I have settled well into the chalet life just outside Chamonix that I am staying in this week, and if I get back off the mountains early, I can whizz into town in 5 mins on my bike like a local, which is great.
Mostly the course I am on is out in the big mountains though, with little time for the expensive hobby of pottering around the shops. Yesterday was a regular rock climbing day, with some nice climbing in the sun in the Aosta valley on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, which was a great warm-up for things to come.
Today was a lot more adventurous, and we took the Grand Montets lift high up above the Chamonix valley at about 3,500m, where we did some ice climbing and moving around on steep snow and rocky ridges with ice axes, crampons and all the mountaineering gear on. A great day out in the mountains. My free sunglasses that I picked up on the top of a mountain in Snowdonia seemed to work fine, so that was a great result too.
I have been enjoying some of the classic culinary delights of the french Alps as well, of course. Delicious french saucisson and local cheese with baguette featured for lunch today, and is definitely on the cards again in the next few days, as all the calories are certainly being burnt. The Savoie region follows very closely to the Swiss line on nutrition, in the fundamental belief that you cannot have too much cheese. So as well as cheese for lunch, there are plenty of cheese dishes for dinner to keep your levels topped up to maximum. The other day in the chalet we had tartiflette for dinner, one of my favourites from student days in Grenoble and ski trips, and I am very excited about having a fondue at some point in the next week or so.
Tomorrow we are headed up nearer Mont Blanc, to stay overnight in the Torino hut probably, and do some bigger alpine routes with the guide. The weather seems to be looking good for the next few days, and I have my fingers crossed that conditions remain good for an attempt on the Matterhorn next week.
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