In my estimation, a great vacation will take you to various situations and environments, ultimately making your escape from the everyday enjoyable to the nth degree. We’re enjoying ourselves.
Today, I sent a tweet from way up in the sky atop the Aiguille du Midi summit at Mont-Blanc. How ‘way up’ is that? Take the height of the CN Tower and multiply it by about 6.94. Yeah, I know. Of course, sending the tweet wasn’t the big deal, the big deal was the astonishing beauty our planet delivers and seeing how small we really are against this backdrop (all while incurring roaming charges at about 4km high, ha!).
We started by catching a bus away from Geneva back into France to the mountainside village of Chamonix. From there, we hopped aboard the first cable car, which in itself is an experience, let me tell you. The jolly Germans(?) aboard certainly made the concept of our hanging by a thread a little less… obvious, but their screams when the cable car took a dip was hilarious, to say the least.
Now, while Chamonix was nice and toasty, somewhere in the 20s, once you hit the halfway point on your way to the summit you definitely start to shiver. Luckily for me, I had my trusty winter tights on under my jeans and Claudia’s extra sweater on my shoulders (I thought this was a summer vacation!). We didn’t spend any time lingering at the halfway point (until later, as you will read) and took the second cable car up to the summit. Upon arrival, we were breathless literally (the altitude takes a slight toll) and figuratively (breathtaking view).
Once at the summit, you are not quite at the top. You see, there is a short elevator ride to a little bit of a tower. When those doors open and you step out, you are officially 3842m above sea level and completely vulnerable… in a humbling way.
After a couple hot chocolates, a baguette and emmental, and a brownies and muffin, we had our fill of the summit and headed back down to the halfway point, where we took it upon ourselves to take a walk on the path less traveled. A photo op or two later, we headed back down and always looked back.
