The first steps

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Setting out from Leysin with the Dent du Midi in the background. Can you see why I loved this place? swissinfo.ch

On the way out of town I stopped by dad's grave. swissinfo.ch

Crossing the Rhône. swissinfo.ch

Lake Geneva. It only goes up from here. swissinfo.ch

Arriving into St Gingolph in canton Valais, a town on the French border. swissinfo.ch

My last night in a hotel and a real bed, at least for a bit. swissinfo.ch

Mmmmm, a restaurant. Eating food I won't have to carry will seem like a luxury before long. swissinfo.ch

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This morning the sun came out and Leysin was the spectacularly beautiful place I remembered and loved.

Across the Rhone Valley I could see peaks I will soon be traversing, and the journey became more enticing and intimating. On the way out of town I passed my school and Dad’s graveyard, where I stopped for a visit. My friend Jullie-Ann Clyma hiked the steep 300 vertical meter descent to Aigle with me, and then I was alone for the rest of the 30km hike to St. Gingolph, a beautiful town on the south side of Lake Geneva. Here is the border, and tomorrow comes a 2000m ascent into the mountains. I’m torn between nervousness and excitement, so instead I’ll just focus on one day at a time.