As in many countries, bars and cafés are closed, going out is limited to 6 pm and cross-country skiing is in vogue instead of alpine skiing. Things are very different in Italy. The lifts have been open again since 11the of February. A bizarre situation. While Italians on the south side of the Mount Blanc massif can take the Skyway gondola to Punta Helbronner, the French on the north side are denied access via the Aiguille du Midi. Europe, where is this taking us? - A reason to take a closer look at cross-border skiing and touring!
So we take a shared taxi through the Mont Blanc tunnel from Chamonix into the Aosta Valley to Entrèves. There we want to take the Skyway gondola to Punta Helbronner, then cross the Glacier du Géant and descend to Chamonix via the Glacier Rond. We are slightly nervous when we leave by taxi, but this proves to be unfounded. The French border station at the entrance to the tunnel is unmanned. The picture is the same on the Italian side. We pay for the taxi and go to the gondola, for which we have booked a passage online.
Instead of the expected hustle and bustle, we share the gondola with five other passengers, a mountain guide with clients and two Sunday excursionists for whom we are supposed to take a souvenir photo. It's quite bizarre. At the Helbronner, we meet more skiers. Most of them are speed riders and paragliders hurtling down the Southface. There are only a few of them out and about on this Sunday, we had expected a bigger rush.
The snow is quite hard-packed after the last 2 weeks without precipitation. We had expected this. In many places, the yellow Sahara sand that the powerful foehn storm brought with it is still visible. After an espresso in the Skyview Restaurant, we set off in the direction of the Aiguille du Midi. La dolce vita - how we have missed it.
