Category: mountains
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Returning to Mer de Glace for the ice cave
A day after our 6-hour ordeal, with 3 hours spent on descending from Mer de Glace to Chamonix, we returned to the scene of our adventure – by the Montenvers mountain train that we missed the day before. Sue was kicking the train that left us stranded at 1900 meters. The attraction at Mer de…
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Plan d’Aiguille to Mer de Glace
After a visit to the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842m (12,605 ft), we descended by cable car half way to the Plan de l’Aiguille at about 2,300m (7,600 ft) to start our hike. The destination is the Montenvers-Mer de Glace mountain train station at 1,913m (6,276 ft). According to the official guide, this nature trail…
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Viewing Mont Blanc from L’Aiguille du Midi
The weather of our first two days in Chamonix was lousy: overcast and rain resulting in zero visibility above 2,000m. So there is no point to go up the mountains, instead we checked out all the souvenir stores, hiking equipment stores, cafes … in town. The 3rd day was brilliant – we had cloudless blue…
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5 days in the French Alps at Chamonix
It was an easy 2-hour drive – highway all the way once outside Lausanne to Geneva and then into France (A1 then A40 aka Autoroute Blanche). We returned via Martigny, going down the mountain on the other side of the Chamonix valley, effectively circling Lac Leman once. Chamonix is located near the entrance of the Mont…
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Gorge du Trient, Valais
We went for a drive with friends towards the French/Italian border on a recent weekend. We discovered this place in the canton of Valais which is out of the pages of Nat Geo ! Located less than 2 hours drive from home, it is near Vernayaz at the foothills of the Swiss/French Alps just before…