Talk about lucky.  Yesterday’s arrival in La Grave was inclement then downright rainy.  This morning?  Clear with blue skies.  Perfect for our trek into the skies.  Meija Glacier here we come.

La Grave’s elevation is 1,400 metres, the glacier 3,983 metres.  It takes two sets of cable cars to get us to the top.

I’m enormously relieved that the wind has died down.  Swinging from a cable car in high winds holds little appeal, especially with the recent spate of cars plummeting from great heights.  It’s only the love of being mountain high that can coax me into one.  Himself meanwhile, completely relaxed.

It looks daunting from below and that’s only the first leg – the second ascent is hidden out of sight over the rise.  Meija was the last mountain conquered in France, taking until 1877 to scale its summit.  Yesterday’s pretty graveyard is sadly home to many the mountain claimed.

Tickets purchased and we’re on.  The trip up takes a full 30 minutes including the interchange.  Understandable – we’re going 2.6 km straight up. Midway, we learn it’s 3 degrees at the top with 58 km winds.  I’ve come fully loaded with coat and gloves, just in case.  Himself has more practical pursuits in mind – is there a restaurant, he asks.  Well of course there is.  That’s lunch sorted.

There’s a momentary blast of cold air on arrival but it’s soon back to a t-shirt.  The glacier unfurls before us, mountains 360 degrees all around.  It’s endless and utterly glorious. 

Very serious mountaineers have beat us to the top.  As they go about the business of parking their dogs (dogs!!) and unclipping their crampons for lunch, we’ve ordered and settled in.

It has to be tartiflette mountainside for us both – an oven baked cocotte with potato, onion, lardons and melted rebechlon cheese.  Utterly delightful, calories be dammed.  The air is thin at 4,000 metres and you have to work hard to get anywhere is my reasoning.  

Lunch inhaled, our first stop is the ice cave sculptures.  Set deep in the glacier, the ice cave is re-carved every 4 to 5 years to account for the glacier’s movement.  Access is a sharp hike up then down hill in slippery snow.  The altitude soon makes itself known.  Work hard to get anywhere indeed.

The cave is elaborately carved and extensive.  There’s a mule, wasp, birds, octopi, an owl, flowers – it just goes on.  A light display highlights each sculpture. It’s very well done and must take an extraordinary amount of work.  Interestingly one thing it isn’t, is cold.  I finally understand how an igloo might actually be cozy.