Executive summary by darmansjah
The Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps.
The name "Aiguille du Midi" translates literally
as "Needle of the Noon" or "Needle of the South". It gets
its name from its tapered form and from its position when viewed from Chamonix:
it approximately indicates noon when the sun passes over its summit.
The cable car to the summit, the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille
du Midi, was built in 1955 and held the title of the world's highest cable car
for about two decades. It still holds the record as the highest vertical ascent
cable car in the world, from 1,035 m to 3842 m. There are two sections: from
Chamonix to Plan de l'Aiguille at 2,317 m and then directly, without any
support pillar, to the upper station at 3,777 m (the building contains an
elevator to the summit).
The span of the second section is 2,867 m (1.781 mi)
measured directly, but only 2,500 m (1.6 mi) measured horizontally. Thus it
remains the second longest span width, measured directly. The tramway travels
from Chamonix to the top of the Aiguille du Midi – an altitude gain of over
2,800 m – in 20 minutes. An adult ticket from Chamonix (as of 9/5/2012 to
30/11/2012) is €50 return.
The Aiguille summit contains a panoramic viewing platform, a
café and a gift shop. The Vallée Blanche ski run begins here, and the nearby
Cosmiques Refuge is the starting point for one of the routes to the Mont Blanc
summit. From the Aiguille another cable car (summer months only), the Vallee
Blanche Aerial Tramway crosses the Glacier du Géant to Pointe Helbronner (3,462
m) at the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Massif. Pointe Helbronner is served
with a cable car from La Palud, a village near Courmayeur in the Aosta Valley
(Italy).
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