Switzerland . . . . well France to start with

This winter while hiking the Y I met a really nice lady. It was New Years day there was tons of snow and we were the only two on the trail. We chatted quite a bit and she told me about Alpenwild. Her and her husbands company that takes people to Switzerland and does a guided tour of the Alps. Well I love hiking and so I went home and looked at their website. This started a little dream of hiking the alps. I was lucky enough to get the chance to hike it this summer. I did the self-guided tour, saves a lot of money, and was excited that my aunt Virginia was willing to do it with me.

On July 13th Virginia and I boarded a plane and started the adventure of a lifetime. The adventure actually started in June when I hiked 100's of miles with Moki in order to prepare for this trip.

At the Salt Lake airport we were confronted with our first traveling adventure. We were informed that we would fly to the LaGuardia airport, collect our bags, and transfer 20 miles to the JFK airport. We would have to re-check bags and go through security again. All in a very limited time frame. What????? Why would you make people so that. We were short on time so we collected our luggage and caught a taxi to JFK. We didn't let it ruin our day!

 We landed in Switzerland and rode a shuttle to Chamonix France where our hiking journey began. I really liked that we went with a group because it made traveling in the countries very easy. We had specific and detailed instructions that helped us get everywhere we needed to be.

This is the view from off the balcony of our hotel. So gorgeous.

 We headed out and got some dinner. Neither of us know any French so it was quite the adventure. Thankfully pretty much everyone we met spoke a little English. The streets of Chamonix.

 The first couple days I filtered all my water to be safe. I don't know why the water in Switzerland was amazing.

Our first look at the French Alps. So amazing and so large. I loved Chamonix. I would love to go back and spend more time there. It's a little hub of all things outdoors, but lots and lots of hiking.

 It was great to get to our starting point with very few hiccups. We stayed at a great hotel and just had a chance to relax and rest before the real adventure started!