Inside the glacier – at the Mer de Glace above Chamonix

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be inside an ice cube? No me neither. But I have often wondered what it would be like to stay in one of those ice hotels they seem to love in Scandinavia. Good for a quick vodka perhaps but I’d rather have a cosy bedroom and a down duvet for a sound night’s sleep.

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Here’s why I’m wondering. On the afternoon of our arrival in Chamonix to walk part of the Tour de Mont Blanc trail, my friend Julia and I decided that we would take a little excursion up the mountain.

Our goal was to see the famous Mer de Glace glacier and the ice cave that’s carved out of it each year. I guess this was the closest I’d ever get to being inside an ice cube.

Boarding the train to the glacier

Our trip began at the picturesque little station ‘Chemin de fer du Montenvers’ on the edge of Chamonix. We bought our ticket at the kiosk and waited for the train to arrive.

Through the turnstile we anxiously jostled with other tourists. We wanted to be sure that we got a good position on the wooden bench seats. The ride to the Montenvers station was not too steep. Every so often the trees parted to give us a view across the valley to the peaks on the other side.

Soon we neared the crest and past the Grande Hotel Montenvers. The view of the glacier opened up before us framed by the mountain slopes. Being more of a tropical flower than a mountain goat, I’d never been near a glacier before.

I was surprised at how grubby it looked with the grey scree covering the icy surface. We jumped off the little train to let the crowds of descending tourists get in and tried to work out what to do next.

Right by the café was a tunnel lined with a small exhibition of quartz crystals. We wandered through looking at the chunks of sparkly rock with details of where each had been found.

Inside the ice cave

Knowing the ice cave we’d come to see was here somewhere, we spotted a path which we followed downwards towards the glacier. Every so often we passed a signs telling us that in 1890 this had been the level of the glacier, then in 1920 and so on.

This was a very visible demonstration of global warming, although I thought that global warming had only taken a hold relatively recently. However, the glacier had obviously been receding for over 100 years.

After half an hour we reached the glacier, only to realise that the small red cable cars we had seen coming and going would have taken us there in only 5 minutes and without the aching knees.

We crossed a metal walkway to a hole in the rather grubby ice and dodged the drips at the entrance. Suddenly we were inside the manmade ice cave.

Apparently they hollow out a new cave every year and as we ventured inside we found ourselves in a rather surreal world. The walls and ceiling were made of ice and we were stepping on soggy blue cloths for a carpet.

The ice cave had been made as homely as possible with the hallway leading to a chimney breast. A clock hung above the mantlepiece and little rooms were set into the walls.

The ice cave was lit with lights that changed colour in shades of blue and pink. Sofas and easy chairs with a coffee table were all carved out of the ice.

Perhaps they were trying to recreate the ice hotel idea but all the furniture was slowly dripping away so that you could barely tell what it was meant to be.

The glacier is constantly moving

I read some information boards that told me that the first visitors (apart from the locals) to visit the Glacier were a couple of young Englishmen in 1741. The railway was built in 1910, enabling large numbers of visitors to make the journey up from the valley in relative ease.

Since 1946 they had the bright idea of carving a grotto out of the glacier. Each year it’s in a new location as the glacier is constantly moving at the pace of 90m per year. Where the work was once done by hand with ice picks there’s now a special machine to carve the tunnels.

On our way back we thankfully took the cable car up to the Montenvers station again. But, as we had only bought a single ticket, we were walking all the way down the mountain anyway.

It was a really pleasant couple of hour’s walk through forest trails. My only regret was that I wasn’t wearing my hiking boots but only my city style trainers which were not as comfortable. I was terrified of twisting an ankle before we had even begun our walk proper.

If you visit Chamonix I highly recommend a visit to Montenvers and the Mer de Glace. It’s not every day you get to walk right inside a glacier at the height of summer.

You can find more information about the Montenvers train and the Mer de Glace as well as some of the other mountain attractions in the Chamonix valley on the Companie du Mont Blanc website.

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This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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