Hubris on the Tour du Mont Blanc

HUBRIS: n. (mass noun) excessive pride or self-confidence; (in Greek tragedy) excessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis.

This is the definition of hubris according to the Oxford Dictionary of English. A word I never fully understood until Bob and I decided to hike the Tour du Mont Blanc, or TMB for short.

In high school, I took a senior course on classic Greek literature and a common theme is the danger of hubris. However, I don't think I ever fully understood this message until we hiked around Mont Blanc. I underestimated the hiking and overestimated my physical fitness. The photos I had seen of the TMB showed people hiking over green alpine meadows, and we did enjoy those trails, but often we found ourselves on trails covered in large rocks and gnarly roots. Add steepness to the mix and the hikes became more challenging than I expected.

Bob and I booked what is called a "luxury" TMB because it is a shortened version, only six days of hiking instead of 11 or 12, and you sleep in hotels instead of in the refuges (huts) or tents. I thought "luxury" also meant that the hikes themselves would be easier. I expected the company that booked our hotels and transfers to arrange routes that were not overtaxing. Obviously, I should have done more research because even the shorter version still requires that you hike over some steep passes.

Our first day started with a steep, but not too steep, climb to Col de Tricot where we ate lunch, sandwiches prepared for us at the Hotel Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix, where we spent the night, but then came a very steep descent that sent sharp pains through my knees. I expected some pain during the descent because I've experienced knee pain before on downhill hikes, but I didn't expect the pain to be so persistent. After resting at the Miage Refuge at the end of this descent, we climbed a bit more to the Truc Hut before descending to the town of Les Contamines Montjoie, where we stayed in the Hotel Gai Soleil overnight. My knees felt fine during the short climb up to the Le Truc meadows, but the pain returned during the descent and what should have been only an hour's hike into town, turned into a two-hour limp. 

The next day, we debated skipping the day's hike and taking public transport to our next hotel in Bourg Saint-Maurice. However, we discovered that the only way out of Contamines is by taxi and it is a two-hour drive to Bourg Saint-Maurice. Not only is this expensive, but it is hard to find a taxi driver willing to make the trip. It was actually easier to walk and so we climbed up to the Col de la Croix du Bonhomme, the most difficult leg of our version of the TMB. Not only was it a steep climb, but we had to scramble over rocks and boulders and at one point, cling to the cliffs. It was much more difficult than expected. And, of course, after ascending we had to descend. Again, my knees gave me problems.

The rest of the tour, four more days, had their ups and downs, literally, but were not as dramatic as the first two days. On our first day, we ascended only 665 m, but descended 1295 m. The second day was the opposite with an ascent of 1295 m and a descent of 950 m. The last four days were about the same with ascents and descents of 800-900 m each day. We slept in Courmayeur, Italy, where one calls the mountain Monte Bianco which is more fun to say than Mont Blanc; Champex-Lac, Switzerland; Argentiere, France; and finally Chamonix, where we started. Our overnight stay in Champex-Lac was the highlight in terms of hotels. Since the hotels in La Fouly and Orsieres, where we would have stayed, were booked, we upgraded ourselves to the gorgeous Hotel Au Club Alpin. We regretted not organising a rest day in Champex-Lac because then we would have had more time to enjoy the spa, lake and wonderful hotel restaurant.

As close as we were going to get to the summit

On day six, we cheated. Instead of climbing to Lac Blanc before taking the La Flegere gondola down to Chamonix, we hiked straight to La Flegere. This gave us time in the afternoon to ride the cable car up to the peak Aiguille du Midi. We were so happy we decided to do this because on Aiguille du Midi, one is very close to Mont Blanc's summit and thus the views of Mont Blanc's glacier-covered face were spectacular. However, we did feel the altitude (3840 m) which made us feel very tired and me a bit dizzy.

Whereas I found descending difficult, Bob found the ascents harder. Nevertheless, we completed the TMB, even though we talked about cutting it short a few times. Bob says we should be proud of ourselves and I am, but I also feel disappointed because my knees slowed us down. Everyone seemed to be passing us, even octogenarians. I thought I was in much better shape because I hardly ever drive and instead ride my bike to work and to run errands, and I take the dog for long walks in the hills around our home. I guess I need to find some mountains, steep ones, to walk Nora on.

Would I do the TMB again? Yes, I think so, but with more physical preparation and a great deal more respect for the Mont Blanc massif.