On the third day, Chris was supposed to arrive in the afternoon, so I scoped out Aiguille du Midi late in the morning.

When you exit the gondola, you’re funneled out to a bridge, and you’re instantly greeted with this magnificent view…

^note the climbers entrance/exit

There are various viewing platforms at the station for tourists. I found one with good views of the Arête des Cosmiques, a climb that we’d do later in the week.

^can you spot the climbers???

Climbers slowly making their way back to the lift station

Lots of short ropes, and burning quads…

Walking up and down, and around the station was pretty rough on your lungs… I can’t imagine what how these folks felt on Mont Blanc…

^the answer is probably, AWESOME

I found the nap time platform for climbers

 

After this excursion, I went back to the valley, and met up with Chris. He showed up on time, and we spent on the day planning our first outing. We decided on the Vallée Blanche Traverse (a glacier walk from Aiguille du Midi to Pointe Helbronner). That evening, we found a Carrefour for food and supplies, ate dinner, and packed up. The next day, we slept in a little bit, headed back up the lift, and into the climbers’ tunnel…

Dropping in was EPIC.

^The exposure was also ridiculously scary

Looking back on the lift station

Insert default John Muir quote…

^let’s go with… “I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.” –J. Dawg

Once we hit the glacier, we had excellent views of Arête des Cosmiques

And views of Mont Blanc du Tacul

We moved past Pointe Lachenal and found Pilier Cecchinel, Pilier Boccalatte, and Aiguilles du Diable to our right

On the left was Dent du Géant (that pointy peak… also, it means Giant Tooth). I lost my topo map… so I’ll fill out the rest later…

Snow bridge crossing… and a giant hole in the glacier…

Four hours later, we made it to Italy!

We ate lunch, drank some cappuccinos, and took a gondola back to Aiguille du Midi. Along the way were nice aerial views of the Mont Blanc range!

Mont Blanc du Tacul

annnnd… another view of Arête des Cosmiques!!!