Grand Balcon Nord, Plan de l'Aiguille to Montenvers

The Grand Balcon Nord is the high path along the foot of the Chamonix Aiguilles, the granite spires between the Aiguille du Midi and the Mer de Glace, walked from one lift to another. It starts at the Plan de l’Aiguille, at 2,310m, the mid-station of the Aiguille du Midi cable car from Chamonix, and ends at Montenvers at 1,913m, the top station of the rack railway, so the whole walk stays between 1,913m and 2,310m with no climb from the valley to reach it.

The route the Chamonix tourist office describes crosses the Blaitière pastures and the Grépon torrent to a fork at 2,071m, where a steep shortcut drops straight to Montenvers through couloirs it calls dangerous in snow. The main path instead winds up past the lower Signal des Charmoz to Signal Forbes, at 2,198m, where the view changes all at once to the Drus, the Aiguille Verte and the Grandes Jorasses across the Mer de Glace. From there a long, winding descent leads down to the hotel and the station. It can be walked the other way, which turns a gentle 140m of ascent into a climb of more than 500m.

The office gives 5.7km, 140m of ascent and 523m of descent, in about two and a half hours one way, and grades it medium. Dogs are a problem at the start rather than on the path: the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc does not take animals on the Aiguille du Midi cable car, and the regional tourist board repeats the rule.

This suits a walker who wants a day of high mountain ground without the climb to reach it, and it ends at the Montenvers railway, which makes the return easy. Anyone wanting a summit should look elsewhere; the Aiguillette des Posettes at the head of the valley is a true summit at 2,201m, climbed on foot from Le Tour. A walker with a dog cannot reach the start by the cable car, and has the Chalet de la Floria above Chamonix instead, where dogs on a lead are accepted.