Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
11
33
Trip End
Oct 10, 2008
Chamonix,
France
Friday, September 19, 2008
The cable car ascends in two stages
Summit of Mont Blanc in background
. The first stage is to the Plan de L'Auguille, a station at about 2500m. You then change to a second cable car which takes you all the way up to the Aiguille du Midi (Midday needle) which is at 3777m. The views are spectacular back out over the town of Chamonix, and although the ascent is very steep, the ride itself is very stable with none of the nerve-wracking swinging that I have experienced on other cable cars. It is also very fast, as it has you at the summit within 20 minutes. I was a little concerned about the ascent today as I have developed a sinus infection after a few days of hayfever in Provence. I had a very bizarre experience a few years ago when I went up Mt Pilatus in Lucerne with a similar sinus infection. The pressure built up so much inside my sinus that my nerve was compressed and the whole side of my face and teeth went numb like at the dentist. It lasted about an hour before this high-pitched squealing sound came from my face and the pressure finally equalised. Matt had also had a bad experience the last time he went up Mont Blanc as he got quite bad altitude sickness and had to come straight back down.
So we were expecting the worst but were pleasantly surprised that at 3842m the only thing we experienced was some minor shortness of breath when climbing the stairs up to the viewing platforms
Matt and Mont Blanc
. The views were absolutely incredible and as it was a clear day we could see snow-capped mountain peaks in every direction. We could see across into the Italian Alps and the Swiss Alps. It was just amazing. Another highlight was watching the groups of climbers that we had shared the cable car ride with, head off down the ridge of snow from the station, and out onto the mountain. They looked like little ants in packs of 2 and 3, all headed off to different parts of the mountain top to explore. After warming ourselves with a coffee on our return to Chamonix, we headed off to catch the train up the mountain to the glacier known as the Mer de Glace. The cog railway journey was fantastic and climbed through alpine forest, with great views of a different part of the valley from that we saw this morning. From the top of Mont Blanc we had been able to see the start of the Mer de Glace, but we weren't quite prepared for the size of it when we disembarked from the train at Montenvers. It is 14km long, 1800m wide and up to 400m deep. Apparently it moves at up to 90m per year in the centre. It is quite dirty to look at from the viewing station due to all the rock and debris that has fallen on top of it from the surrounding mountains. Once you get down close to it though, you are able to see the blue ice that is much more spectacular. You are able to catch a gondola down to the glacier itself, but we opted for the 30 minute walk down along part of the marked walking trail
As high as you can go without climbing
. Each year an ice grotto is carved out of the glacier to allow you to walk about 50m inside the glacier. It is quite pretty as they shine coloured lights on the ice and the whole cave glows in different colours. There is nothing more off putting that standing on a glacier and hearing a loud rumble, that can only be the movement of the ice under your feet. It certainly gave us much more motivation to get ourselves back up the 300 stairs to the gondola in a timely manner. Spent the afternoon snoozing in the hotel, then headed out for a few beers at the local pub. Plenty of locals still in their climbing gear also had the same idea and made us feel as though we hadn't really earned our beers. Dinner was goat's cheese hamburger and crepe from a cool little burger place in the main street of town called Poco Loco.
