Chamonix: the overcrowded Lac Blanc

In Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie), even the arrival of the chairlift is an important moment. The Mont-Blanc range is revealed. So walkers will reach the famous Lac Blanc in less than an hour and a half. At an altitude of 2,352 m, walkers follow each other, cross paths and sometimes pile up. The site is always very popular. This summer, about 1,500 people a day go there.

A tourist who came 25-30 years ago is surprised not to see what he is familiar with. “There, it’s a bit of a ring road during rush hour, which was not the case at the time”, he testifies. Lac Blanc is at the heart of the Aiguilles Rouges National Nature Reserve (Haute-Savoie). In the square kilometers that surround us, there are far too many people trying to swim at all costs in a lake. We fight every day to enforce a semblance of common sense”, reports Fred Charlet, caretaker of the Lac Blanc refuge. Contrary to what one might think, the first to visit the valley were from Haute-Savoie.