What's New in Chamonix?

Paragliders view of the new Brevent top station

Work on the eagerly awaited Brevent Gondola seems to be going nicely to plan as we spotted the arrival of the brand new cabins yesterday at the base station of the new lift. With a budget of €11 million, it is largest investment project in France this year and work started back in May as soon as the old gondola closed after the winter.

The new cabins each seat 8 passengers (or 10 standing) and its increased speed will more than double the capacity of the old lift to 3000 people/hour. Goodbye lift queues! The top station is now higher than the old one (although not as high as we’d imagined it would be!) enabling skiers direct access to the pistes and the old interim 2-man chair has been dismantled and removed. The new lift is scheduled to open on 20th December, just in time for Christmas.

You can map the progress of the building work from its initial excavations to the recent arrival of the cabins on the Compagnie du Mont Blanc’s photo diary of the Brevent project. We also thought you’d like these unique views of the top station, taken at the end of October by Sean Potts, our friend from Summits Paragliding School. A true bird's eye perspective!