Journey to The Top of Europe, Almost

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Having seen what the queues were like on previous days and being very keen to get the most out of those €234 tickets, we decided to make it an early start for our trip up to the Aiguille du Midi.

We got to the cable-car at 6.45am, which was about 15 minutes after it opened. It was starting to get quite busy, but nothing like we had seen it previously. Almost everyone was carrying rope and ice-axes, so it was true what we had heard that the first people up there in the morning are the climbers, rather than the tourists like us who were just going up for the views. We did standout some what. We'd had the foresight to put on some warm clothes and some decent shoes, but clearly we were not professional climbers like everyone else.

The cable-car goes half way to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 meters and then there's a second cable-car that goes the rest of the way to Aiguille du Midi at 3,842 meters. It was amazing just how much colder it was when we got off that second cable-car - it shouldn't have been a surprise, given that there was snow everywhere. There were some people up there in shorts and I bet they were regretting it.

We weren't done getting there yet. On top of the peak is a building with a big observation tower and we finally needed to get a lift to the top of that tower. The big advantage of going up with the climbers is that they're not in the least bit interested in the observation tower, so that was relatively deserted. We had loads of room to enjoy all the views and take loads of photographs.

We could see all the climbers setting-off along a precarious looking ridge. Definitely out of our league. We could also see what looked like some sort of makeshift base-camp for the people climbing Mont Blanc. There were loads of small tents all spread-out over a flat plateau of snow below us. Presumably getting the cable-car would be cheating, so it was one day to get to that point, an over night and then a second day to get to the highest point in Europe at 4,810 meters.

Once we were done, we needed to reverse the whole process to get back down again. The cable-car station in Chamonix was now extremely busy and it was all tourists. We had definitely done the right thing going up early with the climbers.

Next we headed for the train station for the Montenvers train, which goes up to the glacier at 1,913 meters. Again, it was still early so the queues were not bad. There were fantastic views, both from the train and once up there, but the glacier itself didn't look that special. It seemed to be covered of rocks and scrub.

Now if I could remember by geography lessons at school (I did quiz my son given that he's doing GCSE geography), that's probably to be expected, but it didn't make for picturesque photos. What was interesting, as we walked down to the glacier were the signs that indicated where the glacier had once reached, say in 1900, 1950, 1990 and 2000. It was amazing how much it had receded in just the last 13 years.

Once we reached the glacier there's the Grotte de Glace to have a look at. This is effectively a man-made cave cut into the ice, with sculptures and coloured lights to add to the experience. The glacier might look dirty from the outside, but the ice is crystal clear on the inside. It was like looking into an infinitely thick sheet of glass.

There are some gondolas that run from the train station to some steps just above the grotto, however these were not running when we got there, so we walked down. After feeling the pain after walking back up those steps, we were relieved to see that the gondolas were running when we reached them.

The train was almost completely empty when we got on to head back down to Chamonix (it was still quite early), so we sat at the front right behind the driver. We wished we hadn't as the train was delayed and we could see first-hand that it seemed to be something to do with the brakes, which they kept checking. We got down without incident thankfully, however we passed lots of trains that were on the way up, but were backed-up waiting for us to pass.

We went back to the apartment to have lunch and then we decided that it would be third time lucky for the Le Brévent peak. Once we got there, it was amazing to think that only two days ago all we could see was cloud. The views are amazing.

We could see a lake below us, so I decided that I would like to walk down to it. It was completely deceptive however. Looking at it, you make a judgement on how big it is and hence how far away it is (or is it the other way round?) However it was a lot further away than I though (I was warned when the sign said it was a one hour 15 minute walk. It was also extremely rocky and the path was really only visible due to little icons that had been painted at intervals on the rocks. You needed to make sure that when you reached one icon, you could see where the next one was before walking any further. All things considered, it was a tough round trip and the end of a busy day. We had certainly got our money's worth out of those tickets.

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Photos

Aiguille du Midi
The observation tower looking up from Plan d'Aiguille

Mont Blanc
The view from Aiguille de Midi, including the makeshift base camp

Montenvers Glacier
Looking down on the dirty-looking glacier

Grotte de Glace
Lights in the ice grotto

Le Brévent View
View from just below Le Brévent

Chamonix
The view over Chamonix and Mont Blanc

Path Marking
Follow these at all costs