Mont Blanc

It's the highest cable car in the Alps. It cost over $60 a person but we had to do it. Here's why:

Chamonix quickly recedes into the Alpine skyline.

The Baroness poses in front of a true Alpine glacier.

At the top. One can view successive Alpine ridgelines from the summit.

No view like this anywhere, even from the top of Pikes Peak:

Chamonix from the top.

Then we bumped into another strange discovery, the kind of thing you can never expect. We met a young gentleman from "the Bay Area." After prompting he admited he's from Oakland and he's there to research Mont Blanc for a "rappelling ballet" production. And no, I'm really not making this up. He got his gear together and dangled for about an hour doing ballet poses. Now, he could have easily been pretending, you know, for attention. And he got plenty. But knowing the Bay Area, one must admit there is a strangely plausible absurdity to his explanation. We took this picture from the lower level after we descended a bit, because we weren't allowed to eat our sandwiches at the top.

Clearly, Jose has competition as der Dopeydangler. Notice he's doing ballet poses or something. On the side of an Alpine cliff. At about 14,500 feet. I'm thinking the ballet production would certainly be original. Or stupid. Or tragic. Or all three.