This July I spent a week in Chamonix. We had initially envisioned spending the whole week on snow, but a combination of weather and lost car keys (plus the monetary cost) meant we only managed to spend a day in the Alpine environment. But what a day it was!
The Aiguille d’Entrèves is probably one of the most iconic routes in the region, so much so that it made the cover of the Rockfax Chamonix Guidebook. But being a popular route has its drawbacks which you’ll soon find out.
Our day starts on a brisk morning, we shivered in our down jackets whilst we drove down to the Parking du Grépon to catch the first lift up the Aiguille du Midi. The windows of the car were so fogged up that we were almost driving blind, luckily there weren’t many other vehicles on the road to contend with.
The Aiguille du Midi is a 3,842 metre tall mountain, translating literally to ‘Needle at midday’. It’s situated beside the famous Mont Blanc, and houses an impressive man-made complex accessible by cable car.
The two-stage cable car takes alpinists and tourists alike from the base up an altitude gain of over 2,800 metres in just 20 minutes. The cable car is regularly entirely booked out many days in advance (or at least it was whilst we were there). Luckily, the first hour of cable cars is reserved for alpinists, so we were able to get a booking fairly easily.
We arrive at the cable car just after 6am, joining a square full of alpinists already suited and booted up in helmets and harnesses, to find the first hour of cable cars (6am to 7am) has been delayed due to snow clearing. We end up waiting in that square until about 7am when a nearby bakery opens so I quickly run off to grab us some coffee and pastries. It’s only when I’ve just finished tapping my card that my friend rings me to tell me the lifts are finally starting! So I dash back, coffee and choco suisses in hand, to catch lift number 2, our booked lift.
Two shakey cable car journies later, we were at the peak of the Aiguille du Midi, the highest altitude I’ve ever been at (if we don’t count planes). The views were incredible and the cold air was refreshing.
You would think our cable car journey has stopped there, and though many climbers were hopping the fence warning danger of death to their various routes, we awaited our next cable car. The Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car flies over the glacier from the Aiguille du Midi right over the border into Italy, exiting at the Pointe Helbronner. This is probably the most unique border crossing I’ve ever been on, as well as the most unique cable car! Panoramic views of the whole glacier, and you could see mountaineers dotted all over.
We started our journey from Pointe Helbronner, luckily the path down to the glacier was well infrastructured. Though you had to try your best to not get put off by the many ‘danger of death’ and ’experienced mountaineers only’ signs.
Due to our delay getting up here and the popularity of the route, the path to the ridge has already been well trodden through the snow by those coming from the Italian side. Which made our job a lot easier!
In Chamonix there’s a extremely helpful building where you can go and ask guides for advice (for free!). When we told the guide about our plan to do d’Entrèves, he told us the conditions are good as long as we are patient! As the conditions had been bad the days prior, there was going to be a lot of traffic on the route and queues were likely. I didn’t quite expect the queue to be as bad as it was, and we ended up spending most of our time waiting on the ridge line. Though there were certainly worse places to be!
The queue delayed us quite a bit, and we were getting stressed about timings. The last cable car back across the border to France was around 4pm, and the time wasted waiting behind people was starting to close our window. We weren’t the only ones to feel the pressure; Lots of people behind us overtook the whole queue, taking way sketchier routes to do so.
We eventually made it down the abseils and downclimbing back to the glacier, and dashed back to the cable car. On our way in we descended a slope that felt relatively minor, but the way back up that slope was intense. Drenched in sweat and short of breath, climbing that snow slope knowing that if we stop we might miss the last lift was an epic I won’t forget. Once we made it to the catwalk steps back up to the Pointe Helbronner, we took off our crampons and I coiled the rope over my shoulders. I thought moving from a snow slope to steps would be easy but those final steps were killer, I almost fell down on all fours to get up them. We made the lift with 15 minutes to spare.
We munched on our sandwiches as we flew back to France in the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car and felt victorious. That was until we got back to the car park and couldn’t find the car key, but that’s a story for another time…
