Courmayeur - Champex-Lac - Chamonix

At the end of August each year there is a mountain trail festival based in Chamonix in France. This year Daniel is competing in the 'CCC', a 101km race from Courmayeur (Italy) through Champex-Lac (Switzerland) to Chamonix (France). We spent part of our summer doing a recce of the route. Daniel learnt the trails and I renewed my impression of how hard his job is (those mountains are high!!).

Chamonix and Mont Blanc - where the trail ends

The race starts in Courmayeur, an Alpine town in Italy which is accessed through the Mont Blanc tunnel. We hiked up to Grande Col Ferret at 2537m which forms the international boundary between Italy and Switzerland. How cool to hike to another country!

The Aosta Valley in Italy where the race starts in Courmayeur

The international border in the Alps (from the Swiss side)

The route down into Switzerland is beautiful. The Alps were at their most majestic as we descended the fairly steep path. Fortunately there was a convenient and much-appreciated refuge en route where we stopped for a rest and lunch.

La Peule Refuge - great sandwiches here!

Green mountains and cascades

Lots of hiking options. We followed the TMB route.

Glacial rivers abound in this region

The halfway point of the race is at Champex-Lac in Switzerland. We've visited here before on a day trip, and it was good to return to an old haunt. We spent two nights in nearby Bourg-St-Pierre, including the Swiss National Day on 1 August, but the clouds rolled and the wind picked up at night so we didn't see any fireworks.

Champex-Lac

The race route continues to wend its way up and down the Alps, reaching a total of 6,100m of vertical gain. I joined Daniel for a hike between Vallorcine and Chamonix, the last 18km of the race. At the top of the pass at Tête au Vents we saw three chamois, including a baby! It was a sturdy little creature, true to its goat-antelope heritage. The views from the top were spectacular - a panorama of mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and of course, the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc.

A chamois mother and kid

Glaciers overlooking the Chamonix Valley

The peak at Tête au Vents with Mont Blanc in the background

The race reaches its grand finale in Chamonix, where we've spent time before. This season, we've visited the Alpine resort a few times for Daniel's training. During some of his runs, I did a bit of sight-seeing around the region, including visits to Parc de Merlet, Gorges de la Diosaz and Gorges du Durnand.

Mont Blanc overlooking Chamonix

A rainbow in the clouds above Chamonix!

Italy 2016

We travelled back to the Dolomites for the weekend to do some more sightseeing in Italy. It was good to be back and I was pleased to recognise so many landmarks from last year. We stayed in the Grand Hotel in Misurina, home to a large natural lake at 1754m above sea level.

Approaching Misurina

Lake Misurina

The rocky Dolomites - view from Rif. Auronzo early in the morning

Malga Ra Stua

Malga Ra Stua

On our way back down from the mountains, we did a whistle-stop tour of Venice. We had about an hour to kill before our flight and we spent it route marching through the windy streets and canals, past the Rialto Bridge to St Mark's Square. We visited Venice together in 2007 and it was fun to be back as adults instead of students!

St Mark's Basilica

Famous Venetian marks

Santa Margherita Ligure

Santa Margherita is a charming seaside commune in the province of Genoa. It boasts a working port, a 16th-century castle and lots of European-style beaches (more deckchairs than sand). We enjoyed some quality pool time and some lovely dips in the warm Mediterranean Sea. We also had some delicious dinners on the waterfront with fresh seafood and good Italian prosecco. What a lovely way to end our Italian road trip!

The port in the late afternoon light

Recreational boats in the port

The rooftop pool deck

Our view from a restaurant

World War I Mountain Warfare

During our stay in Cortina we caught the cable car up to Mount Lagazuoi, a 2,800m peak in the Dolomites from which there are 360° views of the breathtaking mountains. However, beneath this beautiful landscape lies a labyrinth of tunnels which tell a more tragic story.

The cable car up to Mount Lagazuoi

Beautiful views in all directions

The Dolomites have always formed a physical and political border between Italy, Austria and Germany. One of the most tragic stories in the history of the Dolomites was the war for this border during World War I on the Italian Front. This was a series of battles between Austria-Hungary and Italy fought between 1915 and 1918. The front soon bogged down into trench warfare, but at very high altitudes, and thousands of soldiers died in futile battles on what the Italians call Il Fronte Verticale. Soldiers on both sides excavated miles of tunnels and galleries in the mountains, built temporary emplacements and fired at one another, without really changing the front line.

