Chamonix: Chalet du Glacier de Bossons
Chalet du Glacier de Bossons - The start of the Bossons Glacier hike
The glacier you can see from everywhere in town, the same one I see from my patio, and even from bed, is called the Bossons Glacier. The glacier is the biggest ice-fall in the Alps and, as a result of the gradient, is also the fastest moving glacier between 1m (3.28ft) & 1m 50 (5ft) each day.
Today I’ve decided to take the hike up to get close and personal with this glacier and, as always, hoping to get some more great pics of the Aiguilles de Chamonix, as well as the ever present Mont Blanc. The hike is aptly named The Bossons Glacier hike.
The first part of my journey started out in a bus to the village of Bossons, to then catch a very quant, old chairlift built in 1960 (mine was held together with a bungee cord) up to 1425m (4675ft) where there is the gorgeous Chalet du Glacier de Bossons. This place is right off the chair lift so it only took me 5 minutes of “hiking” before I took my first break. I started out early enough to justify stopping for a cup of coffee, taking a moment to enjoy the stunning views, before beginning my hike to my next mountain chalet. Yes, today apparently I am just hiking from chalet to chalet seeing what yummy treats I can find.
After a lovely cup of coffee I took the route behind the chalet that leads on a journey of information boards with historical data of the glacier over the years. Additionally it tells the story of the 2 Air India flights that crashed into these mountains. One crashed in 1950, and another in 1966, in nearly the exact same location. One of the information boards on this hike labeled these tragedies the “Air India Curse.”
On 3 November 1950, Air India flight 245, a Lockheed four-motor propeller plane named ‘Malabar Princess’ crashed into a rocky point at a height of around 4,677m (15,344ft) on Mont Blanc. The Mumbai-London flight, with intermediate stops, had departed from Cairo and was to land in Geneva. The 1966 crash was Air India flight 101, a Boeing 707 airliner, named ‘Kanchenjunga’. Again a Mumbai-London flight, making a stopover at Geneva. According to the inquiry commission’s report, the crash was the likely result of a communication error between the pilot and the radar controller that led to a miscalculation in determining the plane’s position relative to Mont Blanc. The pilot had been instructed to descend for Geneva Airport upon passing Mont Blanc. However, with one of the aircraft's radio navigation systems having failed, the captain wrongly assumed he had passed over the mountain and began his descent. The aircraft flew straight into the Mont Blanc massif.
The crazy thing is, over the years, the glacier seems to regularly spit out different items from the crashes. In 2013, a climber discovered a metal box that reportedly contained precious stones such as rubies, sapphires and emeralds estimated to be worth between €130,000 (about $175,000) and €246,000 ($331,600). It isn’t clear as to which of the two crashes this box belongs to. According to a report, diplomatic documents classified “A” (top secret) and “B” (official communication) were discovered in 2016. In July of this year (2020), about a dozen newspapers which were likely onboard the 1966 flight were discovered in a melting glacier. Bossons glacier kept frozen in time around a dozen copies of Indian newspapers with Indira Gandhi - India's first female prime minister - splashed across the cover. The newspapers were dried out and still completely readable. Chalet du Glacier de Bossons has a propeller, an engine, and other debris from the crash on display.
