""She looks different," I said, staring at the mountain. My boyfriend, Adam, and I were sitting in a rocky meadow dotted with miniature bluebells of Alpine gentian and eating ham, cheese, and cornichon sandwiches we'd packed that morning. We were at the Col de Balme, a 7,228-foot pass that marks the transition from Switzerland to France. Before us was Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe."
"Until recently a 10-day trek through the Alps felt impossible to me. Not because I don't like treks. I love them. I grew up backpacking in the Rockies. After my first divorce I walked the Camino de Santiago alone. No, a trek like this was actually very "me," but an older-and by that I mean younger-version of me. But then I became the married mother of two small children."
A recently separated mother of two undertakes a 10-day, 100-mile Tour du Mont Blanc trek across France, Italy, and Switzerland, with 30,000 feet of elevation gain. She and her boyfriend pause at the Col de Balme, a 7,228-foot pass, to view Mont Blanc and picnic on ham, cheese, and cornichon sandwiches amid alpine gentian. The trek recalls earlier backpacking in the Rockies and a solo Camino de Santiago after a first divorce. Coparenting arrangements grant her two weeks off, prompting the decision to walk not for catharsis but to seek connection with nature and an alignment of body and self.
Read at Conde Nast Traveler
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