Look closely at the exit in the sheer cliff (bottom left of the picture)

Rifugio Lagazuoi is a starting point to visit the restored fortifications of the World War I Open Museum and it is possible to see reminders of the mountain warfare that raged for so long. We put on our hardhats and headlamps and descended on the via ferrata - a rocky descent which relies on chains for support - into the gallery of tunnels inside the mountain. Even at the end of June there were icy patches inside the tunnels; it's hard to imagine what it was like in the winter of 1916 when 10 000 men died in avalanches alone.

The first part of the via ferrata

The military 'highway' on the surface of the mountain

One of the staircases going deep inside the mountain
(It is pitch black inside)

The exit to a lookout post

The view from the lookout post

The tunnels we visited were made by Italian soldiers who tunnelled stubbornly through the mountain in order to surprise the Austrian troops stationed on the summit. With metal ropes, stairs and ladders still intact, these tunnels show an incredible feat of engineering.

A machine gun gallery

Fortifications and sandbags at a lookout post

An officer's room inside the mountain

Scraps of barbed wire and wood lying on the mountain

Many of the surrounding mountains are also riddled with the network of tunnels, and visitors can see bunkers, barbed wire, trenches, sandbags and other remnants of the war in the mountains. It is one of the most fascinating places we've ever visited - a challenging contrast of horror and beauty.

Cortina d'Ampezzo

The small town of Cortina lies in the heart of the Dolomites, or southern Alps, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. The Boite River flows through the alpine valley and the surrounding mountains have made Cortina a top destination for winter holidays. We went there in summer to enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery and for Daniel to do a race.

Cortina, nestled in its Dolomitic valley

A quaint mountain town

Daniel participated in the Lavaredo Ultra Trail, a 119km race with 5,850m of climbing in the mountains. It was Daniel's first mountain ultra marathon in Italy and he did an amazing job to complete it! The race started at 23:00 with the first 50km in the dark...

Just before sunrise at Rif. Auronzo. The course goes along the contour path.

Coming into the checkpoint at Cimabanche

Beautiful rolling hills at Malga Ra Stua

The landscape was similar to the Jura!

Passo Giau: last stop before the finish

While Daniel was out running, I was crewing for him. My job was to get up the windy mountain passes and meet Daniel at the various checkpoints along the way to help him restock his backpack. It was a lot of pressure, but I got to see some beautiful places and it was fantastic to see Daniel during the race instead of just at the start and finish line!

A scenic mountain pass

The aid station all set up for Daniel

Running down the finishing straight in the rain!

Italian road trip

Summer has finally arrived in Europe and with it the summer holidays! We started off our holiday with a great road trip south into northern Italy.

A map of our travels

The first stop on our trip was in Cortina, a beautiful village in the Dolomites where we had some amazing experiences.

A view over Cortina

The town square in Cortina

On our way further south, we stopped off in the historical city of Verona. Here we saw the Verona Arena, a Roman amphitheatre built in the 1st century CE. It is one of the best preserved ancient theatres and is still in use today for large-scale operatic performances. It could host 30,000 spectators in ancient times, but today holds half that number due to safety reasons.

The Piazza Bra in central Verona

Verona Arena built in 30 CE

We also visited the Casa di Giulietta, an early 14th century house in Via Capello, claiming to be the Capulets' house. It features a balcony which overlooks a statue of Juliet in the small courtyard. Many people write their names and the names of their loved ones on the walls of the entrance in a tradition which purports to make their love everlasting. Thousands of tourists each year also put small love letters on the walls, which are actually answered as in the movie Letters to Juliet.

Juliet's balcony

The statue of Juliet. It is believed that
if a person touches her right breast
s/he will receive good fortune and luck in love.

Our next stop on the journey was to Pisa, a city in Tuscany in central Italy, where we headed straight to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Torre Pendente is actually the bell tower of the city's cathedral and is the third oldest structure in the Cathedral Square, after the Cathedral and the Baptistry. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed pulling some cheesy tourist poses with the tower.

Torre pendente di Pisa

The Baptistry, Cathedral and Bell Tower

The classic leaning-against-the-tower pose

The even more classic holding-up-the-tower pose!

Our final destination on our Italian road trip was in Santa Margherita, where we enjoyed a lovely seaside holiday.

The Santa Margherita port