Mt Blanc Diary

The Summit of Mt Blanc, 6:10 on July 2nd with Adam and Dan

With little time for faffing due to our weather window we set off for our first camp the day after arrival in Chamonix. We had decided on the Gouter route after a visit to the The Maison des Guides in the town centre. The route itself is technically straightforward with the biggest danger being the volume of traffic (human traffic!) and the dreaded Grand Couloir which is notorious for rock fall and avalanche risk.

On the morning of the 30th June we took the telephrique up from Les Houche and began our long trek up to the Tete Rousse where we spent our first night. The beginning of the trek was beautiful, passing through forest and winding our way up towards the great glaciers that lay ahead. Arriving at the top of the railway the trek turned into a slate type scramble. Goats were abundant and regularly jumped into our path. It was at this stage, approximately 2200m that our heavy laden packs were beginning to be felt. Unlike most climbers who stay in the huts, we had decided that we were to camp and snow hole and hence had to endure the extra weight. We took our time as we were confident that we would arrive at the Tete Rousse with plenty of time and so we did.

It was at this point were the snowline lay but we were able to pitch our tent on the rocks where the snow had melted. We were lucky to stumble across a small stream and hence had the perfect camping location. It also gave me the option to sit and contemplate the grand Colouir that lay 50m's to our right and 100m's further up that we would be facing the very next morning.

This is me at our camp 1 sporting a very cool look of shorts, knee high socks and alpine walking boats!

The view from our tent that evening looking down over the glaciers and crevasses.

The second day was fairly short - up to the Gouter hut. Crossing the Grand Couloir turned out not to be a massive issue as we were there early about 8.00am which was a few hours before the sun would begin to heat up the couloir and rocks would begin to fall. Dan went first and ran at the speed of lightening. I was second taking it a little slower as to not to fall of the 1ft wide path that would lead to immenent danger and Adam followed shortly after. I had really worked myself up over not very much at all. I think it was just the though of what if I trip and fall or what if a rock hits me then I fall. I had also heard the statistics of this being the place where most people are killed. It was on our return journey along this stretch when I found out why that was!

The route immediately turned into a full on scramble which was great fun and probably the part of the route that I enjoyed the most. For most of the time we were on hands and feet pulling ourselves up over the rock. The sun began to stream down and I was glad to be wearing shorts!

We flew up to the Aiguille de Gouter in no time where it was now time for crampons and axes to make their debut. It was about 11am when we began to dig our snow hole to pitch our tent in. After a quick refuelling and about half an hour of melting snow for drinking water we decided that we should practice a bit of crevasse rescue drills and Alpine moving as none of us had been out on expedition together before and we all had our own experiences and techniques for dealing with things.

Just as I was in the middle of pretending to pull Adam out of a crevasse the most amazing thunder and lightening broke out and before I new it I heard yells come from Adam who had been struck by the lightening. Luckily it was only mildly but we were fast to retreat back to our tent. Just before we got in the tent we heard another yell from a loan climber who had also been struck by the lightening and managed to panic so much that he fell over and stuck his crampon through his leg. Both Adam and Dan ran to his rescue and helped him down to the Gouter Hut that lay about 100m below. I in the meantime ensured that our belongings were safely stored in the tent as the wind had also picked up, the snow was falling heavily and the atmoshpere was totally electric. Adam returned minutes later and said come on lets go down to the gouter hut to take shelter. Still with my crampons on I made the massive mistake of taking hold of the cooking tin and with this formed a complete electrical circuit and was too buzzing like a fly in contact with electricity. I had my hood up and my whole head began to buzz. The tin dropped from my hand and I quickly ripped my hood off. Adam laughed really hard when he saw me standing in the middle of a thunder, lightening and snow storm with my hair standing on end. I was slightly less amused and retreated back into the tent with Adam quick to follow as the storm got worse. A few minutes later Dan returned back with stories of his bravery in rescuing the fallen man and we sat in our tent for a few hours to weather the storm. We heard the helicopter arrive to evacuate the injured man.

By about 5.00pm the storm had passed and as the boys rested I resumed my role of feeding the troops. I crawled out of the tent and put on the dinner. Some delicious freeze dried fondue, chicken paella and carbonara. It turned out to be disgusting and none of us managed to stomach all that much. By now I was suffering fairly badly from the altitude. I had a contact pounding headache, not helped by being frazzled from the electrical storm and my stomach was churning. All I really managed to eat was some sour sweet chews. Adam was great at reminding me to constantly drink water and I sunk a few paracetamols to add to the mix.

