For day 2 in Chamonix, we had some well deserved sleep and headed out to see other lifts.

Unfortunately the weather was windy, and the gondola at the top of Aiguille du midi was broken the previous day when the weather was fantastic, and fixed the second day, but the weather (wind) made it not possible to get up there. As a result, we went to other chairs to get other views.

we went to enquire about taking the Helbronner, but no dice

we went across to the Brevent lift instead

you could tell the weather across was no good

I think the snow was under control here ;)

we could have hiked this, but it didn't feel worth the time

Next, we went back to the glacier since we weren't able to see it the previous day:

that's the gear the train uses to climb without slipping

The glacier doesn't look like much, but actually part of the dirt is dirt on top of the glacier. That said, the amount of receeding that glacier had done in the last 50 years was heartbreaking and worrisome at the same time:

that gondola was supposed to take you to the foot of the glacier

but we were not even close

it's all the way down there

level of the glacier in 2000, we're not even close still

Oh man, we have to go all the way back up to where the Glacier used to be

When we were all done with this, we drove up the valley to Col de Balme to take that chair:

Swiss style bad ass bell

From there, we drove to the Parc Animalier de Merlet (in the opposite direction) to see some animals:

the owner used to have a plane and land there

And after a longish day, it was time for a well deserved dinner: