Saturday, Sept. 8th 2018

Started with a buckwheat crepe for breakfast, then off to the Saturday farmer’s market. The whole town has tents up in front of all the stores, and a massive influx of people. Must be the end of season sales. After a quick regroup we headed up to the midpoint of the Aiguille du Midi tram, called the Plan du Midi. The second part of the tram to the summit is closed due to a problem with the cable and reopening is uncertain but they are hoping by Christmas. Mai and Fabien were disappointed to not be able to go to the top, but without summit access, the lines were non existent. From the halfway point we did the North Balcony hike over to the Mer de Glace and its cog train. This was similar to yesterdays hike on the other side of the valley although with much more up and down and took us around 3 hours. Spectacular views with lots of paragliders aloft. The Mer de Glace, or literally the sea of ice is a glacier that has visibly melted a lot. The train is a wonderful old cog railway thing that takes about 20 minutes or so to descend from the glacier. I was pleased as the previous visit this had been out of order.

Looking down at Chamonix.Lots of paragliders, they seem to be able to get enough lift to stay aloft as long as they like.This is the Mer de Glace, sea of ice glacier above Chamonix.