing the glacier. It’s along the center line of the shot, a bit to the left. They are walking horizontally accross the image, stretched out and roped together. People rope up in case one person falls into a crevasse, the idea is that the others will arrest the fall and save him. You’ll have to click on the image to see a larger version to see them, and even then they will look like specs of sand.
That’s it for today!
