Chamonix and Mont Blanc

The people here love their mountains. When I was apartment-hunting shortly after arriving in Geneva, I quickly learned to expect a brief geography lesson when looking at a new place. From every window and balcony, I would be shown the Jura mountains to the west, or the Saleve to the east across Geneva. The east-facing views received the extra prominence of being toward the Alps. There, they would say, on a clear day you can see Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc is the highest mountain peak in the Alps and the Western Europe. It is close to 5000 meters high, and is apparently a very popular destination for alpiners and others who like to clamber over mountains in the snow. For those of us less adventurous who simply want to admire the peak, there are simpler ways to visit.

I visited a couple weeks ago with some friends. We drove from Geneva to Chamonix, a little French town in a valley close to the base of the mountain. Once there, you can take two cable cars up to l'Aiguille du Midi, a peak about 1000 meters lower than Mont Blanc where a tower observatory has been built. It really makes you wonder how they got the heavy equipment up there to build it; it reminded me of a castle tower somehow perched precisely on the mountain peak, but with snow tunnels. From there you can take another little cable car to the Italian side, or another elevator up to the tip-top of the needle and the observation deck closest to the white mountain.

It was a beautiful day when I was there, clear and sunny. I could see down into the valley holding Chamonix and across layer after layer of rugged peaks that surround. The mountains all seem to be named with the French words for teeth or needles, and aptly named at that. I watched the alpiners heading out across the ridges of snow that just seemed too impossibly narrow to walk on in the Vallee Blanche. And there, rising proudly above all the rest with a pristine cap of snow, was Mont Blanc.

I grew up with mountains, and then went to grad school in a place that didn't have them. It is lovely to be back in a place that has and appreciates their mountains.