Mont Blanc

We finally made it to Chamonix, France and went up to see the tallest peak in Europe!

This has been on CJ's (and mine of course...) must see/do list since we found out we were going to live here. Mont Blanc is the tallest peak in Europe - 15,872 feet above sea level, and according to Wikipedia it is the World's 11th in prominence.

I grew up knowing about it, read books and poems written about it by famous European writers etc. Never thought I would actually get near it. It's just not something little girls from Poland do in their spare time...

But now that we're here.... Chamonix is only an hour outside of Geneva, very convenient, and we picked the perfect day for the trip. Gorgeous and hot on the bottom, hardly a cloud in the sky. Fantastic.

Little bit of history of the mountain.  

The first recorded ascent of Mont Blanc was on 8 August 1786 by Jacques Balmat and the doctor Michel Paccard. This climb, initiated by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who gave a reward for the successful ascent, traditionally marks the start of modern mountaineering. The first woman to reach the summit was Marie Paradis in 1808.

Since the French Revolution the issue of the ownership of the summit has spurred many debates. Previously, the entire mountain had formed part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, one of the pre-unitarian Italian states.  Defeated several times by Napoleon, the King of Sardinia, with the Treaty of Paris of May 15, 1796, was forced to cede Savoy and Nice to France.  Finally a convention of 7 March 1861 taking into consideration the limits of the massif, and drawing the border on the icecap of the Mont Blanc, and recognized it as both French and Italian.

The summit of Mont Blanc is a thick, perennial ice and snow dome whose thickness varies, so no exact and permanent summit elevation can be determined. But accurate measurements have been made. For a long time its official elevation was 4,807 m (15,771 ft). Then in 2002, the IGN and expert surveyors, with the aid of GPS technology, measured it to be 4,810.40 m (15,782 ft 2 in).

In unfortunate news: The mountain was the scene of two fatal air crashes of Air India Flight 245 in 1950 and Air India Flight 101 in 1966. Both planes were approaching Geneva airport and the pilots miscalculated their descent; 48 and 117 people, respectively, died.

Now the summit is ascended by an average 20,000 mountaineer-tourists each year and could be considered an easy, yet long, ascent for someone who is well trained and used to the altitude. However, every year the Mont Blanc massif takes many victims, and in peak weekends (normally around August) the local rescue service flies an average of 12 missions, mostly directed towards people in trouble on one of the normal routes of the mountain. There are courses that require knowledge of high-altitude mountaineering, a guide (or at least a veteran mountaineer), and proper equipment. It is a long course that includes delicate passages and the hazard of rock slides. [As a side note we did ask about a climbing expedition and apparently it costs around $2,000 for the guide, training and equipment, and it is about a 5 day trip.]

Ok m enough factual info.

Here are some pictures we took that day that will hopefully convey the size and majesty of Mont Blanc. We got there around noon, got our tickets for the telepherique, had lunch while we waited for our turn and then went up.

It is truly an amazing sight to see. I will try to upload all of our pictures from this trip to an online album since I can't show you all of them here and THEY ARE worth seeing...

Here is the town...

Here's some shots from the way up. We took the cable car to the peak called L'Aiguille du Midi.

This little hut is where you change to a second cable car to go all the way to the top...

And here are some shots from the top... It was COLD!

 This glacier is called Mar de la Glace - the Sea of Ice. We're planning to explore it next time we go to Chamonix.

 CJ is not scared of the cold!

 And here she is... The nice rounded peak is the fabulous Mont Blanc.

We also saw a group of alpinists get ready and go out there...

There were even so crazies who were rock climbing! Wow that is something... I mean if you fall - it's 100% death on the spot...

What an insane adventure! We are definitely planning to go back, explore the glacier and do some hiking around threre. It does not sound like we (or CJ that is) will be climbing to the top of the actual Mt. Blanc unless someone feels like sponsoring us... haha... Still it is so cool to have this mountain literally in our backyard...