The weather forecast for the day looked good so most of the folks at the B&B decided to head out and take the cable car to Aiguille Du Midi (3,842 meters - 12,601 feet in elevation). We started at the station in Chamonix which is just a short walk from the B&B (at 1,035 meters - 3,395 feet). The first leg takes you up to Plan de L'Aiguille (at 2,317 meters). You then catch a second cable car which rises the remainder of the distance with no towers in between. At the highest point you are almost vertical with a sheer rock wall in front of you. Once you reach the top the views are absolutely incredible. Pictures cannot capture the scale, beauty and grandeur over the 360 degree views.
Yes - that is the Matterhorn past the larger mountain on the left (on the first picture). We took a lot of pictures up there and we were getting ready for the next leg of the trip and we both started feeling the effects of the altitude (as did most everyone else we talked to later in the day).
We then headed back down to the first station and set off on what was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour hike over to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace glacier. Not sure who came up with the time estimate but it took us closer to 3 hours and the hiking was quite difficult with a lot of rocks and quite a bit of up and down hiking. We got the 4:30 cog train in Montenvers back to Chamonix. We were all pretty tired at the end of a long day.
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