The morning after the race was cancelled, we woke up — late! We were supposed to be at the other hotel to start our day at 9, but when we woke up it was already 8:55. We scrambled into clothes and ran down to the hotel hoping that we hadn’t missed breakfast. We totally had. We found out that they had re-started the UTMB and that we had the option of a 1 hour hike, a 2 hour hike, and a harder 2 hour hike. Of course I picked the harder 2 hour hike. Turns out it was actually more like a 4 hour hike :)

We ended up scoring some more free swag because we had left our North Face sweatshirts at our hotel and we didn’t have time to go get them – so they gave us new ones! Sweet.

This hike was honestly one of the best parts of the trip. It was breathtaking. I had a hard time keeping my eyes on the trail because I kept wanting to look up at the beautiful mountains we were hiking through.

We took a bus through Mont Blanc (11 km tunnel into Italy!) and then we were off! We hiked uphill for the first 2.5 hours or so, taking a break to watch the racers go by.

I spoke lots of French with our hike leader! She was from Reunion (a volcanic island)

One of the racers!

My brother with the mountains. He was a super-awesome companion for the trip – he never complained about all the hiking we were doing, or if he didn’t like the food (he had some bad beef, that he claimed had a barnacle on it), and he was fun to be around. My little brother is awesome!

We stopped at the Refuge Bertone for lunch. It was so delicious! Cheese and bread and polenta for me, italian meats and polenta for everyone else. We topped the meal off with a piece of delicious cake.

Then it was back down the mountain into the town of Courmayeur, where my brother has decided he will live when he grows up. He plans to teach English there. Awesome!

Here’s him again:

The next day we went up to the Aiguille du Midi, which is a peak reachable by really sketchy cable car. It’s right next to Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, and it was probably the highlight of the trip for me!

After two cable car rides, we were at 3800meters above sea level. Whoa!

On the outside of the peak, there were staircases that you could climb to get higher. Unfortunately, the stairs were grates, so you could see through them… Scary to look down and see just a straight dropoff with craggy icy rocks.

EEK!

Couldn’t beat the views, though.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and watching the awards ceremony, and then a final French dinner.

Mmm profiteroles.

All in all, this was an awesome, active trip. I managed to get in a few runs, too! It was great to bond with my little brother. I was sad to leave Europe, but I was looking forward to getting back to school – I missed UVA!

Thanks so much to Vibram for this awesome experience!