The Ice Palace At the Roof of Europe

After a nice lunch of eggs, yogurt, and baguettes, we headed back into Chamonix (staying in Les Houches is the equivalent of staying in Alexandria and going into DC for tourist stuff, albeit less traffic yet more parking hassles).

Even though the electronic sign said the parking for the Aiguille di Midi cable cars was full at 265 cars, we went right in and found a parking space, manically laughing at the people still searching in vain for a spot (okay, I was laughing on the inside, but mostly relieved by our luck).

In some weird French custom, we were only able to reserve four tickets for these coveted timed entries, but Aurora at Les Granges d'en Haut was correct, they sold us a fifth ticket.  Despite that one weird ticketing quirk, the rest of what could be a bad system worked seamlessly.  Along with the tickets, they handed me a piece of plastic larger than a credit card with a number on it.  When that number came up, it was your turn to get in the queue, go through the ticket entry, and onto the cable car.

Packed into it like sardines, the first cable car zipped us from the base at 3,395 feet to the next station at Plan de l'Aiguille (7,602 feet) in a matter of mere minutes.  We then took the next cable to the top, again in a matter of minutes.  It's a very dramatic ride, as you see mountaineers climbing up and the car looks as though it is headed straight for the rock face of the 12,600 foot high peak.

Once up top, we walked through the hallways cut into the rock to the other side, where we took the Helbronner, a system of gondolas that goes to the Italian Alp of Mont Blanc du Tacul (the French name for it).  You don't get out on the Italian side at 14,000, but the passage takes you above the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) glacier, and provides sweeping views of Mont Blanc.  There are views all around, and we were entertained watching the mountaineers crossing the glacier and climbing the rock face.  I could handle crossing the glacier, but certainly not the rock face climbing.

Carol and I were in one gondola, and the girls were in another (it was max of four people per).  Carol got a bit nervous the first time we stopped for what seemed a long time, but by the second stop (as people in other gondolas unloaded/loaded) we were used to it.  The girls were passing the time by singing and looking at the views). 

The great part was, we did not have to wait long for any of the cable cars.  Once we got off the gondola, we walked around the different viewing platforms.  They afforded us wonderful views of Mont Blanc, Mer de Glace, all of the surrounding mountains, down into the Chamonix Valley, across to our chalet at Les Houches, across to Domaine Brevent-Flegere, and far beyond.  The pictures don't do it justice.

We all wore shorts, and while it was cold, the sun made it easy to handle.  Most of the people were quite bundled up, but you really don't need it.  We had to wait about ten minutes before we could go back down to the midpoint (Plan de l'Aiguille), but since that's the longest we had to wait, it was certainly no problem.

All of the mountaineers, hikers, and ramblers made me want to do one more hike, so Maddy, Torie, and I hopped off at the mid-point to do the 4,207 foot hike down to Chamonix, while Julia and Carol made plans to check out Chamonix more closely.

The roundtrip tickets are not cheap, but they have no problems selling out.  It's a great way to see a lot in a short time, and you can stay up as long as you want, or do some hikes from the mid-point as well.