GEEO Mont Blanc Google Earth Presentation

— Stop 1 —

USA

Today I’d like to share a great experience I had traveling to Italy and France to hike Mont Blanc through a non-profit organization called GEEO. GEEO helps educators travel so they can learn about different cultures and share that learning with their students. I was joined on my trip by teachers from all around the United States.

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Europe

We traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Europe and Asia share a long land border to the east, but Europe is conventionally understood as a separate continent—one of seven on Earth. The ancient Greeks are the ones who created the concept of continents as we think of them today.

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Alps

The Alps are Europe’s highest and most famous mountain range, stretching across seven countries: France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. At their highest point (Mont Blanc), they reach 15,774 feet—about three miles straight up.

The Alps are geologically young, and form where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. The Alps grow about 1-2 millimeters taller every year.

The Alps are famous for winter sports—skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering—and mountain villages that have been tourist destinations for over 200 years. But climate change is dramatically affecting the region. Glaciers are melting at visible rates, ski seasons are getting shorter, and some lower-altitude resorts can no longer guarantee snow.

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Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc sits on the border between France and Italy and is the Alps’ most famous peak. About 200 people reach the summit every day during climbing season. Mont Blanc is, however, one of the world’s deadliest mountains. Around 100 climbers die on it each year, more than on Mount Everest.

Why so dangerous? The mountain attracts inexperienced climbers who underestimate it. The weather changes fast, altitude sickness hits hard, and glaciers are constantly shifting and cracking. The first successful climb wasn’t until 1786, when a crystal hunter and a doctor finally made it to the top after years of failed attempts.

During our program, we didn’t summit but hiked and explored the valleys and glaciers surrounding Mont Blanc, experiencing the landscape up close.

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Chamonix

We spent the first three nights in Chamonix (pronunciation), a town nestled at the foot of Mont Blanc. Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924 and has been a major skiing and mountaineering center ever since.

Mary Shelley wrote parts of Frankenstein while staying near Chamonix in 1816. She set a key scene—when Dr. Frankenstein encounters his monster—on the Mer de Glace glacier above the town.

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L’Aiguillette des Posettes Hike

Our first hike was in the Chamonix Valley. We took a van to the tiny village of Le Tour to reach the trailhead. Today’s goal was to climb to the top of a mountain peak named Aiguillette des Posettes. The trail took us through alpine forests dotted with impressive rock formations. We hiked up the steep-sided valley for splendid views of the Glacier du Tour. We gained height gently in switchbacks on a narrow trail across mountain turf and rock.

When we reached the peak of Aiguillette des Posettes we had an amazing 360-degree view. On one side of us was Switzerland, and we could see the Emosson Dam. On the other side, was the Mt Blanc Massif.

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Mer de Glace

The day after our first hike, we had some free time to rest and recover while exploring the Chamonix region. Some of us visited a nearby glacier called Mer de Glace, which in French means “Sea of Glass.” The glacier is more than 4.5 miles long and 660 ft deep.

Glaciers are massive rivers of ice that form when fallen snow compresses over hundreds of years. Gravity causes the ice to flow slowly downhill—Mer de Glace moves about 90 meters (300 feet) per year. Since 1900, Mer de Glace has lost a third of its volume; by 2100, it could lose 90% of its volume.

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Ice Cave

To reach the glacier, we took a cog train up the mountain, then a cable car down into the valley where Mer de Glace sits. We descended metal staircases built into the rock face, then crossed a walkway resting on the glacier itself to reach an ice cave carved into the glacier.

The cave has to be re-carved every year because the glacier moves about 230 feet annually. Inside, the walls are bright blue. Glacier ice is blue because ice absorbs red wavelengths of light and transmits blue wavelengths. The deeper into the ice you go, the bluer it appears.

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Aiguille du Midi

Some of us took a cable car ride up the famous Aiguille du Midi (pronunciation). It is the highest mountain peak in the Mont Blanc region that can be accessed by cable car. The steep and fast cable car ride takes about 20 minutes, and the views from the top are stunning, with panoramic views of the Alps and Mont Blanc. On a clear day, you can see for miles in every direction.

360º Aerial Views of Mont Blanc, Mer de Glace, Aiguille du Midi, etc.

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Mont Blanc Tunnel: Chamonix side

The next day we drove through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. A remarkable feat of engineering, it starts in Chamonix, France, and continues for over 7 miles under Mont Blanc. It takes about 15 minutes to drive through the tunnel.

