| Vallée Blanche Cable Car | |
| Status: | Operational |
| Location: | Alps |
| No Stations: | 3 |
| Begin: | 1954 |
| Open: | 1958 |
| Operator: | Compagnie du Mont-Blanc S.A |
| Character: | Aerial tramway |
| Website: | http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/# |
The Vallée Blanche Cable Car (Italian: '''Funivia dei Ghiacciai'''; French: '''Télécabine Panoramic Mont-Blanc''', previously French: Télécabine de la Vallée Blanche) is a passenger cable car linking a mountain peak above Courmayeur (Italy) to a peak above Chamonix (France) by passing over the Mont Blanc massif, in the Alps. The engineering was developed by Vittorio Zignoli of Polytechnic University of Turin. No helicopters were used, and all the workers were chosen among locals and alpine guides. After a construction period of four years, it began service in 1958.
The cable car connects the peaks of Aiguille du Midi (3778m (12,395feet) elevation) and Pointe Helbronner (3466m (11,371feet) elevation), over a distance of some 5km (03miles). The two peaks have their own cable car system connecting them to their nearby villages. The French Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi connects the peak of Aiguille du Midi to the village of Chamonix, while the Italian Skyway Monte Bianco (Funivie Monte Bianco) connects the peak of Pointe Helbronner to the village of La Palud, just north of Courmayeur.
This tourist attraction spans the valleys between the two peaks, high above the Mont Blanc Tunnel, which carries automotive passenger and freight traffic under the two peaks.
The Vallée Blanche Cable Car has fixed track cables (one each direction) carrying 12 groups of 3 small cabins each which are pulled by a haulage rope of 10200m (33,500feet) in a single loop.
The cabins take some 30 to 35 minutes for the whole distance, including 5 short stops corresponding the stops of the cabins arriving in the stations at either end.
The cabins run from the Aiguille du Midi station (3778m (12,395feet) elevation) across a span of 1684m (5,525feet) over Vallée Blanche, a glacier and snow valley, to the Gros Rognon station (3536m (11,601feet)). The Gros Rognon station is not a passenger station - it contains the counterweights of the fixed cables and the rails bending the horizontal direction of the cables by some 8° to the right.
Beyond the Gros Rognon, the cabins cross the Géant Glacier and snow valley, a span of 2831m (9,288feet) between supports. Although the cables sag by some 255m (837feet), the cabins still have a clearance of some 300m (1,000feet) to the glacier underneath.
Between the rocks of the Large and the Small Flambeau, three 315m (1,033feet) long steel cables are installed, which take over the role of the cable support (Pylône suspendu / Suspended Support Pillar). During construction, it was decided to build this unique configuration, because the glacier is unsuitable for high tower construction. Between the anchors of these cables at either side, there is a difference in elevation of 136m (446feet), resulting in these cables having a horizontal inclination of some 23° to the direction of the tramway.
From this support the cable car runs 447m (1,467feet) to Pointe Helbronner (3466m (11,371feet) elevation).
On 29 August 1961, the cable car was badly damaged when a Republic F-84F Thunderstreak of the French Armée de l'Air tore its hauling cable. Three cars crashed and six people were killed. Pilot Bernard Ziegler landed his damaged plane safely. The upward cable was undamaged, but 81 riders had to wait many hours for rescue.[1] [2] [3]
On September 8, 2016 110 people were stranded when the cable cars stopped. They needed to be evacuated by helicopter.[4]