Panoramic Mont Blanc gondola breakdown 1 year on
€350,000 spent on security since last year's cable entanglement
It's a year to the day that 110 people got stuck (some overnight) on the Panoramic Mont Blanc gondola at 3,842m above sea level.
8th September 2016 was the date when the cables operating the gondola that crosses from the Auigille du Midi to Helbronner in Italy, became tangled, trapping everyone on board.
A large rescue effort was launched, but not everyone managed to get out of the cabins and rescue crews had to bring them blankets and food to make sure they were relatively safe and warm overnight. In fact many of the 33 people left up there for the night suffered from hypothermia nonetheless and were brought back to safety by 09:30 the following morning.
Since then, Compagnie du Mont Blanc have spent €350,000 on installing radios and emergency kits into each of the cabins. They've also put security cameras in place and made sure the engines (and a new back-up engine) that run the cables are capable of dealing with another entanglement. Teams have also been given additional training on how to rescue people, should it happen again.
The Panoramic Mont Blanc Gondola is only open in the summer, and will operate (weather permitting) until 24th September 2017. If you'd like to enjoy a trip on the gondola, you can find timetables, summer lift opening dates and prices for all the summer lifts in Chamonix.
To find out if the lift is operating on any given day, take a look at the Live Lift Status under 'Aiguille du Midi'.
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