European High
No, we are not referring to the chemical kind but the 4,808-meter geological kind. Specifically, we are referencing Mont Blanc, the fourth tallest mountain in Europe. It would be the tallest, but geographers include the Caucasus mountains and Turkey as parts of Europe when deciding what’s tallest in Europe. Let’s just say Mont Blanc is pretty darn tall at 15,774 feet.
View as we ascended. And yes we are going up that peak ahead.
We had a chance to visit Mont Blanc during our recent European adventure. Being in France visiting the mountain is very civilized. A gondola whisks you to a very nice viewpoint called Aiguille du Midi at 12,600 feet.
The cable station at Aiguille du Midi. An elevator gets you to the upper viewpoints. It’s all very civilized.
The summit station has food, restrooms and curio shops. There is another cable car that can connect you to Italy. The summit station provides a “jumping off” point to climb the Mount Blanc massif or to explore the snowfields and glaciers of the local range. There is even a glass room hung out over an abyss that falls away to Chamonix far below. The main attraction for us though was the views of the massif and into Switzerland and Italy. A clearing early October storm provided fresh snow and clouds for conditions that were spectacular. Altogether, a photographic high point for our trip.
The view down into the valley and Chamonix.
Thanks for stopping by. We have several more stories planned for the very near future. More Mount Blanc, the Dolomites, food and since it’s Europe there will probably be a church or two. So check back often to see what else we saw on our European adventure.
As usual these images are ‘light boxed’ which means if you click on them they will expand to fill the screen. If you can view these on a pad or large monitor, you’ll be able to appreciate them more. Also you can see a 10 minute slideshow/video of our trip on our YouTube channel at: youtube.com/@BoydandKathyphotos