Le Brévent

Le Brévent is the summit at 2,525m on the north side of the Chamonix valley, the last summit of the Aiguilles Rouges at the end of their western sector and directly opposite the Mont Blanc massif, which it faces across the valley. Two lifts run up from the edge of Chamonix: a gondola to Planpraz at about 2,000m, and from there a cable car to a station a few metres below the top. The Compagnie du Mont-Blanc runs both.

The line has more history than the gondola suggests. It began with Alfred Cachat, a Chamonix hotelier who wanted a lift for his guests from 1912, and the first section to Planpraz opened on 30 July 1928 as the third passenger cable car in France; the second section to the summit was inaugurated on 7 September 1930, both built to the design of the Paris consulting engineer André Rebuffel, the lift historians at remontees-mecaniques.net record. The original Planpraz cable car gave way to gondolas in 1979, and the Brévent section is a cable car.

The summit is the edge of the Réserve naturelle nationale des Aiguilles Rouges: French Wikipedia places the western half of the mountain, including the Lac du Brévent below the top, inside it. That draws a hard line for dogs. The Compagnie du Mont-Blanc allows them on its Brévent lifts on a lead, and states in the same breath that they are not permitted in the reserve; the 2010 decree that governs it bans domestic animals, lead or no lead, with exceptions only for guide, working and rescue dogs. A dog can ride up for the view, and the paths west of the summit, down to the Lac du Brévent, are closed to it.

This is the Mont Blanc view for anyone who wants it without a walk and without the altitude of the Aiguille du Midi, which climbs to 3,842m on the far side of the valley. It is not a quiet summit, with two lifts serving it, and it does not suit a walker who wants the view earned; the Lac Blanc walk from La Flégère, along the same range, faces the same chain from a lake at 2,352m.