We were all tucked up in bed by 7.00pm. I was totally sandwiched between the Dan and Adam and hence had a very cosy night despite the temperature reaching well into the minus figures outside.

Summit day was upon us. We all woke before the alarm at 00:30. Our drills were slick and I assuming my cooking role, the porridge was ready and snow melted within 15mins of rising. It was pitch black but the sky was full of stars which was a very good sign. It was not snowing but there was a real chill in the air but I still decided to be bold and start cold with just one base layer on and a Goretex jacket.

We roped ourselves together and left our forward camp at 01:30, the long trek began as we winded our way up the Dome du Gouter. It was far too steep to go straight up so we had to zig zag the whole way. We reached the top in 1hr45mins, still in pitch black the only light we had was from our torches so much of the dramatic scenery we were passing was missed.

As we dropped down into the col we could see our next step climb ahead of us, then onto the Vallot hut where we stopped briefly. My head was pounding and I had to hold back the feeling of sickness. Dan was also suffering a little from the altitude but Adam was blissfully unaffected by it having worked at altitude before. I found it so frustrating that the simple concept of walking and putting one foot in front of the other was to prove such hard work. It was tough and I suffered but by no means did I contemplate at any stage that I would not make it. I had constant words with myself and failure was not an option. We plodded on!

On the Bosses ridge, which was in places just a few inches wide we met other teams. It proved a little hair raising as we decided which team would step off the path and balance precariously on the loss snow that lead to a 4000m plunge. The sun had now begun to rise and the sheer scale of what we were tackling became apparent. The Alpine mountain range was the most beautiful scenery I had ever scene yet could in a flash become the most inhospitable place for man or woman to endure.

On reaching the summit I feel to my knees with great relief and muttered the only words that would come out of my mouth.....'we've done it'! We celebrate with a quick high five before facing the reality that we had actually only made it half way. We now had a full 4000m's down climbing to face as the aim was to be back in Chamonix that same evening.

The hike down revealed all the spectacular sights that we had missed on out way to the summit, some of it i was rather glad to have missed given the 'one foot wrong and I'm history' thought that was going through my mind. Roping all together meant that if one of us slipped the other two would dig in their axes with the aim of anchoring in to catch the fallen climber. The fallen climber would also attempt to carry out an ice axe arrest which stop the fall. Luckily we did not need to employ any of these techniques and our down climb went very smoothly. We met more and more team on their way to the summit with probably just over half making the summit. We met a number of people who had succumbed to the effects of altitude.

We were soon back to our advanced camp and after a 20min lye down we were all packed up and on our way back down towards the dreaded Grand Colouir. It was 11.00am by the time we made it there and being the first to reach it I sat and watched as a few other teams dodged the now very regularly falling rocks. This instilled fear into me and as Adam and Dan joined me at the start of the crossing I insisted that we should be roped up for this section and attached to the wire that went across the Colouir because should one of us get hit at least the other two can stop that person from sliding to their death down the Grand Colouir. We stood for a minute and took deep breathes. It was time, Adam in the front stepped onto the path. I was second and Dan at the rear.The pace was brisk and when we were half way across we heard yells coming from the onlooking teams 'rock fall' they yelled. Our brisk walk turned into a full on sprint and altitude sickness of not the three of us ran like the wind. The boulders started to fly past us erratically and one narrowly missed Dan as it skimmed passed behind his head. We scrambled to get off the path on the other side but some French teams were standing in the way waiting to make the crossing. I yelled at them and pushed them out of the way as we needed to get clear of the path as the boulders began to fall more regularly. Bent over with exhaustion we looked at each other and realised that we had survived the worst that Mt Blanc could throw at us.

After another 3hrs of descending we were happily enjoying a beer in the sun back in Les Houche.

Swollen feet and ankles, sore backs, a little sunburn, altitude sickness, electric shocks, snow storms and possibly some dehydration was all well worth the experience we had had and the sights we had seen.

We took the next day as rest and spent the day climbing on the nearby crags and enjoying a BBQ and red wine in the sun. That evening we went out to celebrate out achievement, and celebrate we did as we drank ourselves and each other under the table, danced to the early hours of the morning and some of us (ADAM!!) spending part of the night asleep in a hedge on his way home to the campsite! None of this did us or our poor bodies any good at all!

A wonderful adventure and looking forward to the next!