If you’re looking for something a little different on the ski slopes this winter, touring the Aiguille du Midi and skiing down the Vallee Blanche should be on your bucket list. Within minutes, you’ll become close friends with your tour guides as they help you strap on safety webbing around your waist. Soon after you’ll begin your journey from the base of the Aiguille du midi cable car which ascends from about 3,400 feet to 12,605 ft in a matter of minutes. From the observation deck at the summit, you’re next to Europe’s highest peak, Mt. Blanc at 15,774 feet where the Vallee Blanche Géant Glacier begins.
After some fantastic picture opportunities, which on a clear day go beyond the Matterhorn, it’s time to strap on the crampons to your ski boots, connect your carabiner to your partners webbing and begin descending a very narrow ridgeline where there is little room for error. A slip here would send the entire group plummeting to the valley floor nearly 9,000 feet below.
Once you descend approximately 1,000 feet, you’ll reach a flatter area where you snap into your skis and begin a tour of a lifetime as you head into a white abyss filled with ice sculptures that only nature can provide. From the top of the glacier, it takes 300 years for the ice to move down to the valley where you can explore the Mer de Glace. Fortunately, it only takes an hour so to do it on skis.
Today, you’ll really see the impact of global warming as you reach the bottom and explore the Mer de Glace. In my lifetime, over 600 meters and 3 kilometers of ice has melted away, much of it in the last decade! The race is on to see it before its gone and I’m afraid that my grandchildren will not have this chance. So, if you want to see one Europe’s greatest glaciers plan on doing it soon.
Things to know:
You can hire a tour guide at the visitor center in the middle of town and crampons at a ski shop nearby. If you are an expert skier, consider paying more for the private tour. Private tour guides will take you over more interesting terrain and ski to your ability. The group tour is cheaper to do, but I found it to be very slow because they let anyone sign up for the tour. As an expert, I could ski down the Vallee Blanche in less than an hour, but with a group it took about 5x that long.
Beginners and Intermediates should not do the tour, but unfortunately, many do. Because the visitor center does not qualify the level of skiers going on the group tour the guides are extremely cautious and rightfully so since they are guiding over areas where skiers could fall into crevasses that descend over 100 meters down. As a result, the group tour is not only more time consuming than a private guide, but much more dangerous, due to the inexperience of most people.
Also, if you have a backpack that can carry ski boots and strap your skis to the sides bring it with you. When you arrive at the end of the glacier, you will need to walk up 500+ steps to get to the lift that takes you to the train. I was able to put my sneakers in the backpack and switch out my ski boots after the skiing was done. As a result, I was able to get up the stairs much faster and easier than the rest of the group.
Have you skied the Vallee Blanche?
