the hedgehog review

A Cosmopolitan Revelation: The Rick Steves Way of Travel (2024)

In the summer of 2018, I skipped Fourth of July barbecues and fireworks at home to venture to a wooden platform balanced atop the Aiguille du Midi in France, an unnerving peak rising 12,602 feet above sea level. The village of Chamonix, a rustic Alpine town turned luxury ski and mountaineering haven, was nestled far below. The day before, I had taken an old-fashioned train to the shrinking Mer de Glace glacier, now better known as a wake-up call to climate disaster than as a sight of striking natural beauty. On this day, though, I braved a 10,000-foot ascent in a gondola crammed with people to a breathtaking cliffside overlook, hoping for a clear view of the top of the Alps. From this perch, tourists were able to see the mountains not only of France but of Switzerland and Italy, including the real Matterhorn (far more impressive than its Disneyland namesake). While many took pictures, others watched an infinitesimal string of mountain climbers scale nearby Mont Blanc, the tallest peak not only in the Alps but in all of Western Europe. The terror and awe inspired by the sheer height and mass of these mountains must have been what Edmund Burke was describing when he wrote about the experience of the sublime.