mountain environment
For such a cool place I have seldom heard this glacier being mentioned. From a ski/snowboard touring perspective it forms the run-out of a few serious descents. From a mountaineering perspective it gives access the Gouter Hut and the summit of Mont Blanc, amongst other difficult climbs. But besides these uses, I never hear it being discussed. Perhaps because it is on the sunny Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif. Or perhaps because it isn't really even touched by the many popular tours on the northern (French) side of the range. To access the glacier in winter takes a little bit of effort: you need to tour up the reasonably long Val Veni for the entrance of the Mont Blanc tunnel, alternatively you can take the lifts up Courmayeur and descend excellent north facing tree lines into Val Veni, followed by a shorter hike up the valley.
I have only visited in June, when Val Veni is devoid of snow. You can drive a fair way up the valley ona good road and easily walk the rest of the way. I believe that in mid summer tourist season the road is open all the way to Lac de Combal, which means you can drive directly to where the fun starts. It must get crowded at that time of year. I approached the glacier from the east, whilst hiking part of the Tour de Mont Blanc from les Contamines around to Courmayeur. It was a nice 3 days hike and at the end I decided to squeeze in an exploratory hike up the glacier before heading down into Courmayeur to catch the bus home. I spent so much time on this diversion that I had to jog the 10km down Val Veni to get the bus I needed to catch. It was hard work with a big pack on a hot day and the gentle down hill jogging gave me shin splints.
Glacier Miage is a strange and unique feature in the massif, probably my favourite place, however not from a riding perspective. I like it purely as part of the mountain environment. The glacier has so many interesting attributes on offer.
I have only visited in June, when Val Veni is devoid of snow. You can drive a fair way up the valley ona good road and easily walk the rest of the way. I believe that in mid summer tourist season the road is open all the way to Lac de Combal, which means you can drive directly to where the fun starts. It must get crowded at that time of year. I approached the glacier from the east, whilst hiking part of the Tour de Mont Blanc from les Contamines around to Courmayeur. It was a nice 3 days hike and at the end I decided to squeeze in an exploratory hike up the glacier before heading down into Courmayeur to catch the bus home. I spent so much time on this diversion that I had to jog the 10km down Val Veni to get the bus I needed to catch. It was hard work with a big pack on a hot day and the gentle down hill jogging gave me shin splints.
Glacier Miage is a strange and unique feature in the massif, probably my favourite place, however not from a riding perspective. I like it purely as part of the mountain environment. The glacier has so many interesting attributes on offer.
Moraines
Well formed classic curved morains are often encountered in the area, however these ones are different. Besides the fact that they are huge, they are also quite young. There are a few 'ranks' of moraines formed over subsequent years of glacial advancement and retreat. The outer moraines are smaller and weathered and support a lot of trees and grass. The inner moraine, closets to the glacier are in places very steep and have almost no vegetation. In one area the main moraine in noticeably 'double lipped'. You can see where the glacier recently retreated from the lip of the main moraine, surged forward again to place a second lip or ridge of moraine alongside the original and then retreated again to its present level. The inner lip is so loose I doubt it will survive much weathering. I was very excited to notice it.
Looking down the upper part of Val Veni with the huge moraine just in front of Lac Combal. Glacier du Miage runs from within the mountains side on the left and out onto the plans of Val Veni.
The same shot taken from near the lake
Standing at the base of the moraine. In the near ground is an older weathered and vegetated moraine. Behind it are several small moraines with more grass and trees and finally behind them is the very young moraine area that is still being built. This is where the moraine lakes are and where I camped for the night.
The glacier is very long and once it reached Val Veni it turns hard left and heads down the valley. The moraines I am discussing are at the point where it turns left, on the outer bend of the frozen river. Given the way it bends, there are a few sign posted moraine lakes. They just look like big muddy ponds in a huge pile of rock and gravel, exactly like a quarry. So what? The walls of the small lakes look like rock but are in fact typically dirty glacier ice. As you stand there you hear little pebbles fall and splash into the water. Sometimes there are a few watermelon sized rocks falling. The entire ice wall is layered in a totally randomly sorted collection of gravel, rocks and boulders. It seems natural that some would tumble off the edge into the water. But why do they keep falling? They keep falling as there is a constant supply of rocks slowly moving down the ice. As the ice creeps forward, more rocks move to the edge of the pond and fall in. In the space of an hour you can sit and 'watch' the glacier move. The falling rocks are the only visible signs of glacial movement. Most glacial activity comes from serac falls, but this is partially driven by the warmth of the day. These rocks tumble into the water all night. In my mind it is the purest indicator of glacial movement and although subtle, it was very exciting to watch the results of its movement. I camped near the muddy pond and during the night there were several very large splashes. Constant movement.
This enormous moraine area also forms somewhat of a dam wall for the initially unimpressive looking Lac Combal. When you scale the moraine you get a better view of this shallow and extensive lake. It is unique in the Mont Blanc Massif. Slightly sandy and full of dead pine tree trunks, it reminds me of those desolate looking water areas I have seen in pictures of Alaska and Canada.
This enormous moraine area also forms somewhat of a dam wall for the initially unimpressive looking Lac Combal. When you scale the moraine you get a better view of this shallow and extensive lake. It is unique in the Mont Blanc Massif. Slightly sandy and full of dead pine tree trunks, it reminds me of those desolate looking water areas I have seen in pictures of Alaska and Canada.
