Seniors Say Yes To The Ultimate Adventure

My wife and just returned from lunch with friends who shared with us that a senior brother and sister-in-law were busy hiking the Alps. It was a pace of 10 miles a day for 10 days. We learned that they’d planned for a year for this ‘Ultimate Adventure’,  making plans for a shelter for each night along this well-traveled trail. My wife says to me…”you just have to do a blog on this.”  So here we are.

I figured that there may be one or two firms that specialize in hiking in the Alps, but there are several. Smarter Travel calls this experience the Ultimate Summer Adventure with several options and ideas on how to make this a great tour.

Trails for Every Interest and Ability

Wild alpine meadows, deciduous and evergreen woods, lunar landscapes, high altitude terrain, alpine lakes, soaring peaks, dramatic walls, and towering heights… sound like your kind of place? Many senior hikers want the freedom to set the pace and to do a self-guided tour. In the European Alps I found the famous Haute Route (or “High Level Route”) that links two of Europe’s great mountaineering centers: Chamonix and Zermatt.

More than 10,000 people make this trek each year. For hikers, the Tour du Mont Blanc is the ultimate summer adventure: a 10-day circular walk that starts and finishes in France and passes through both Italy and Switzerland along the way. It encompasses 11 mountain passes, about 32,000 feet of elevation gain and loss, and nights in remote mountain inns and huts. In short, there’s no better way to experience the centuries-old traditions of the Alps than hiking the Mont Blanc circuit.

This hiking route leads you between small alpine villages surrounded by idyllic landscapes, mountain huts with superb views and the gastronomy of three different countries. Senior hikers cross over iconic mountainous passes, and along ancient glaciers as you walk through the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps.

Attn. Serious Senior Trekkers Only

National Geographic has a link called”Hiking the Alps from End to End”. Nota bene: I did say serious as Europe’s new Via Alpina is a 3,100-mile (4,989-kilometer), high-altitude answer to the Appalachian Trail. Alpine trekking is a perennial classic, drawing millions of summer hikers who prowl old Roman roads and medieval footpaths among glaciated peaks, wildflower-carpeted meadows, plunging valleys, and quiet mountain villages.

While roughing it is always an option, the Alps trekker is more likely to dine on local delicacies—Swiss fondue, French pâté, German pilsner—at comfortable village lodges and well-established hut systems along the way. The Nat. Geo. specs are all there.

 So fire up your mate and consider this once in a lifetime adventure and as they say JUST DO IT!  jeb