Skyway Monte Bianco

The Skyway Monte Bianco is a cableway linking Courmayeur, the Pavillon du Mont Fréty and Punta Helbronner, whose 3,462-metre station forms part of the high-altitude Mont Blanc landscape. Opened in 2015, it succeeds a cableway whose story began in the 1930s.

Why it matters

The lift is both engineering and institution. Its lineage runs from Count Dino Lora Totino, the Biellese industrialist whose 1930s vision of a cable link between Courmayeur and Chamonix produced the first Mont Blanc cableway, opened to the public in 1947, and completed in 1957 with the Punta Helbronner section and the cross-glacier connection to the Aiguille du Midi. Built between 2011 and its opening on 30 May 2015, the Skyway renewed that legacy with rotating cabins whose floors turn during ascent. Its stations combine cableway engineering with terraces, gardens, exhibitions and views of the glaciers.

What to notice

The operator describes the three stations as the Valley, the Mountain and the Sky. The Pavillon du Mont Fréty at 2,173 metres includes the Saussurea Alpine Botanical Garden and the Hangar cable-car history space, with views over the Val Ferret and Mont Fréty saddle. Punta Helbronner, at 3,462 metres, has terraces facing Mont Blanc's summit domes, the Vallée Blanche glaciers and the Aiguille du Midi. A crystal exhibition presents minerals of the massif. The Mont Blanc Infinity Room at the Pavillon du Mont Fréty is an immersive image-and-sound experience using LED screens and mirrors.

Context and history

The history is as compelling as the view. Lora Totino's project was approved in 1940, with works starting in 1941 from La Palud toward the Pavillon before war halted them; the lift opened in 1947, and in 1957 the final section to Punta Helbronner — the small eight-passenger "Piccola" — plus the aerial crossing of the glacier to the Aiguille du Midi completed the international link. For over sixty years this system carried millions of riders until age caught up: works on the replacement began in March 2011, the Punta Helbronner station was rebuilt from April 2012, and on 30 May 2015 the Skyway Monte Bianco opened to the public. The Entrèves-based operator Funivie Monte Bianco S.p.A. presents the cableway as a transport and cultural infrastructure.