Tour of the Aiguille de la Vanoise and Col de la Vanoise from Pralognan-la-Vanoise

To round off your scenic outing, the Mont Bochor cable car takes you up to an altitude of 2,010m in just 3 minutes! At the top, you’ll find an orientation table at an altitude of 2,023m, on the promontory of Mont Bochor, with 360° panoramic views over the Vanoise glaciers and peaks! In summer, this is also a start point for a range of hiking and mountain bike trails.

The history behind the Bochor cable car is a fascinating one! In the olden days, when our ancestors had to cross the mountain ravines, they used ropes on which makeshift gondolas were pulled along, carrying timber or livestock. This system was the precursor to our modern-day cable car! And this is how, in 1951, construction began on the very first service cable car for transporting tools and materials up to Mont Bochor. Timber posts supported the cables on which the cable car would travel. In 1952, the cable car was finally inaugurated after a challenging construction period, and its landmark maiden flight as it were took place that 31 December. In February 1953, it was finally commissioned: at the time it was the fastest cable car in the world!
Facts & figures at a glance:
Altitude of the bottom platform: 1416.50m
Altitude of the top platform: 2002.50m
Elevation gain: 586m
Length: 1086m
Course: 1048m
Journey time: 207 seconds
Max. slope gradient: 92%
Average slope gradient: 66%
10 trips an hour
32 passengers per car
170,000 journeys in winter

Open in the winter and summer.

Find out more in the guide Destination de légende : le téléphérique du Mont-Bochor (in French): https://fr.calameo.com/read/0010480179e1abe5e2695

The Refuge des Barmettes comes into view in the upper limit of the ski slopes of Pralognan-la-Vanoise, as can be seen in the centre of the image by the detachable chairlift of Génépi, installed during the summer of 2007. The refuge works in winter more like a high-altitude restaurant as opposed to a refuge in the usual sense of the term. In the process of modernisation, the refuge’s façade walls are awaiting new stone and wooden cladding. The grass has grown back on the slopes of the chairlift. The newly green tracks, besides looking prettier, are also easier to groom. To the right, a small light-wood log cabin houses the ski patrollers and an emergency station.

The commercial crossing of the Col de la Vanoise has evolved into a mountaineering base at the Grande Casse, the highest peak in Savoy, with a series of refuges providing accommodation since 1878, including the famous Félix Faure, built in 1903 by the CAF, completed in 1974 by two prefabricated buildings classified as twentieth century heritage and now replaced. But the evolution mainly concerns the melting glacier of the Grands Couloirs, particularly the 1935 tongues that changed the historic route of ascent of 1860, but also the tongue of 1820-30 as the lateral moraines would indicate.

The Glacier of La Grande Casse and Aiguilles de la Glière