A Spectacular Glacier

Well, we couldn’t get tickets for the cable car trip to the top until 12:30 on Friday, so I had to scramble to change plans. It all worked out magically however, even if my legs are so sore I can hardly walk right now!

I didn’t realize until a couple of days beforehand that you had to make reservations to go up to the top of Midi du Aiguille. It is without question the most popular summer thing to do in the Chamonix Valley. So, I went to Plan B.

I woke Maddy and Torie up at 7am. Breakfast was delivered to our chalet around 7:25, so we ate quickly and headed out. (By the way, having a French breakfast delivered to our chalet as part of the price was a bonus we didn’t expect – pretty amazing. That’s why we had egg and yogurt for lunch a couple of days – because we thought we needed to supply our own breakfast, so that’s mostly what we bought when we went shopping).

We drove to the eastern end of the valley – almost to Switzerland. We stopped at the base of Grand Montets, and took the Lognan cable car up. Of the 15 or so people on the cable car, another woman and the three of us were the only ones wearing shorts. The rest had heavy winter clothing on, and carried climbing gear. Turns out, the four of us were the only ones getting off at the midpoint (6,463 feet up).

I had picked this hike because it was supposed to be both flat and just 90 minutes roundtrip, with the turnaround point at the Argentiere Glacier. However, the signposts showed it a three hour roundtrip, which we did not have time for. Slightly deflated, we headed out anyhow. We saw some beautiful wildflowers, crossed over mountain streams, and had great views down the valley to the mountains on the other side.

We also were fighting the sun, as we were hiking uphill (not flat at all, but we consoled ourselves that it would be easier coming back to the cable car). We were getting close to the turnaround time on my watch, but then we turned another corner and the glacier was right there in all its splendor. We were so happy we high-fived – we got the view we came for. We then climbed a much steeper part to get higher alongside the glacier.

It turns out the three hour hike would bring you higher up along the glacier, but we saw the whole front, spilling over. It reminded Maddy and I of our glacier trekking in Alaska. The view of the glacier (despite fighting the sun) was both literally and figuratively cool. It was literally cool because the air coming off it was cold, and figuratively cool because the front of a glacier is a spectacular sight. It was great scrambling over the rocks.

We then headed back to the cable car, down to the base at 4,107 feet above sea level.  On the way back to the chalet, we stopped at the patisserie in Les Houches for chocolate and raspberry tarts.