Le Dru Challenges Climbers in the Sea of Ice

This is much steeper than it looks!

After watching these ice hikers, we went back down and ran to catch a train. It was the cog mountain railway that took us up a steep grade to the other side of the mountain, to the Mer de Glace.

Chamonix, we learned from Geraldine, our local guide, was a place that in the 1800s attracted many English poets and other luminaries. Lord Byron, Goethe, and others came here and wrote about places like the Hotel du Montenvers, a rustic place with a million-dollar view of this vast sea of ice.

Right in front of the classic old hotel, where the upstairs rooms have been turned into a museum, is the most famous peak to climbers in France. Le Dru goes straight up, 3742 meters, a pinnacle of rock that points like a massive needle to the heavens.

Imagine climbing this baby....it's been done many times, and the ancient black and white photos in the hotel tell the tales.