Stuck on the Vallée Blanche

September 10, 2016 Saturday

12-24 10.5 The Alps Chamonix

I've been following the story of the stranded Alps cable-car riders having ridden this very cable a few years ago. My first thought: not a place to spend the night. The cars are tiny, they barely hold four, and it's cold hanging up there surrounded by frozen water. Even in summer - the pictures below were taken in August - there is ice and snow everywhere you look.

But what a beautiful ride this is, eerily silent, just fluffy snow below and mountain peaks all around. The cable is called the Valle Blanche aerial tramway and it runs between the Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy. The tiny glass cars ride a 5 km-long cable, one of the highest and longest in the world, as they pass over a glacier dotted with ant-trails of mountain climbers.

I'm listening to Moby's Porcelain.

At the top

Vallée Blanche aerial tramway

It's one of the longest cable spans on earth, and it's eerily quiet and beautiful. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Inside the Vallée Blanche tramway

On the trip back from Helbronner to Aiguille du Midi we shared a car with some fellow northern Califonians.

Looking down from the Aiguille du Midi

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