In the October half term I took a solo trip to Chamonix in the French Alps. I needed to get into the mountains at this time.
The time of year for visiting was what can only be described as the ‘very off-season’ with the town quiet and most of the ski lifts closed. Too early to ski and not so popular for hiking and mountain biking. I was lucky to have excellent weather and the off season made everything less busy and less expensive. Going alone means that the subject of most of these photos is going to be mountains/nature.
The trip started with a gloomy and wet day, and in the mountains weather is quickly changeable. As I found when caught in a thunderstorm atop ‘Montverse’
The weather picked up after the torrential rain and made the following day mountain biking a bit slippery and muddy. I hired an electric downhill bike from ‘Slash Chamonix’ they offered an excellent friendly service and incredible top of the range bikes and equipment. I hired the bike for the day and I can safely say it is one of the best things I have done – It enabled me to get around the valley quickly and see loads as well as to be able to cycle UP! red ski runs with the electric assistance. Luckily I came away from mountain biking in the alps with limbs intact, despite it taking me a while to remember that French bikes assign the brakes to opposite sides of the bars, I was wondering why my front tyre was trying to slide away from me on some gravelly downhill sections! I loved the bike and later did some research into how much it would cost to buy – turns out it would be more than I paid for my Porsche…
Sunny days made for some more challenging photography especially with the sun low in the sky. I made the trip to Mont Blanc ascending quickly on the cable cars had a slight effect on me at 4808m ASL i felt a bit light headed at the top of Aiguille du Midi…
@longstoriesshot 