Chamonix: first cable car to the Aiguille du Midi, then walk the glacier down to Montenvers
14 playbooks shared · added to 45 trips
- 6:20 am1Maison de la Montagne: meet the guide, gear checkChamonix
Collect rented mountain boots, crampons and harness from Sanglard Sports the evening before — nothing in Chamonix opens at 06:00 and the guide will not wait. The price here is the kit hire; the guide's day is billed separately. Bring sunglasses rated category 4, not sunglasses you like.
9 min walk · 650 m - 6:55 am2Aiguille du Midi cable car, first departureChamonix
First car is 06:10 in high season (roughly 1 July to 23 August) and later the rest of the summer; slots are timed and sell out days ahead online. Around €83 return with dynamic pricing from about €60. You are only using the up half today — say so, the single is cheaper. It is 20 minutes and 2800 vertical metres from the valley, which is the fastest altitude gain in Europe and exactly why people get headaches at the top.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.6 km - 7:45 am3The 3842 m terrace and the Pas dans le Vide, emptyChamonix
The glass box over the 1000 m drop has a forty-minute queue by 10:00 and none at all before 08:00 — this is the only reason the early car matters for non-climbers too. Move slowly; at 3842 m with no acclimatisation, stairs feel absurd. The tube to the north terrace is where the Mont Blanc view actually is.
17 min by train or taxi · 17 km - 8:30 am4Roped down the arête and across the Vallée BlancheChamonix
A private Compagnie des Guides day is around €500 and this is not a place to economise: the arête down from the lift is a knife-edge with a fixed line, and the glacier below is crevassed under snow bridges all summer. Group departures exist and are roughly a third of the price if your dates are flexible. The guide sets the turnaround; if the refreeze was poor overnight they will call it, and that call is what you are paying for.
16 min by train or taxi · 16 km - 12:40 pm5Lunch on the Refuge du Requin terraceChamonix
Perched above the icefall halfway down the Vallée Blanche and reachable on foot only across the glacier, which keeps it honest. Soup, charcuterie, tarte — order at the counter, cash is safest. They also take overnight bookings if you want to split the traverse over two days.
8 min by train or taxi · 3.3 km - 1:40 pm6Mer de Glace to the Montenvers laddersChamonix
The last hour is the education: a staircase and a series of ladders up the flank, with year markers showing where the ice surface used to be. It has lost well over 100 m of thickness since the 1990s and you climb every one of them. The ice cave is at the bottom of the gondola from Montenvers and is worth the twenty minutes if your legs have anything left.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.7 km - 4:15 pm7Montenvers cog railway back down to ChamonixChamonix
The little red rack railway has run since 1908; first train up is 08:30 in summer and they go every 15 to 60 minutes depending on demand. Buy the single down — around €30 — you arrived on foot. It lands you at Chamonix's main station, five minutes from the téléphérique you left this morning.
8 min by train or taxi · 4.0 km - 7:30 pm8Dinner at Le Panier des 4 SaisonsChamonix
Down an alley off the main street, small, and booked out most of the summer — reserve the day you book the guide. Savoyard cooking that is not just melted cheese. If it is full, La Maison Carrier out toward Les Praz does the same register with more room.