Last week I made my first full ascent of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe.
To say this was an omission from my climbing cv could be seen as an understatement. I’ve been fortunate enough to climb and guide all over the world, guiding some of the seven summits as well as some classic routes around the alps.
For a few years I’ve always been asked (normally by non climbers) if I’ve climbed Mont Blanc. Most people didn’t understand my explanation of saving it for a hard route, or a memorable one.
I’d always wanted to climb it for the first time from the Italian side, a truly impressive view from Courmayeur with some of the hardest routes in the Alps gaining the summit after a couple of days worth of climbing.
Last summer I was getting some big runs done, and I ran from the church in Les Houches to the summit of the Dome du Gouter before getting far too cold (in my running man-tights) and heading back down.
So last week I was employed as a guide to take a couple of entertaining Manchester lads up the Gouter route from the Tete Rousse hut. All three of us were looking forward to the ascent, them with a little more nervousness than me, but I was looking forward to wandering up this classic and historic route that I can see from my kitchen window.
We found the route to be in good condition, although there was a some slippy loose snow towards the top. It was of course a little busy, but many teams turned around, due to the dodgy looking weather (that turned out fine), and a cold north wind past the Vallot hut.
We really enjoyed ourselves, and the boys were totally made up to have the summit deserted for a few minutes as well. We stopped at the new Gouter hut on the way down for coffee, coke and an omelette which revived everyone. It was about 12.5hrs hut to hut, plus the hours stop at the hut. About 1700m vertical gain from the Tete Rousse to the summit.
The Manchester boys were happy it was my first summit as well, it’s good fun exploring new routes with clients.
Some observations for the aspiring Mont Blanc mountaineer;
Mont Blanc is not “easy”, whichever route you take. The Gouter has around 600m of scrambling plus some fairly exposed ridge, meaning everyone needs to have energy to spare to make the descent safely.
All six of our clients felt they had underestimated how difficult it would be, and many had been to higher altitudes previously.
Good crampon technique, a head for exposed ground, physical fitness, mental toughness and proper acclimatization are the ingredients for a successful and enjoyable ascent.
Unless you climb out of season, or by a difficult route it will be busy. Both huts on the Gouter route were full the day after we summited. That’s a lot of people on the route and there are many places where it is hard to overtake.
Summit of Mont Blanc, 2014
