Smith Family Adventures: Chamonix

Our first glimpse of Chamonix was at dusk as we approached the valley from the south. The sight of a blue glacier tumbling down the mountain face over the town was unforgettable. We settled into our little loft cabin for the night ready for a big adventure the next day.

First item on the agenda was to take the cog wheel train up to the Mer du Glace glacier. The little train quickly wound its way up the steep mountain through a forest with spectacular views back over the village and surrounding valley. As we pulled into the train station which had been in operation since the 1800s, we glimpsed the longest glacier in Europe snaking through a steep valley crowned with the most jagged peaks we'd ever seen.

We had arrived an hour before the gondola started ferrying people down to the glacier below, so we ordered breakfast at the café and enjoyed the view. The glacier has been receding for hundreds of years as evidenced by paintings from the 1700s showing its relation to the hotel adjacent to the train station. As the glacier continued its retreat, its level in relation to the train station sunk further and further down necessitating a gondola and then a series of stairs that have been added to every few years. As we descended the steps after the short gondola ride, we passed year marker signs for the glacier level and were shocked at how far it had sunk in just over a decade - about 100 feet!

When we reached the glacier on the valley floor we followed the metal walkway to a giant hole bored into the glacier. Just 50 feet to the left was the remains of a previous hole that had been bored out, but was in a poor state due to melting. Adventurers were off the side as well suiting up with crampons and gear to traverse the top of the glacier.

We ventured inside the ice tunnel wondering at the dark blue light that filtered through the ice. As we went deeper, the light slowly dimmed because of the thicker ice above until lights were needed to see. The ice was smooth on the walls due to melting, and we could see rocks and air bubbles trapped inside from eons ago.

We took our time exploring the ice cave. At the end, Claire made friends with a dog hanging around the workers maintaining the cave and played fetch with a small stick. We hiked back up the stairs to the gondola and reached the train station again where we set off on a small hike to find a good picnic spot.

And find one we did, on the edge of the mountain in a secluded meadow overlooking the valley and its jagged peaks. It was a wonderful panorama and a very pleasant meal.

As we finished, the clouds darkened and a few rain drops fell chased us down to the train to ride back into the village. We happily strolled through town and found a fondue restaurant to which was tops on our list of foods to find. We ended back at the cabin with Callum and Tyler hiking around in the adjacent forest near a stream doing boy stuff.

The observation point at the top was only at a measly 12,400' and it had the most spectacular vista stretching from the valley with Chamonix up the slope with a glacier cascading down to Mont Blanc and then a stunning landscape of pointed peaks stretching into Italy and Switzerland.

All of us actually felt a little bit of altitude sickness at the top after half and hour so we rode halfway down the mountain to have a little hike and lunch. The boulder strewn mountain side was beautiful in an austere way with higgly-piggly trails weaving through the uneven terrain as glaciers and knife-edged rock formations loomed over us.

The kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly hamming it up.

We hiked for about 45 minutes until we reached a small glacier-fed lake on the slope and dipped out toes in.

After our return to the valley below, we saw a fun-looking amusement park area with rides, so we rewarded the kids for being troopers with an afternoon of high speed thrill rides. The highlight for mom and dad was the summer luge.

The highlight for the kids was a simple wavy slide that they rode on burlap mats. They must have ridden 20+ times down the slide which was impressive because they had to haul their mat back up the 30 foot climb each time.