The Road to Mont Blanc: Part 6

Sunday 6 July 2025

Arrival day

My eyes! This place is amazing. I've only ever been to the Alps on snowboarding holidays, never in summer, and never to Chamonix, and it is just beautiful – surrounded by huge, towering mountains, some still covered in snow.

And the town is proper outdoorsy. It's like Keswick on steroids. There is such a cool and kind of intimidating vibe here. Everyone's in hiking or running gear, or with climbing ropes casually draped over their shoulders, and I have never seen so many impressive quad muscles. How do you even get legs like that?!

It's currently 7 pm and we're getting ready to go out for some food. The weather isn't what I was hoping for, warm and sunny – it's pretty grey, drizzly and a little cool, which is adding to the sense of foreboding! I’m basically a bag of nerves at this point.

We've walked up to where we need to get the gondola on Tuesday morning, so at least we know where that is, though we're still not sure which route to take on day one to Trient, low or high, longer with less elevation or shorter with more.

We’re abandoning anything productive tonight, though, as we have a whole day to figure it out tomorrow before setting off on Tuesday. This evening is about finding a great bar and possibly a pizza. I mean, it's a ‘holiday’ after all!