Gare de la Para and Gare des Glaciers – hiking to Chamonix’s abandoned lift stations

A long and challenging hike on a par with La Jonction. The route to La Para and Les Glaciers gets away from the crowds on a journey through Chamonix’s forgotten past.

Looking up from Chamonix, two imposing granite structures sit on the steep hillsides to the right of the Aiguille du Midi, high above the entrance to the Tunnel du Mont Blanc. These are the Gare de la Para and the Gare des Glaciers. Respectively, the mid- and top-stations from the original Aiguille du Midi lift, which was decommissioned in 1957. Hiking to these old cable car stations makes a fantastic day out, full of Chamonix history.

The story of La Para and Les Glaciers

Long before the Aiguille du Midi cable car opened in 1955, work had already startted on an earlier project to reach the same summit. Planning for France’s first cable car began in 1909, with construction starting in 1912. The line was scheduled to open in 1915, but the outbreak of the First World War interrupted progress and work stopped for a few years. The first section, from Les Pelerins to the Gare de la Para, finally opened for the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924. The cable car carried competitors to the top of the bobsleigh track. A service lift carried the actual bobsleighs, and spectators had to hike.

The second section from La Para to the Gare des Glaciers opened in 1927. The original plan was for two further stages taking passengers to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. Construction started on these in the 1930s, but they were never to be completed. The cable cars to the Gare des Glaciers closed to the public in 1951. The lift ran for a few more years, bringing materials up for the new Aiguille du Midi lift until 1957. Since then, the line has supported the power cables for the current Aiguille du Midi top-station. The power cables are probably the reason that the buildings have survived in such good condition for so long.

Chamonix centre to Parking du Cerro

The walk proper starts by the entrance to the Tunnel du Mont Blanc. The parking area for the Chalet du Cerro buvette is just to the right, but reaching this car park by car often involves a long wait in the tunnel queue. We recommend starting from Chamonix, even if it means an extra hour-and-a-half of hiking.

Start in front of the Aiguille du Midi lift and take the narrow lane to the left of the lift station. Pass to the left of Concept Sport ski shop and go through an underpass into the Grepon car park. Now head right and go to the roundabout at the far end of the car park (by the main entrance). Cross the roundabout and go straight ahead on a track parallel to the main road. Follow this until you can join a path and swing left. Keep on the path to a signpost where you head left, looking for signposts to the Cascade and Buvette du Dard.

Turn right at a vague junction in the forest, and continue rightwards until you find yourself alongside a main road. Stay on the path and keep heading upwards. Carry on uphill to a fork. You can go left for a look at the Cascade du Dard waterfall, or bear right to reach the Cascade du Dard Buvette (mountain restaurant) directly. Head rightwards from the buvette to reach it’s parking area, then fork left along a gently rising track. Follow this onto a path going uphill until you reach the river and cross under the main road on a concrete walkway. Finally, go up to reach the left-hand end of a suspension bridge. This bridge leads to the Cerro car park mentioned earlier.

Gare de la Para

Don’t cross the suspension bridge, but head uphill on a path just left of the river. Follow the obvious path steeply uphill through the trees. Eventually, the path starts to traverse leftwards. Keep going, and a few wide zig-zags bring you to La Para. The old building is an impressive sight, rising several solid stories out of the steep, wooded hillside. Access to the inside is prohibited, but there are two boards full of information on the old lifts. I found it fascinating to look up at the solid granite balconies resting on granite supports, with metal and concrete kept to a minimum.

Gare des Glaciers

Above La Para, the path continues steeply up through the forest, finally emerging onto open hillside above 2000m. Several surviving pylons are visible now, still standing on their stone bases. These now carry electricity cables towards the Col du Midi. The Gare des Glaciers is visible for a long time before you reach it. Keep going up, and eventually you arrive at the site that was once a busy lift station, hotel and restaurant. The lift station is the largest building, and from below you can see a cable car still in place. Behind the station is the old hotel, and beyond that is the winding gear for a service lift.

Over to the right lies the more minimalist architecture of yet another lift station. This was built for the third stage of the Aiguille du Midi lift project. The lift was to have reached the Col du Midi, close to the current Cosmiques Refuge, before a final stage led to the peak of the Aiguille du Midi. In the 1930s, the lift company installed a service lift so that workers and equipment could reach the next station. Work was interrupted by World War 2, and eventually abandoned due to unsound rock on the ridge above. The cableway to the Col du Midi would never carry tourists, but resistance soldiers used it to transport artillery during the battle for the Vallée Blanche in early 1945.

Back to the Valley

Descending on the same route via the Gare de la Para makes for a fine day out, away from the crowded paths a few hundred metres up the valley. Take care on the steep zig zags, especially on the higher part. We highly recommend stopping for refreshments at the Cascade de Dard buvette about half an hour before you reach Chamonix.

It is also possible to turn left and follow a twisting path marked in yellow towards the Plan de l’Aiguille and the current Aiguille du Midi mid-station. This path takes much longer than you might expect. Allow at least an hour, perhaps nearer two, for the two-and-a-half kilometres to the cable car station. The path climbs to start with, then descends alongside the Pelerins glacier until you can cross the moraine field beneath. It then climbs back up for a hundred metres to just above the lift station. The descent from here is by cable car or by one of the two paths back to Chamonix below the Plan de l’Aiguille refuge. Although the Plan de l’Aiguille itself marks a return to the busier trails above Chamonix, the crossing of the Pelerins moraines feels remote and exciting and you’ll rarely see another hiker here.