The moraine lakes surrounded by ice with an crumbled layer of rock torn from the glacier bed and valley walls hundreds of years ago
'Safe' glacier walking
One of the nice attributes of the glacier is that it is almost entirely covered in rock. From the medium distance you cant see any ice at all. I would guess that the rocks is between 1 foot and 10 feet deep. Thanks to the rocks, you can quite easily and safely walk on the glacier, particularly after the snow has melted. As I walked on the rocks I could see gritty ice all over the place in the patches where there was rocky coating. The crevasses were quite obvious and also very filled in with rock. However as the glacier moves and the crevasses widen I am sure they would be quite dangerous since the rocks are not stationary and always trying to settle deeper into the crevasse. I wouldn't want to get caught up in them as they periodically dislodge and roll over each other in the ice cracks. Due to the constant ice movement and the irregular rock sizes I also found the rocks to be unpredictable and unstable to walk on. Many would tumble and slide and you placed weight on them, like scree but not as steep.
As you push further up the glacier you encounter tributary glaciers flowing in from the valley sides. These deform the glacier and cause ridges of rocks, sometime jutting up quite high. Some rocks the size of cars had slowly been squeezed up out of the middle line of the glacier. You could see clearly the broken gravel mud and rocks that they were violently breaking upwards from, like a submarine breaching the ocean surface from below. What I needed to remind myself of was that they took years to breach the surface, yet it looked like it only happened the day before. Some smaller flat rocks looked exactly like shark fins tearing through an ocean surface of ice, mud and rock. I called them glacier sharks.
This layer of rock on the glacier meant you could walk for a significant distance up the glacier directly into the heart of Mont Blanc without using ropes, crampons etc. All you needed was walking boots and a stick. Next spring I am going to walk back up there and camp on the huge boulders. What a place to sleep.
Near to the end of the flat part of the glacier and the start of the steep part the rocks really begin to thin out. There are fingers of rock with deep pits between them, like huge ice worm holes slowly eating anything that goes to close and falls in. Eventually you reach the very tip of the middle finger of rock and can go no further without stepping onto snow and the associated risks of poorly bridges crevasses. At this point there are steep glaciers all around your, flowing down to your point. Each one has its own seracs and crevasse structures. Some are steep and whilst I boiled some tea there were rocks and ice crashing down at random intervals. From the middle of the glacier you are totally safe from these falls. I sat for hours enjoying the view and waiting for seracs to tumble. Easily the best wide screen tv I have ever seen (to be honest, I have never even seen a wide screen tv and never need to). From this point 2.5km up the glacier you were sitting at the closest point to the summit of Mont Blanc that you can reach without mechanical aid or significant objective risk. In fact, you are closer to the summit than is the Aiguille de Midi and in the vertical plan, it is not possible to stand more 'below' the summit than here. Looking steeply up to the right you can see the rear rounded edge of the summit 2,400m above, although it looked so much closer. I want to return to the summit of Mont Blanc via this route and then riding down the Chamonix side. It is the best spot of the entire Mont Blanc range. Continued on page 2 - lots of pictures
As you push further up the glacier you encounter tributary glaciers flowing in from the valley sides. These deform the glacier and cause ridges of rocks, sometime jutting up quite high. Some rocks the size of cars had slowly been squeezed up out of the middle line of the glacier. You could see clearly the broken gravel mud and rocks that they were violently breaking upwards from, like a submarine breaching the ocean surface from below. What I needed to remind myself of was that they took years to breach the surface, yet it looked like it only happened the day before. Some smaller flat rocks looked exactly like shark fins tearing through an ocean surface of ice, mud and rock. I called them glacier sharks.
This layer of rock on the glacier meant you could walk for a significant distance up the glacier directly into the heart of Mont Blanc without using ropes, crampons etc. All you needed was walking boots and a stick. Next spring I am going to walk back up there and camp on the huge boulders. What a place to sleep.
Near to the end of the flat part of the glacier and the start of the steep part the rocks really begin to thin out. There are fingers of rock with deep pits between them, like huge ice worm holes slowly eating anything that goes to close and falls in. Eventually you reach the very tip of the middle finger of rock and can go no further without stepping onto snow and the associated risks of poorly bridges crevasses. At this point there are steep glaciers all around your, flowing down to your point. Each one has its own seracs and crevasse structures. Some are steep and whilst I boiled some tea there were rocks and ice crashing down at random intervals. From the middle of the glacier you are totally safe from these falls. I sat for hours enjoying the view and waiting for seracs to tumble. Easily the best wide screen tv I have ever seen (to be honest, I have never even seen a wide screen tv and never need to). From this point 2.5km up the glacier you were sitting at the closest point to the summit of Mont Blanc that you can reach without mechanical aid or significant objective risk. In fact, you are closer to the summit than is the Aiguille de Midi and in the vertical plan, it is not possible to stand more 'below' the summit than here. Looking steeply up to the right you can see the rear rounded edge of the summit 2,400m above, although it looked so much closer. I want to return to the summit of Mont Blanc via this route and then riding down the Chamonix side. It is the best spot of the entire Mont Blanc range. Continued on page 2 - lots of pictures