Mt Blanc in July. - # - Andrew's Adventures

Amazing Adventures in Beautiful Places

In summer I enrolled in a five day mountaineering course, aimed at climbing Mt Blanc - Europe's highest mountain at 4,807m - via the 3 Monts route. Whilst significantly more vertical than the standard Gouter track, this route is considered more aesthetic. I discovered that in the mountains, this can also mean 'terrifying.' Don't miss the published story of this adventure!

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3 Monts traverse. The start point - Auguille du Midi - is out of shot to the left, along with the first Mont - Mt Blanc du Tacul. Mt Maudit is visible here to the left of Mt Blanc. The full traverse continues down the Bosses Ridge and over the Dome du Gouter, but we reversed our route after the summit.

Finally it was time for the big one - our summit push. We caught the first lift up to Auiguille du Midi at 0730 on Day 4. First though, we had to fight our way through rush-hour down the ridge.

Slab avalanches occassionally break off Mt Blanc du Tacul, sweeping the face clean of climbers and other detruitus. That's partly why climbers prefer to pass such regions before the dawn sun hits them, whilst everything is still frozen solid.

Coming over the shoulder of Mt Blanc du Tacul.

Mt Blanc summit, 4,807 m - the highest in Europe. Due to insufficient acclimatisation and fitness, the altitude hit me 200m below the summit. I suddenly felt very light-headed, almost asleep, and exhausted from the endless vertical stepping with very few breaks. My guide - to whom I was roped - refused to stop(!) so I twice had to sit and briefly refuse to move. The wind was gusting 60-70 km/h and the T was probably around -10C - fantastic conditions for Mt Blanc. Finally, I emerged from a haze of misery onto the summit.

However the views make it all worthwhile. After descending the 3 Monts Route we stayed the night in the Cosmiques alpine hut, in the Col du Midi. This is the newest, most luxurious of the alpine huts. This was the view at dawn. The unusually good weather had allowed a campsite to spring up at 3,800 m in the col.

3 Monts traverse. The start point - Auguille du Midi - is out of shot to the left, along with the first Mont - Mt Blanc du Tacul. Mt Maudit is visible here to the left of Mt Blanc. The full traverse continues down the Bosses Ridge and over the Dome du Gouter, but we reversed our route after the summit.