Once inside the glacier, visitors are treated to an icy tunnel whose walls are embedded with messages about glaciers, displays of information and rooms set up for photo opportunities with a sculpted hearth and a bar displaying the Olympic rings.
Just finding oneself inside of a glacier has a profound effect. Knowing that these life-giving natural phenomena are fast disappearing just amplifies that feeling.
We took the cog railway back down to Chamonix, but most of our group opted to hike back to town. Reportedly it was a surprisingly steep trail down. Near the bottom, a couple of our group rode a luge course. The result can be seen in the video at the bottom of this page.
MER DE GLACE PHOTO GALLERY
Click on any image to expand and begin slideshow
Long hallway inside the glacier
Train that took us to the glacier
Artwork at the railway station
The cogs that allow the train to safely climb the grades to Montenvers and the glacier.
Height of the glacier
Our group at Mer de Glace
Gondola to Mer de Glace
Gondola terminal at Montenvers
We took a gondola from Montenvers down to the glacier. All the “dirt” in the valley basin is glacier
Up close with a glacier, a wall of ice encrusted with debris
Visitor center at Montenvers
The entrance to the glacier. On the left, workmen had already started a new entrance for next year.
We entered and left the glacier by the same walkway.
The first thing people do inside the glacier was to touch the walls. Yes, it is ice and it is cold.
Liz, Joe, Pete and Bissy inside the glacier
The guts of a glacier
Walkway inside the glacier
A look at the mountains carved out by eons on ice
Another view of the glacier
Machinery used for cutting next year’s tunnel, necessitated by the movement of the ice.
Our crew, inside the glacier
Message implanted in the walls of the glacier tunnel
Message implanted in the walls of the glacier tunnel
Crack in the roof of the tunnel we traversed
Posing inside the glacier with ice sculpture
Walking through the glacier
The glacier is receding from these mountains
Looking across from the glacier at Montenvers
A glacier picks up lots of debris in its path
On the way back down the mountain, Maria snapped this photo of John taking a picture. Classic.
A luge course close to the base of the mountain. See Liz’s video, below, of her riding the summer luge.
