Aosta - Monte Bianco e Cervino

This morning looked reasonable weather-wise, so we decided to go up the mountains.  We caught a bus from Aosta (580 m altitude) to Courmayeur (1224 m),

then another bus to La Palud (1370 m) which is where the Funivie Monte Bianco leaves from.  The Mont Blanc cablecar ascends over two kilometres from its origin to its summit.  We stopped at the midway station, Pavillon (2173 m) to change gondolas, then went on up to Rifugio Torino (3335 m).  Just a teensy bit higher than Kosciusko!

The temperature was noticeably colder here!

I also found that I was affected by the altitude - climbing a flight of stairs had me literally breathless.  Phil didn't notice any difference.  We went out on the viewing terrace, which was pretty spectacular.  Unfortunately, there was cloud around, so while we had fantastic views of the valley, the towns and some of the mountains, the tops of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn weren't visible.  Yesterday was perfectly clear; today not so.  At least we had some visibility.  1) Looking down towards the towns.

2)  Looking towards Cervino (the Matterhorn).

3)  Monte Bianco is in the clouds there somewhere (not that the person in the picture cares!)

4)  The three sharp peaks, relatively low in the middle of the photo, are called Les Dames Anglaises (The English Ladies).  Mont Blanc is at the far right (behind clouds, of course).

5)  And yes - both of us were here.  This was taken later after the cloud increased.

We were up there for well over an hour as the funivie shuts down for lunch.  During this time, the visibility got increasingly worse, with the lowering bank of snow clouds coming closer, until it started snowing.  I had some beautiful hexagonal snowflakes on my sleeve!

On the way down we stopped at Pavillon, looked at the crystal display, had a hot drink, admired the views, and built a snowman (sort of).

It started raining lightly when we got back to La Palud.  Two bus rides and about an hour and a quarter later we were back in Aosta.

Early night tonight.  Alas, no gelato today; however, three new birds up the top of the mountain: Raven, Alpine Chough, and Alpine Accentor (and no - it's not the same as our Raven).