We are at the Portland airport waiting for our flight to Geneva. We'll spend a night in Geneva, a couple in Chamonix, and then we'll begin our hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc.
Our first day on the trail is spent hiking to Miage.
We didn't do the full TMB route. Instead we stopped for a night in Champex and the next day took a bus to the train and then on to Paris.
After many days of smoke-filled skies here on Vancouver Island I figured it's time to see a clear sky, even if it's only a photo of a clear sky and it's on the other side of the world.
This is the Malatrá Valley, in Italy. In the upper left corner, the speck on the green hillside, is Rifugio Bonatti where we hiked in and spent a comfortable night. The eye watering view from Bonatti is of the Mount Blanc massif, on the right. The massif is not only beautiful to look at but you can go under it, by car, or over it, by cable. I highly recommend the latter. Both take you to the other side of the massif where you'll find charming Chamonix, in France.
I shot this from the Col de Ferret, on the trail that would take us to our next stop, Ferret, in Switzerland. It was my first trip with a digital camera.
While I captured the photo in 2004, today, in 2018, was the first I'd seen it, and that is because it's made of two photos and only today did I happen to see them back to back and notice their panorama potential. Wow, what a difference they make glued together.