Fresh Mountain Air: Chamonix

I have recently had a lack of attention for this blog because of two things. 1) Last week I was extremely sick with some kind of gastro-infection that caused me to have consistent fevers. 2.) I had my 18th birthday! I will catch this blog up starting with two weekends ago in the Chamonix French Alps. Late on a Friday night my host family drove the two hour drive to the ski resort. They have an apartment there that they rent out to tourists. When I opened my shutters on Saturday morning I gasped to see beautiful mountains and clouds that were nearly touching the roofs of the cabins.

When I was packing for my exchange my mom insisted on me bringing my hiking boots as it is a "necessity" in Europe. She was so right. That afternoon I endured one of the hardest hikes in my life. It was a 7 hour round trip. At the top of the peak we climbed to I could see Italy on my right and France on my left. The windbreaker that I was wearing did not even help the amount of air being thrown at me so high up. Climbing up such narrow paths felt like an action movie or survival video game. Even after three years of running in cross country races, I had never felt so accomplished and tired at the same time. I feel very lucky to be with a host family that go on grand adventures like this.

After the long day of hiking, we ate a huge meal of fondue and wild mountain blueberry tart. As tradition, when you eat fondue and your piece of bread falls in you have to do something as a punishment, but fortunately no one came close enough for that to happen.

On Sunday morning I woke up feeling sore and dehydrated. I had sweat a lot in my sleep. I gulped down my tea, but could barely eat my toast (with wonderful homemade jam.) An hour passed and I realized that I had a fever. By good luck my host parents are doctors and immediately confirmed that I was not 100% up to go on another hike that day. I was sad that I would be saying goodbye to Chamonix early, but sometimes you have to listen to your body. I am so excited to visit Chamonix again in the future. I still am replaying the moment in my head when I opened my window and got my first breath of French mountain air.