Snow-frosted trees along the road from Geneva to Chamonix.
I had a business trip to Geneva, Switzerland, in mid-November, 1999, and had a free day on Saturday, 20 November. When I checked with the tour desk at the hotel (Mövenpick, by the airport which is nice, but $$$), they had an all-day bus trip down to Chamonix, with a cable-car ride up to the top of L'Aguille du Midi, on the slopes of the Mont Blanc massif.
L'Aguille du Midi, from the station two-thirds of the way up.
The village of Chamonix, from the cable car.
The weather was great...the first clear day all week. (There had been low ceilings and light snow every day in Geneva.) The bus ride down was picturesque, with snow encrusting the trees and making for Christmas-card scenes.
The cable car ride up the steep valley wall was spectacular, and not the sort of place for an acrophobe! There are two sections, requiring you to change cars about 2/3 of the way up. You then walk across a bridge, and take an elevator to the top of L'Aguille du Midi.
The summit of L'Aguille du Midi as seen from the lower observation platform.
The summit platform is at 3842 meters, call it 12,700', and overlooks the snowfields and glaciers leading up to Mont Blanc. Temperature at the summit platform was a brisk -20°C, or about -4°F. (I was glad I had the good sense to have packed my Polartec jacket and Gore-Tex parka...I could have used another pair of socks!!)
Looking down from the top of L'Aguille du Midi, to the lower observation platform and restaurant.
Silhouetted against the sun, Mont Blanc plays hide-and-seek.
The view is magnificent...the very top of Mont Blanc was still cloud-shrouded, but the whole expanse of the massif and most of the surrounding mountains were free of clouds. This was the first time I had a chance to visit the Alps, and it was worth the trip down from Geneva even without the time to climb or ski! Now I'll have to find a reason to go back and actually climb there...
Opposite Mont Blanc, the peaks are not as high, but even more rugged.