Mont Blanc Massif

Climbing Punta Helbronner with the Skyway cable car is a unique experience
Photo: Luca Maffeis, CC0, Unsplash

The most intense emotion, however, is perhaps the ascent to Punta Helbronner (3,462 m) with the Skyway Monte Bianco cable car, an engineering masterpiece inaugurated in 2015. This 360° rotating cable car is an immersive experience: during the ascent, you pass through three stations, and at the intermediate Pavillon station is the Saussurea Alpine Botanical Garden, the highest in Europe, where over 900 alpine species bloom.

At Punta Helbronner, the circular panoramic terrace allows your gaze to wander across the entire Alpine arc, from the Matterhorn to Monte Rosa and the Swiss peaks.

A little street in Courmayeur
Photo: Alice Denysenko, CC0, Unsplash

Courmayeur, at 1,224 meters on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, is the most renowned ski resort in the Aosta Valley, which over the years has managed to preserve its Alpine identity while embracing its status as a winter destination for elite international tourism. Via Roma, the pedestrian island where luxury boutiques and local craft shops are concentrated, is always lively with evening strolls, which become a sort of social ritual.

The historic center retains traditional Aosta Valley architecture, with stone and wood houses, among which stands out the Parish Church of San Pantaleone, founded in the 11th century, whose Romanesque bell tower is one of the oldest examples of religious architecture in the Aosta Valley. Not far away, the Museum of Alpine Guides Duca degli Abruzzi documents the history of mountaineering on Mont Blanc through period equipment and testimonies of the brave pioneers who challenged the mountain. The Alpine Guides Society of Courmayeur that manages it, founded in 1850, is among the oldest in the world, and is a symbol of the deep bond between the local community and the mountain, a relationship that has shaped the very identity of the village.

Although famous for snow sports, Courmayeur does not live only in winter: during the warm season, in addition to many tourists, it hosts internationally renowned cultural events, such as the Courmayeur Feeling Mountain, an event where the mountain is told by its protagonists, attracting climbers and enthusiasts from all over the world.

Fontina DOP wheels, typical cheese of the Aosta Valley
Photo: Luigi Chiesa, CC BY, Wikimedia Commons

The food and wine of the Mont Blanc area distills into a fascinating crossroads of Italian, French, and Swiss influences: here, mountain cuisine has evolved over time to meet the needs of an almost extreme environment, turning necessity into virtue.

Fontina DOP, the symbolic cheese of the Aosta Valley, is also produced in the mountain pastures of these areas, which give the milk unique organoleptic characteristics. This cheese is the main ingredient in some typical dishes, such as the Valdostan fondue, different from its Swiss cousin because of the addition of egg yolks, which make it creamier, and the seupa à la Vapelenentse, a soup of stale white bread, fontina, butter, and broth prepared with savoy cabbage.

Regarding meats, the most famous dish in the area is carbonada, a stew made with beef marinated in red wine with spices, often served with polenta.

On the Italian side, Piedmontese influences are not lacking, such as chnéflléne, egg, milk, and flour gnocchetti seasoned with butter and onions, and motsetta, a dried and spiced salami made from goat, ibex, or chamois meat.

Regarding alcoholic beverages, the highest vineyards in Europe (up to 1,200 meters) produce indigenous varieties such as Prié Blanc, from which the rare Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle is obtained, a mountain wine with an intense mineral flavor. Finally, the production of Genepì, that is, the liqueur obtained by macerating alpine wormwood in alcohol, is a pride and centuries-old tradition, whose preparation is a ritual zealously guarded.