Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m): Jakub Polomski’s Photos Above Chamonix

The Aiguille du Midi rises to 3,842 m above Chamonix in the Mont Blanc massif, and on a clear day its summit station feels like a balcony over the whole French Alps. Photographer Jakub Polomski went up twice in July 2014 and met very different weather each time, from bright sun on the snow ridges to cloud swirling around the rock.

Jakub Polomski at the Aiguille du Midi

Polomski, a nature photographer and traveller, titled his series “An Ordinary Day in an Extraordinary Place”. The photographs show what makes the peak special: a summit served by one of the world’s most famous cable cars, where sightseers on the terraces share the view with roped climbers heading out onto the snow. Small figures in bright jackets on the ridges give the mountains their scale.

The Aiguille du Midi cable car

The Téléphérique de l’Aiguille du Midi was first proposed around 1909 and opened in 1955. For about two decades it was the highest cable car in the world. It climbs from Chamonix, at about 1,035 m, to the upper station at 3,777 m, a rise of more than 2,800 m:

• Stage one: Chamonix to Plan de l’Aiguille, at 2,317 m.
• Stage two: a single span straight up to the summit station at 3,777 m.
• Total time: about 20 minutes from the valley to the top.

Viewing terraces crown the 3,842 m summit. Since December 2013 the glass box called Step into the Void lets visitors stand over a drop of 1,035 m. Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, dominates the view.

Climbers, skiers and the Vallée Blanche

The Aiguille du Midi is also a gateway for mountaineers. Antoni Malczewski, J. M. Balmat and five guides made the first ascent on 4 August 1818. The summit is also the starting point of the Vallée Blanche, an unmarked off-piste ski descent of about 20 km.

Go with a qualified mountain guide for anything beyond the terraces: glacier travel and the Vallée Blanche are serious high-mountain terrain where crevasses and fast-changing weather are part of the day.

Planning a visit to Chamonix

Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924 and remains one of the great mountain towns of Europe. Geneva Airport, about 88 km away, is the nearest. In town, the 5.1 km Montenvers rack railway, opened in 1909, runs to the Mer de Glace glacier, an easy second excursion.

At 3,842 m the air is thin and much colder than in the valley, so bring warm layers even in July and take the stairs slowly. Go early on a clear morning for the best visibility, and check current Chamonix information for timetables and weather. As Polomski found, the same summit can look completely different from one visit to the next.

Explore more: Marcin Kesek’s Tatras; Hiking Mount Hua’s plank walk.

Related reading: Provence Lavender Fields: Twenty Photographs and the Landscape Behind Them.

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