The Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix, France
Torrential rains all night in Chamonix but it's just cloudy today. The Hotel l'Arve has free WI-FI but I'm having trouble getting on and just walked to the Tourist Information Office (two blocks away) to use theirs. They have fabulous WI-FI and a person can even sit in the square outside to pick up a great signal. By the way, McDonald's is also a completely cyber restaurant with a wonderful signal.
Since the weather was iffy, we decided to walk over to the Aiguille du Midi cable car, use our passes and then take the Montenvers train up to the Mer de Glace to see what we missed in yesterday's rain. There is always a line for the Aiguille du Midi cable car and tourists come by the busload to Chamonix just for this one excursion. They spend the day taking cable cars up and down the mountains, shopping and eating. Doesn't sound bad to me... TIP: It will be cold up there. Bring warm weather gear in your daypack. You'll need it!
The first cable car section takes you from Chamonix 1,035m/3,395' to Plan de l'Aiguille, 2,317m/7,601' in 8 minutes, crossing the forest with the Mont Blanc massif on your right at 4,810m/15,780' with the Bosson glacier at the bottom. You arrive at the Plan de l'Aiguille and change to the second section that reaches an altitude of 3,777m/12,391' in 8 minutes. This was beyond spectacular going through a thick layer of clouds...View image... and then the cable car broke through into the sun. Oohs and aahs from all the tram passengers with incredible and indescribable mountains on all sides. Definitely one of the most thrilling sights in my life. ,,,View image...
Once on top, the first thing everybody does is to begin putting on every article of clothing you brought with. The thermometer read 0 C/32 F and the wind chill made it even colder. Then begin working your way to one of the four different terraces with different views. The Chamonix terrace; Aravis terrace with views across the whole of the Chamonix Valley and Bossons glacier; Mont-Blanc terrace, access via the Mont Blanc gallery, and summit terrace at 3,842m/12,604' the highest platform accessed by a lift in the rock. Unfortunately, we couldn't see anything below us because of the clouds and we'll definitely utilize our passes and return on a clear day. By the way, it costs 40 Euros for the roundtrip without a pass.
There are orientation tables at all the terraces. The steps up to the main terrace was still extremely icy and slippery this morning. We didn't go up to the summit terrace, an additional 3 Euros, over to Italy on the Helbronner cable car, or through the mountain to the Mont Blanc terrace. FYI: Aiguille du Midi means "south needle," the direction it points. We could see teeny, tiny mountaineers making their way across the Vallee Blanche on a mountain tour.
In the Winter time, experts can ski 20km/12.6 miles down into Vallee Blanche, over the Geant Glacier, ending at Mer de Glace. If you think you are up to this, pay attention to what the Mont Blanc guides recommend...being a highly dangerous area (crevasses and seracs), we strongly recommend taking a guide and using appropriate mountain equipment: ARVA (instrument for seeking avalanche victims), spade, probe, harness, crampons, rope, etc.)... This is an adventure, with a capital A.
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