The truly amazing thing about the Vallee Blanche is the amount of infrastructure. Two huge cable cars deliver skiers, climbers and tourists to both sides of the mountain (Italy and France). A furnicular railway and a chairlift meets you at the bottom. And strung between the two sides of the glacier is another cable car. It's incredible!
Because the capsules of the cable car traversing the glacier are so high, you don't see the cable. They look like UFO's hovering in the sky! The engineering required for all these mechanical wonders is truly unbelievable!!
2/ Admiring our tracks - the furthest left.
Christof has a good nose for the snow! Even though the glacier was riddled with thousands of ski tracks he managed to find a couple of patches of old powder snow where we could leave our own mark. We didn't let him down. 4 nice sets of parallel tracks!!
Our route took us down the far skier's right of the glacier, avoiding the traditional route and crowds of people. It is not a popular route as there are some very steep sections where the risk of injury from a fall is increased by some big crevasses waiting at the bottom of the slope! Christof, the master of understatement, suggested that this was not a good place to fall! He said something about "Bon nuit, Vienna!"
3/ Christof, our funny french guide - a master of the understatement!!
It was a long trip down the glacier! So many photo opportunities! It was difficult not to stop every five minutes to take a picture. We kept thinking how lucky we were with the weather!!
4/ Looking down the glacier
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