Cold Night ahead for some – Mt Blanc Cable Car

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-09/tourists-trapped-in-cable-car-over-french-italian-alps/7828288

About 50 people are stuck in cable cars high above the glaciers of Mont Blanc in the French Alps after a helicopter rescue operation was suspended as night fell, officials say.

The cable cars were stuck at “an altitude of 3,800 metres”, initially with 110 people on board, Haute-Savoie region prefect Georges-Francois Leclerc said.

“We succeeded in evacuating, in very difficult conditions, 60 people in an hour and a half,” Mr Leclerc said.
“We had to suspend the air transport rescue at nightfall.”

Mr Leclerc did not say whether the tourists remaining in the cable cars would have to spend the entire night suspended up there.
Having camped up there it’s not somewhere I’d want to be without a lot of warm gear

😯 Brrr!!

Also the article doesn’t seem to have an image of Leclerc

Having camped up there

Naughty, naughty.

Oh man. Saying that rescue by helicopter would be very hairy 🙁

So long as it’s not the hut supply helicopter, dangling a 1T dump bag from a wire and using the cable swing to miss the tree’s was always a good morning show!!
At no point is the car actually that far up with the exception of the Midi station part.

hora – Member
Oh man. Saying that rescue by helicopter would be very hairy

I was thinking the same, I’d be happy to wait inside until they got it working again.

Mike it’s not the Aiguille du Midi, it’s the one that goes across the glacier from France to Italy.

Not as cold as I though it might be either, looks like the temperature was around freezing point 😯

Beyond the Gros Rognon, the cabins cross the Glacier du Géant glacier and snow valley, a span of 2,831 m (9,288 ft) between supports. Although the cables sag by some 255 m (837 ft), the cabins still have a clearance of some 300 m (980 ft) to the glacier

Christ you see those gondolas when you are on the Valley Blanche and they are extremely high up! The pic shows where they disembark, but when over the glacier, they are far higher than you would imagine most lifts to be. Not a nice place to be stuck

Gonna be a bit smelly by morning!

Banana, it’s OK to bivi, isn’t it?

I’m wondering what the ride was like in windy conditions to tangle the cables… the helicopter may be tame in comparison…

Was up the Aiguille du Midi 3 weeks ago.
Wouldnt mind doing the cable car across to Helbronner… when its fixed 😯

At least the cars have been upgraded:

Cables were twisted but all fixed now.

“They have plenty of food and water”

Toilets might be a challenge though!

Bet it was a beautiful view at dawn though! ;O)

Aye, sunrise would be awesome! Sooooo envious.