At Le Châtelard, in Valais, just across the border coming from Vallorcine, a funicular tackles the mountain with a gradient reaching 87%. Ten minutes later, you are 700m higher. This is the first of three installations that make up VerticAlp Emosson, which lead in three-quarters of an hour to the Emosson dam, facing the Mont-Blanc massif.
VerticAlp Emosson: practical information
- Departure: Le Châtelard-Village, commune of Finhaut (Valais, Switzerland), free parking.
- By train: Mont-Blanc Express to Le Châtelard VS stop, request stop; approximately 1 hour from Chamonix, 40 minutes from Martigny. A combined train and VerticAlp ticket is also sold at the Vallorcine tourist office.
- By car: approximately 30 minutes from Chamonix via the Col des Montets.
- 2026 season: daily from 30 May to 25 October, weather permitting; departures from 8h35 to 16h05, every 30 minutes, last descent at 16h55.
- Duration: approximately 45 minutes for all three installations, no reservation required.
- Good to know: dogs admitted; bicycles on the funicular only, limited spaces. For accessibility, the operator publishes a dedicated page, based on Pro Infirmis surveys.
Three installations, three-quarters of an hour
The funicular departs from Le Châtelard at 1120m, passes through the hamlet of Giétroz, crosses forests and clearings and arrives at Les Montuires, at 1825m. Its two panoramic cabins travel 1.3km in around ten minutes, with a maximum gradient of 87% that ranks it among the steepest funiculars in the world.
At Les Montuires, you change to the panoramic mountain railway. Over 1.65km, it follows a mountain-side route, between ravines and hand-carved tunnels (five in total), above the Bouqui gorges. Since 2025, two new locomotives operate the service. The journey takes around ten minutes, with the Mont-Blanc massif facing you.
At the foot of the dam, the minifunic takes over: 260m and two minutes to reach the top, at 1965m, at the edge of Lac d’Emosson.
From a 1919 construction site to an attraction
None of this was designed with visitors in mind. Swiss Federal Railways built the funicular in 1919 to transport materials and workers for the Barberine dam, completed in 1925. It subsequently served for the maintenance of the penstocks. When construction of the Emosson dam began in 1968, the funicular’s days were numbered: the SBB decided to dismantle it in 1973.
A company was then created to save it. Railway enthusiasts volunteered to build the mountain railway between Les Montuires and the foot of the dam, and both installations opened to the public in 1975. A monorail initially hoisted visitors up the dam from 1977, before being replaced by the minifunic between 1988 and 1991. In August 2014, the commune of Finhaut became majority shareholder, and the VerticAlp Emosson brand appeared in 2015.
The Emosson dam
Upon arrival, the structure impresses: 180m tall, Switzerland’s third highest dam after Grande-Dixence and Mauvoisin. Its lake holds approximately 225 million m³ of water, the country’s second largest artificial reservoir according to the operator. The structure, commissioned in 1975, is Franco-Swiss: the waters come from both sides of the border, and two power stations turbine them at Vallorcine and Martigny. To ensure the dam was entirely in Switzerland, the municipalities involved exchanged land, an agreement ratified in 1963. The original Barberine dam, for which the funicular had been built, was submerged beneath the new lake’s waters.
For a break, the Emosson panoramic restaurant, at the minifunic arrival, serves fondue and raclette facing Mont-Blanc. At Les Montuires, the VerticAlp Café is accessible only on foot or via the installations.
The footprints of Vieux-Emosson
On 23 August 1976, at the end of an exceptionally hot summer, geologist Georges Bronner discovered at Vieux-Emosson, around 2400m, footprints left over 240 million years ago. They were not made by dinosaurs but by archosaurs, primitive reptiles among which are found the ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles. The site has been protected since 1983. The tracks are generally visible from mid-July once the snow has gone, and geologists interpret the site three weeks each summer from late July. The trail leading to it from Emosson runs approximately 12km for 5 hours of walking.
AEC’s recommendation. To vary your return, ascend via all three installations then descend on foot from the dam to Les Montuires: the operator estimates 30 to 40 minutes of walking and offers an appropriate ticket. The funicular then brings you back to Le Châtelard.
Where to stay
Vallorcine is the closest base on the French side: the Mont-Blanc Express stops there, and in winter the village provides access to the Balme domain. AEC Collection selects chalets in Vallorcine and in the upper Chamonix valley.
A morning at Le Châtelard, lunch at the lake’s edge, a descent on foot via Les Montuires: the Trient valley can be done in a day, and leaves you wanting to spend the following ones there.
