Getting started on the TMR!!

Hi folks! We’re finally ready to set off on our TMR (Tour de Monte Rosa) adventure!

We’ve spent the last few weeks finely tuning our gear, keeping our packs as light as possible, while also being sure that we have enough clothes for the snow. We’ve decided to go with 3 tents, 2 stoves, and everyone’s individual equipment (boots, clothes, waterproofs, poles, sleeping bag, ground mat, plates/cutlery). We can’t make our traditional stop to Decathlon before we go (we’ll explain why in a bit) and we won’t be able to get a good grocery shop done before the mountains so it calls for a little bit more organisation than last year… But overall we’re very excited to get going!

This evening, the newly formed ‘famous 6’ will reunite in Milan to travel to the Alps. Four of us flew in this morning, we’ll have a quick lunch in Milan, and then 2 of us will be put on the train while the other two pick up Alan and Alice from the airport and drive up (thanks again to Luca’s mum for her car!). We meet in Varallo Sesia which is a 40 min drive from the town of Alagna, where we leave our car. We’re hoping that the trains will run on time as one of us is very particular about our schedule for the day 😉

And this is where the hike begins! 17:00 tonight we’ll be setting off on our first stage- we decided to start this evening as the first day would be reeeally tough otherwise (a ten hour hike to Macugnaga, not including breaks) so we plan to get a bit done tonight to make it easier on ourselves tomorrow. It’s >1,300m ascent both of the first two days so we’ll be testing our fitness right at the start! We’ll also be reaching highs of 2,900m so we’ll be making lots of new red blood cells. There’s snow from 2,200m upwards (yep, we actually emailed some locals to ask) so that will give us a nice tan anyway!

Signal permitting we plan on updating this blog every 1-2 days with some impressive pictures of the Monte Rosa massif and the Matterhorn, along with live updates of our trip. If you click ‘follow blog’ on the right you can get an email every time we post!