Steps in the Right Direction: Day 12 Hiking to the Midi, Standing up at the top of what we looked at yesterday.

This morning we take a historic 100-year-old cog-wheel train up to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice), one of the largest glaciers in the Alps. This cog train was used for some of the first hiking adventures in the area when people would come to Chamonix in earlier times. People would take the train up, hire a guide to help them cross the glacier, and then hike back down. Montenvers (6276'), the upper station, has a great panorama view of the Mer de Glace (a very scenic glacier and one you most likely have heard of. It sounds a lot like Mirror de Glass. We stand here for a awhile, none of us really wanting to get started for the day. Getting started means this is the last day of hiking...

 We start our morning trek taking the ever so popular slight incline up the mountain, switchbacking our way along. At one spot we stop to let our group gather back together, there are lots of pictures being taken today. While waiting an eighty seven year old hiker friend of Danielle's hikes up towards our group. Later when he is out of ear shot, Danielle tells us two stories about this man. Twenty years ago his son fell into a crevasse in the Mer de Glace glacier and died. So each year this man hikes up to the overlook to honor and visit his son. Last summer some mountaineers found the remains of his son on the glacier and they had his final memorial service. The second story takes place when this man had Danielle guide him to the top of the one of the over looking summits by Mer de Glace. I am sorry I can not tell you which summit as when Danielle says the name in French...I hear it in English, and the spellings and sounds do not come out the same.

 We arrive at a flat balcony area filled with sone cairns. The Signal Forbes (7,217') grants us even better vistas. It is here that a man named Forbes did research on the glacier. We traverse on the Northern Grand Balcon to the Plan de l'Aiguille (7,518'), mid-station of the cable car to Aiguille du Midi. On this high path we have lovely views over the Chamonix Valley and to the Aiguilles Rouges. We do not stop here as we are now trying to beat the afternoon storms that are predicted. Here we say good bye to Danielle and Eve as the rest of us take the cable car up to the Midi. The Midi is so far away that you can not see the cable cars with the naked eye. As the car goes higher up the mountain it gets smaller and smaller until poof, you can't see it. We are told that we can only stay an hour and half up at the top. I think there are so many people up there this is how they manage crowd control. When we arrive we are handed an exit number and told to be back at 2:45. We spend the time exploring all of the different spaces and views from the Midi. From the top of the Aiguille du Midi (~12,600') there are spectacular views over the entire Mont Blanc range and of the Swiss, French and Italian Alps. On a clear day it is possible to see the Matterhorn, Monta Rosa and the Grand Combin in Switzerland. We have a growing cloud bank moving in so we had pretty good views considering that. We can see some climbers down on the Mont Blanc glacier and they look like fly specs against the huge vast mass of the top of the mountain.

 We visit a few exhibits inside the building and watch some videos on the climbing history of Mont Blanc. We had thought there would be an ice cave like at Jungfrau, but on closer reading we learned that the ice caves are way down at the station where we started this morning. The time up at the top went pretty fast and our exit time was near, so we went and got into our boarding group. We waited about fifteen minutes to board our cable car down. In this time the clouds have totally surrounded the Midi making it impossible to see even a foot. The heavy cloud cover surrounding us seemed rather ominous, but we came out of the clouds about half of the way down. By the time we reached Chamonix it had begun to rain. This is the first rain we have had during the day since we arrived in Europe.

Tonight we gathered together for a special dinner at a garden/farm to table restaurant. All of the food was local and most of it grown right on the sight. We raised a toast to an excellent adventure and good friendship. After dinner we sat around the large table and enjoyed conversation and had some herbal tea. But I shall never forget Danielle asking us if we wanted some herbal tea. The French do not have this herbal sound in their language, it sounds like more like hairball, and this is what we laughed and laughed at. Hairball tea any one?

It is still raining after starting late in the afternoon it has rained all through dinner and stopped just as we were finishing up. Half of our group decides to walk the mile back to the hotel and half of us take a ride with Caroline. Kathi and I have our signed certificate that says we completed our hike around Mont Blanc, so we decide on two accounts to ride in the van. One we have finished the hike, two it might rain… We leave the other half of the group and drive through Chamonix, as we are about half way back the heavens open up and it just pours rain. Pours so hard it was hard to hear everyone in the van groan and then burst into laughter.

This is the first hiking adventure we have been on that our rain gear stayed dry!

What a great group of people, I shall miss each and every one of them. Our vacation was made richer and fuller because of the special group of people who came together to share this amazing experience.

Brian and Sue from Arizona

Rita and Margaret from the state of Washington

Bill and Jenny from Florida

Chip and Cole from Atlanta

Maryann from Indiana

Kathi and Penny from Wisconsin

Danielle, Eve and Caroline, all from Chamonix