Day 27 – More Views

I didn’t think it would be possible to obtain value for money for the £105 I spent on a family lift pass on the Aiguille de Midi. It’s about £10 for each minute on the cable car; even South West Trains don’t charge that amount. The experience was magnificent however.

This cable car has the highest vertical ascent of any cable car in the world, rising almost 3km from Chamonix (to just under 4,000 m or just over 12,000 feet if you prefer old measures). One moment, we were enjoying a pleasant 70 degrees in Chamonix. A few minutes later at the top, it was snowing and below freezing. As usual, there were a few poor souls who had made the journey in shorts and tee shirts. Another example in favour of Darwin, I guess.

I’m not a good enough writer to describe the views, other than to say that the experience made you realise that you are insignificant and that nature is inconceivably powerful. I have attached a few iPhone photographs that in no way capture the experience*. You have to marvel at the men who built the cable infrastructure. They had to mountaineer just to take the materials to the top.

In the evening, we crowded around the iPad to watch The Living Daylights. It’s the best Bond film by a mile. I enjoyed watching Nancy laugh at the preposterous scenes.

*the last of them is taken using maximum iPhone zoom and shows people climbing up the mountain a long way below us