The first day, you just stare up at the peaks, taking thousands of pictures and wonder “how have I not been here before” and “why didn’t I believe the stories other people told me about their epic adventures in this place?”
The second day, you wonder, “can the cable car ride be that spectacular?” I’ve been on plenty of gondolas in Whistler, Jackson Hole, and Colorado; so you walk up to the entrance of the Aiguille Du Midi cable car:
1) When it opens at 730a.
2) With your prepaid ticket
3) With your backpack and warm clothes, jacket, hat, gloves, pants: even in the summer! This Colorado guy that can handle cold weather… made the mistakes of packing light for you, so you can avoid the same discomfort.
You walk up to the entrance, and the first thing you notice is all of the badass athletes waiting in line with their rock-climbing, paragliding or ski gear, helmets, significant backpacks, ice axes, La Sportiva climbing boots and more. I haven’t seen that before! The equipment being loaded on to gondolas in the rest of the world is pretty limited to skis and snowboards in the winter, and bikes in the summer.
The atmosphere is electric because a couple hundred people have incredible adventures planned for the day. There are plenty of professional guides talking to their guests in different languages, explaining their itinerary and routes. Learning to climb, the ski line, etc.
As you depart on the cable car with 59 other explorers
1) Keep your ticket out, you need it a couple of times.
2) Be the first one on or the last. This way, you can be standing next to the windows.
3) I enjoyed the left side going up on the 2nd car to the very top because you can see all kinds of people hiking and skiing crazy lines. These mountains do not have any terrain closed to the public, you can go anywhere, and people are climbing every peak in sight. Crazy!
