Going up?
The Aiguille du Midi towers 3842m above sea level and can be seen from Chamonix, France when it's not shrouded in cloud. It is serviced by an awesome telecabine system which ascends the 2800m from Chamonix in 20 minutes.
The Station
The Aiguille du Midi station has multiple viewing platforms, a gift shop and a cafe. I'm not sure if the cappuccino I had was the highest in the world but it was certainly the highest I've ever had! The engineering required to build such a structure blows my mind but to think they did this in 1955 is amazing. Who first looked up at the peak and thought - 'I wonder if we could...'?
Going down?
People make the trip for one of three reasons; to see a fantastic views, to climb one of the many nearby peaks or to snowboard or ski down the Vallée Blanche. Those that choose the latter are a special breed as the route down takes a high degree of skill, mountain craft and nerves of steel. My stomach turned just watching them exit the ice tunnel, go through the gate and then traverse down l'Arête which is a ridge leading from the Aiguille to the start of the Vallée Blanche (a 20km route with 2700m of vertical descent).
Spin drift
The weather on the Aiguille is awesome. The temperature was -10 degrees when I visited and the air was full of spin drift which literally means 'spray blown by the wind'. Up at the Aiguille this means ice crystals. Pretty to look at but it limits visibility and soaks whatever it lands on - including my camera and neck - it must cause havoc to the alpinists!
Mt Blanc
The Aiguille du Midi is near to the Mt Blanc summit at 4810m and you can watch the alpinists attempt the summit from it's viewing platforms.
The views
This is what I came for. The views over France, Italy and into Switzerland. I really wanted to see a cloud inversion and I got one - looking down onto the clouds from above is a special experience.
Aiguille du Midi at night
