Aiguille du midi and la Vallee Blanche
Wednesday 23rd March. The ascent to Aiguille du midi involves two cable cars with an altitude gain of 2742m from Chamonix (1035m). The upper cable car station (3777m) is just below the summit (3842m). The Vallee Blanche is a 20km off piste route on the Mer de Glace glacier ('sea of ice'). I had to catch the 08.00 bus to be at the base station in Chamonix for an 08:45 meet. Here I met our group of 8, 6 Brits and 2 Americans and our guide Jacqui (male - I'm not sure if I've spelt that right). Incidentally, I chatted to him at one of our stops - he is the same age as me and has been a mountain guide for the same period that I have been a Dr - so he's got a lot of experience. We were a equipped with a totally unnecessary avalanche transponder (turns out mine was off for the duration anyway) and a harness for roping up. We got through to the first cable car only to be told it was too windy at the mid-station for the cable car to operate. Fortunately, I had my reading book and specs with me and passed the waiting hour pleasantly enough -engrossed in The Revenant ("the book that inspired the movie"). Eventually we were under way....
Below is a gallery - click on the first image to enlarge it and see any captions - then right arrow to take you to the next image.
On the ridge was a mountain restaurant at the top of a popular summer walking route from Chamonix. We ski'd down the track from it back to Chamonix. This was more like a narrow icy louge run with patches of bare earth thrown in for extra skill testing - so I couldn't really stop to take any pictures. Eventually we came out onto one of the nursery slopes in Chamonix - and I caught the bus back to the hotel - arriving at 15:30.