F/AB-258 Le Brevent

 We were in France for vacation, and after spending some time in Paris we took the train down to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. This small town, nestled in the Alps, was our base for a few more days. On a beautiful morning, we left our AirBnB to find some croissants. After fueling up, we walked up the hill to the Pranplaz gondola. A few Euros later, and we were on our way up.

Mont Blanc from Pranplaz.

Neither of us were upset we'd miss out on ~1000m of uphill. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, and no wind. We couldn't have asked for a better one. We started up the hill, following signs for Le Brevent. At the first junction, we decided to go up via the Col de Brevent and come down the ski road. As it turned out, this was the right decision.

Aiguilles Rouge range

The trail up to the col was well trod. We had no trouble following it, and every time we turned around there were incredible views across the valley of the Mont Blanc area. There were other people out having fun, but few enough that it felt remote. Eventually we made it up to the Col du Brevent, marked by a large cairn and sign.

Col du Brevent marker.

On the other side of the col, the trail went up a snow field and around the side of the hill. This was our first taste of what was coming. There were a few snow fields to cross, though none of them seemed very dangerous. We saw some other groups taking more adventurous routes through the snow and rocks, but we stuck to the marked trail. 

One of the steeper snow fields.

After we got across the snow, we had our second surprise of the hike. There was a steep bit with some ladders attached to the rocks. Having grown up hiking the the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I thought all of this was great fun, but Naina was not as enthused about the scrambling. 

Looking down the ladders.

Once we were up the ladders, there was a little more single track before reaching the ski road. The road had a lot of snow on it still, but it was pretty easy to go up. The summit has a hut shelter that was locked, some railings, and a disk showing what everything you could see was. We had lunch in the shade of the hut. 

Mont Blanc beer at Mont Blanc

At the top of the cable car there's a small restaurant where we got a beer. It had a picture of Mont Blanc on the label, so we figured we were set for an expedition to that summit. Since there is an easy way to get to the summit, it was fairly busy. We walked down to near the tram anchor to set up. It was out of the way, had a good view, and was still in the activation zone. We had cell service with our Orange sim card, so spotting was easy. I did 20m and 40m, with about twice as many people on 40m. 

Looking back at the summit on the way down. 

Once we were done operating, we packed up and headed down. We decided to take the ski trail down, which is a dirt road. There were some snow fields on the north facing slopes, but the road was mostly dry. It was the right way to do the loop, up the steep ladders and down the easy road. Back at Pranplaz, we took a few more pictures before getting in the gondola to head back to town.

Trailhead: Top of the Pranplaz gondola.
Website: SOTA Site. Official Site about Pranplaz and Le Brevent
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: From the gondola, follow signs for "Col du Brevent". At the col, turn left and follow signs for "Le Brevent". Alternatively, take the road up to the summit. Also could take the cable car all the way to the summit if you don't want to hike.
Red Tape: None. 
Video: ham_bitious YouTube