It’s been a little over a week since I returned from the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) and now that things have settled down a bit I can finally blog about the experience! If you missed this post, I won the Vibram Grip Your World giveaway and won a trip for two to Chamonix, France, to watch the UTMB and enjoy the VIP program at the race (complete with planned day trips, free meals and lodging, and front-row seats at the start and finish of the race!) I decided to take my awesome little brother, and from August 25th to August 30th we had a blast. This definitely ranks up there on my list of travel experiences.

We didn’t have very good internet access while we were in Chamonix, so I didn’t tweet as much as I would have liked to, but armed with three cameras (yes, three) I did manage to get some pretty good pictures.

We spent the first day in Geneva, where we checked into our hotel and then promptly headed out in search of food! We found a baguette, some cheese, and some fruit at a monster store named Manor – the basement was like Ikea, the first floor was a full-size grocery, next two floors were mens and womens clothing, then a Target-like store, then a restaurant. We were impressed.

We ended up walking along the Geneva waterfront for a few hours – we saw swans, got gelato, saw the parks, and went out on a little walkway to see the Geneva monument (the giant fountain). The cold water was refreshing on such a hot day! We dried off pretty quickly in the sun.

The next day I took a quick 6 miler in the rain and then hung out at a cafe for a few hours while my brother slept off the jet lag. Afterward it was time for a bus ride to Chamonix – the hour-long drive was gorgeous! When we got there we were greeted by Annalaura, our Vibram contact for the trip. She was from Milan and she took very good care of us on the trip! She showed us around town (I have never seen so many athletic-y stores in one place!) and introduced us to some great Vibram people. I had a great chat with one of the Tester Team people (I have no idea how to spell his name…) and we bonded over being shoe-nerds.

Then it was the start of the race! 2000 runners trek the 100 mile loop around Mont Blanc, battling snow, tired legs, and the insane elevation changes. I was really inspired watching them begin their journey.

Annalaura walked us back to our hotel and then told us to rest up for our busy night.

We found tons of free stuff in our hotel room!

We chose the “adventure” plan for Friday, so our night was a bus ride to Les Contamines, then a hike up to a cute little in at Nant Borrand where we had dinner. The food was amazing! We had great bread, then a salad with the traditional french “carrottes rapees”, the best scalloped potatoes I’ve had in my life (sorry mom), and a delicious apple tart. My brother also partook of the brisket and some sort of grated potato tartine type deal. No idea what it was. We had some nice conversation with the French couples around us (glad I took French for so long! I love speaking it!) and laughed as “les espagnoles,” the rowdy group of Spanish visitors, drank super-alcoholic “mountain liquor” with the owner of the inn. Later we found out that the plant they use to make the “mountain liquor” out of looks just like one that is poisonous. Glad I stuck with the wine…

During our meal we found out that, due to horrendous weather conditions, the UTMB had been stopped in St. Gervais and then that it had been cancelled altogether. We were sad to hear the news, but I think that stopping the race was probably the safest decision; there were mudslides :\

We hiked back down in the dark (yay free headlamp!) and promptly fell asleep. The question on our minds was “If there’s no race… what are we doing tomorrow?”

Check back on Friday for UTMB Part 2 to find out!