Reaching dizzying heights at Chamonix-Mont Blanc

The view atop the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842 metres took my breath away in more ways than one. The 360 degree view of the French, Swiss and Italian alps left me gawking. I couldn't believe I actually saw the Matterhorn all the way out there in the Swiss Alps after hearing from travellers how they spent three days at Zermatt and could not see the Matterhorn! I was also breathless from the altitude. I found myself taking my time climbing those steps between the many viewing terraces at the Aiguille du Midi, right next to Mont Blanc, Europe's highest peak.

We had planned on doing a quick up and down trip on the cable car from Chamonix but once we were up there, I found it very difficult to leave as there were so many things to see. So a short stay of an hour or two turned into four or five hours, even as we felt the altitude in our heads.

It was a calm, clear day and we could literally see forever, as you can see from the photos below. The gondola to the Italian side was also up and running because there was no wind - repeat visitors have mentioned that they were not able to get to the Italian side because of the wind.  I could see why because it was a really long stretch of line between the Aiguille du Midi on the French side and the Punta Helbronner on the Italian side - it stretched over three miles with no solid pylon, propped by a "suspended pylon," a line stretched between two peaks 1,300 feet apart (according to Rick Steves). It was hard to pass up the opportunity to sail across the "Mer de glace" and the French-Italian border in a private gondola on a 40 minute ride.

Looking down from the gondola, we could see the crevasses on the glacier and the footprints of the hikers, some even going to the edge of the crevasses to look over. We saw the source of the Mer de glace that we saw the day before in Montenvers, when we were at the foot of the retreating glacier. It was sad to see in Montenvers how much ground the glacier had lost at its tip but up near the top, all seemed well.

When our heads could not take it any more, we took the cable car back to Chamonix with only a brief stop at the transfer station. It was particularly delightful to return to a delicious French dinner at one of the many good restaurants in the town. After two and a half weeks of German and Swiss food, it was wonderful to come back to finer cuisine. - no denying it, the French knows how to eat.

This was the last stop of our amazing Alpine tour (Rick Steves' My Way) - a brief but awesome taste of the Alps. Here's hoping that one day we could return to some of these places. I have nothing but praise and appreciation for our tour leader Mary, who worked with us to make sure we did the right things on this "My Way" tour, giving us good tips and advice based on our individual needs and not expediency. Thank you, Mary.

Panoramic view as far as the eye can see at the top of the Aiguille du Midi, beside Mont Blanc - the Matterhorn is near the centre, a triangle in the last row of mountains (photo above) and in the photo below, second on the left. For some reason, it is called "Cervin" in French.

Close up of the Mattherhorn behind the larger mountain on the left

Mountain climbers coming down the slope of Mont Blanc

 

Rock-climber in the foreground of these mountains that are all part of the Mont Blanc massif

The Aiguille du Midi is rock-climber's dream

This is the ridge between Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc, another challenge for climbers

View of same ridge from Aiguille du Midi looking at Mont Blanc

This rock itself looks like a man climbing the mountain

Black birds near the top

Our ride on the gondola took us over the Mer de Glace (sea of ice) which goes all the way down to Montenvers

Gondolas go back and forth between Aiguille due Midi in France and Punta Helbronner in Itay with a "pause" in between on this rock (below)

 

Punta Helbronner in Italy

The view on the Italian side

Crevasses

View of rock being climbed from the gondola

The ice tunnel leading to the point of arrival of the climbers

The view of Chamonix from the top at Aiguille du Midi (above) and view of the same valley from Montenvers near the foot of the glacier - what a height we have travelled!

The receding glacier at Montenvers  - gondolas take people down to the ice cave below which has itself treated

The human face on the mountain across from Montenvers

View of Chamonix from the covered bridge

This marks the end of our Alpine tour. Watch out for Thailand and Hong Kong coming up next (posts in a couple of months)