September 4 Wednesday – Sam and Joe set off [from Ouchy] on their last Alpine tramp. Bound for Chamonix, France, they took the train to Martigny, Switzerland, where they arrived at 9 PM and took rooms at the Hotel Clerc
September 5 Thursday – The two “tramps” left Martigny on foot at 8 AM, bound for Chamonix, nineteen uphill miles in the hot sun. They skirted the Tête Noir Mountain. Sam noted the beauty of Argientiere as they approached. They dined at Argientiere and hired a wagon for the last six miles into Chamonix.
In his notebook, Sam wrote: Driver very drunk but a good driver—went like the wind—said in French he was the King of drivers. The other chap, very drunk too (both good-natured) called himself the Captain of Mont Blanc—had made more ascents than any man–48 & his brother 37. He spoke German. Driver invited a nurse & baby in as we approached Chamounix . The men took rooms at the Hotel d’Angleterre.
September 6 Friday – Sam and Joe took the one-day excursion recommended by the Baedecker travel guide, and climbed the Montanvert. From there they “crossed the Mer de Glace & ascended the confounded moraine.” Sam noted that the most delicious water he had in Europe was from the glacier. Sam’s smooth shoes made him uncomfortable on the ice and had a touch of acrophobia 70 feet above the glacier. It was an easy descent except for one trouble spot, the Mauvais Pas. By evening the men returned to their hotel. Sam “Looked at Jupiter & his moons thro’ telescope”.
From pages 263-4 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891:
Sam and Twichell took a final Alpine trip during their last days together on the Continent. They railed to Martigny on September 4, stayed overnight at the Hôtel Clerc, and hiked the next day for over eight hours past Tête-Noire to Argentiére, France. Footsore, they hired a diligence to carry them the final six miles to Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc, where they registered at the Hôtel d’Angleterre. They devoted the entire day of September 6 to climbing the Montenvert eminence, first “to the Hôtel des Pyramides, which is perched on the high moraine which borders the Glacier des Bossons,” as Sam reported in A Tramp Abroad, then to the Hôtel du Montenvert, which commanded a view of “the great glacier, the famous Mer de Glace.” They descended by a different route, the steep and rocky Mauvais Pas or “villainous path,” which the Baedeker guide cautioned “elderly travellers and those subject to giddiness” to avoid.”
The next morning Sam and Twichell left aboard one of the diligences that regularly ran the fifty miles between Chamonix and Geneva, where they rejoined the other Clemenses at the Hôtel de l’Ecu de Genéve. Twichell left the city the following afternoon for Liverpool and a steamer back to America.