Few visitors to Chamonix will be unaware of the impact that global warming has had on the mountains. The resort's new 'Glacier and Climate Interpretation Centre' will open at Montenvers later this year.
The most evident example of global warming can be seen in the changes to the Mer de Glace glacier.
Vallée Blanche
Anyone who has tackled the Vallée Blanche – the world-famous off-piste that takes skiers on a 2000m vertical drop over 23 kilometres from the summit of the Aiguille du Midi at 3842m – will have finished their descent on the Mer de Glace below Montenvers.
Over the course of the last 140 years, the glacier has retreated two kilometers and lost 220 metres in thickness at the Montenvers station, including 100m in the last thirty years.
Cable car added in 1988
It was only in 1988 that a cable car connecting the glacier to Montenvers was added due to the shrinking ice field.
Now, in 2024, you have to walk up over 500 steps from the glacier simply to reach the bottom of the gondola.
Education about the effects of climate change
This consistent change has prompted Chamonix to initiate the Montenvers rehabilitation project.
This includes moving the existing cable car location and the creation of a new ‘Glacier and Climate Interpretation Centre’. The aim of the centre is to help the general public understand more about global warming, its effect on the mountains and their ability to make changes in their own actions.
It’s another development in the long history of Montenvers, which was first connected by train from Chamonix in August 1908.
The overall project will cost €53 million and is on schedule to open in December 2024.
