While we were in Switzerland this past summer, we took a quick camping trip to the French Alps. We only managed to get in one real climb while we were there, apart from walks around our campground and the darling mountain town of Chamonix.
Taido chose a hike to Lac Blanc, a long walk up to a lake that would take us past gorgeous vistas of Mount Blanc and many of the other striking peaks in the area.
But when we started up the mountain, we couldn’t see much of anything.
Well, we did see a few mountain goats. That was exciting.
But for the most part, we were just heading up further into the clouds.
The kids found it to be super discouraging, and they kept asking to turn around. We had a picnic lunch in the car that we had left behind thinking we would be down before lunch.
We didn’t reach Lac Blanc until well after lunch.
Even in the mist, it was really gorgeous.
And lucky for us, there happened to be a crepe stand this high up in the French Alps.
On our way down, the mist began to clear.
We had to climb up (and then back down) all these ladders that I found to be a bit scary, but no one else was bothered.
About halfway down, we finally started to see blue sky and glimpses of Mount Blanc.
The clouds were constantly changing so you had to be watching to see all the different peaks.
One minute you could see them, and then the next they would be covered up again.
But when we could see them, they were just gorgeous.
We could even see the village below us.
As usual, I ended up being glad I had followed Taido up the mountain that day.
Everyone ran down the last few miles and then we went to town for ice cream.
I took a couple of vines on our day of climbing: one of goats and one of the mist then blue sky. Gorgeous!
As usual, your adventure has made me smile. 🙂