With our friends from Singapore we have been exploring the hills around the ski resort town of Chamonix. The town to nestled in a huge glacial valley at the base of Mt Blanc which at 4800m is the highest moutain in Europe. Just to the north is the Swiss border and Geneva and through the tunnel to the east is Italy.
Yesterday after the half marathon we walked up to Lac Blanc which is perched above the valley looking out towards Mt Blanc on the opposite side of the valley. The climb began with a hillside of tight zigzigs and ascended 800m onto a balcony looking over Chamonix. Amongst the throngs of walkers we spotted heaps of wildlife and local deer.
The lake was in a small valley with remanents of last winters snow covering the mountains on all sides. The view from the turqouise lake across the valley was surreal. We ended the walk with another haul accoss an escarpment of rock to a ski station at about 2800m. A good day of climbing.
Today we did the big tourist thing here and caught the chairlift up to a point high above the valley called Angille di Midi. This peak is 3800m and the highest cable car in the world. The views were out of this world and an amazing view into the mountaineering landscape. From this point we caught another cable car across about 4km of glaciers to the Italian side of the Mt Blanc massif. The views down were a little scary as you spoted climbers dodging the glaciers far below. We took heaps of photos before returning back to Chamonix to grab some lunch.
Tomorrow we are off towards Switzerland and then back towards Paris before next weekend.
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