I saw on an earlier post that the cable car to the Aiguille di Midi in Chamonix is broken. We are travelling to Chamonix in a few weeks. Does anyone have further info on the subject or have a source for further info?

Because of an accident during maintenance work, the cable car to Aiguille du Midi is closed until at least July 15, and quite possibly longer. The Italian cable car, from Courmayeur to Pointe Helbronner remains open. The section from there to Aiguille du Midi has just reopened.
This is the official site of the cable car operators, but they have no info on closure: http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/e...uille_site.htm

You are asked to phone for further information: +33 (0)4 50 53 22 75

I also called the Best Western in Chamonix for information (I thought their English would be sufficient) and they said sometime in July but they had no idea when.

We are also going in July (third week) and now will stay on the Italian side in case Aiguille di Midi cable car from Chamonix is still inoperative. Still haven't figured out the lodging and I am not that thrilled about driving through the tunnel, but better to play it safe.

My family and I will be in Chamonix from 13 July through 16 July. Do you think it would make sense to drive into Italy and take the lift up from that side? Or is it better to just take one of the lesser lifts out of Chamonix and pretend we're at 3842 meters?

Thanks for your quick responses. The closure completely took me by surprise. We will have to vary our hiking plans. I will be using the using the website and telephone number to confirm the status of the closure before the leave. Thank you again for your help!

I am so disappointed to hear about the cable car problems but appreciate the information because we'll be there in about two weeks. Can you still ride a cable car as far as Plan de l'Aiguille, which I understand is the half-way point, or are there others you would suggest?

I uderstand the problem is between Chamonix and Plan-de-l'Aiguille (2300m middle station to Aig.-du-Midi). You can take the cabelcars from Italy side to Pointe-de-Helbronner, then to Aiguille-du-Midi (France,3842m) from 5 June. On the Chamonix-France side, the cablecar between Aig-du-Midi and Plan-de-L'Aig.is supposed to be running as of 26 June.

Possible itineraries if you are in Chamonix:
1.Cablecar of Le Brévent to 2525m. Much lower than A.d.M but the view to the Mt.Blanc over the Chamonix valley is great.
2. Montenvers/Mer de Glace train to 2000m. It is possible to hike from the top station to Plan-de-l'Aig.(1hr?) and take the cablecar to A.d.M (as I said this part is SUPPOSED to be operational from 26 June). But you would have to do the same in reverse to return to Chamonix.

The website for the cable car company says it will be fully operational by July 15.

"On the Chamonix-France side, the cablecar between Aig-du-Midi and Plan-de-L'Aig.is supposed to be running as of 26 June. "

Following my previous post above, the cable car company has decided to re-open the whole route of Chamonix/Plan-de-L'Aig/Aig-du-Midi on 16 July. This may not, however, be final. They can still postpone the date saying due to security reasons, etc so it would be wise to check up-to-date info from time to time on their web-site (actually my office gets fax info from their "service commercial&quot.

Up to date for those who are visiting Chamonix-Mr.Blanc regions soon.

Aiguille-du-Midi Cable car re-opened yesterday Sunday 11 July.

Another up-to-date.

A communiqué from the cable car company says " Following a major technical problem which occurred during a routine maintenance work on 02 AUG, the route Chamonix to Plan-de-L'Aiguille will be closed as of today till mid-September at the earliest (*meaning you can't go to Aiguille-du-Midi from Chamonix-France side)."

* is by me.

You still can do Chamonix-Le Brévent (great view too!).

Yeah i just saw it on the news. They were testing it and the guy that was driving it lost control and rather than stopping when it got to the building it slammed into the building.