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Mont Blanc Tunnel: Courmayeur side

At the other end of the tunnel is Courmayeur (pronunciation) in Italy. Italy relies on the tunnel for transporting as much as one-third of its freight to northern Europe. France and Italy were both responsible for creating one half of the tunnel. Drilling began in 1959, and the tunnel opened to traffic in 1965. About 5,000 vehicles per day pass through the tunnel.

In 1999, a catastrophic fire in the tunnel killed 39 people, and the tunnel was closed for three years. It reopened in 2002 with an extensive overhaul of the safety features.

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Start of Val Veny Hike

After passing through the tunnel, our vans dropped us off for our next hike. Val Vény is a pastoral valley of the Mont Blanc massif that lies southwest of Courmayeur.

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Val Veny Hike

Val Vény was formed by the Miage Glacier (On the left) and the Brenva Glacier (on the right). It is quite a magnificent place to hike. We began by hiking along a river, turned uphill, and then walked along the shoulder of the mountain.

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End of Val Veny Hike

We ended our hike at a refugio. A refugio is a place where you can sleep and eat in the mountains. The accommodation is usually basic, but the food can be fantastic. We had the option of taking ski lifts down to Courmayeur, which was in a valley below.

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Courmayeur

We crossed from France into Italy to reach Courmayeur, a tiny town of less than 3,000 people at the base of Mont Blanc’s Italian side. Despite its size, it’s packed with climbers, skiers, and tourists year-round.

We had one free day without a scheduled hike. Some of us visited the Pré-Saint-Didier thermal spa—naturally hot pools fed by underground springs. The water gets heated deep underground where the Earth’s crust is thin, then rises to the surface still steaming. You can soak in 100°F water while surrounded by snow-covered mountains.

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Pointe Helbronner

We also had the option of taking a cable car up to Pointe Helbronner (pronunciation). This cable car rotated as it ascended on the way up to 11,358 above sea level. The car spins slowly as it climbs, giving you 360-degree views of the surrounding peaks. From the top, you’re eye-level with Mont Blanc.

From there, you can take the Vallée Blanche Cable Car—a 5-kilometer gondola lift built in the 1950s that connects Italy to France. It crosses directly above the Géant (pronunciation), which flows into Mer de Glace. You’re dangling in a small gondola hundreds of feet above moving ice.

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Val Ferret Hike

For our next group hike in Italy we hiked the Val Ferret trail. We started with a steep incline upwards and then walked along a ridge.

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Grandes Jorasses

We had great views of the Grandes Jorasses, a mountain famous to climbers for its very difficult North Face.

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Brenva Glacier

We also had views of the Brenva Glacier, which stretches 3.7 miles down from Mont Blanc’s summit. It covers about 2 square miles but has been shrinking considerably—losing roughly 30% of its volume since the 1980s. The Brenva route up Mont Blanc is one of the most dangerous and technical climbs, only attempted by experienced mountaineers. The glacier is steep and unstable, with frequent avalanches and rockfall.

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End of Hike at Hotel in Courmayeur

After walking along the ridge, we stopped for lunch at a refugio—a mountain hut where hikers can eat, rest, and sometimes sleep. These refugios are scattered throughout the Alps, often in places with no road access. Everything—food, supplies, bedding—has to be brought up by helicopter or carried by workers.

Then we hiked down the mountain and back to our hotel in Courmayeur.

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La Flegere/Lac Blanc Hike

The next day we crossed back through the Mont Blanc Tunnel into France and started our final group hike. We took the La Flegere ski resort lift up, which saved us about 2,600 feet of steep, forested climbing with no views. The hike itself was a big loop through alpine meadows.

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Lac Blanc

The highlight was Lac Blanc (White Lake)—actually two small alpine lakes connected by a stream. The water is milky white-blue from glacial sediment, and on clear days, Mont Blanc reflects perfectly in the surface. It’s one of the most photographed spots in the Alps and a perfect place to eat lunch before heading back down.

— Stop 23 —

Mont Blanc Massif Overview

We returned to Chamonix for one more night and departed the next day.

Here you can see an overview of our hikes. The Mt Blanc Massif is in the middle of the screen and our four hikes can be seen in four different colors: L’Aiguillette des Posettes in yellow, Val Venny in red, Val Ferret in purple, and La Flegere/Lac Blanc in orange.