Andy and I had just left Switzerland in heavy rain, and decided to head for France and the Chamonix Valley (see Part 1 – Switzerland). Before leaving Zweisimmen we’d done a bit of a Google search for accommodation in the Chamonix area, and found a great deal on a hotel in Saint Gervais les Bain, the Hotel Val d’Este. We decided to book it for a week, as we’d be going out largely for single days, other than a possible attempt on Mont Blanc which would take two days. But it would be nice to just be able to leave everything in the Hotel while up on Mont Blanc, and return to somewhere warm and cosy afterwards. For anyone heading to the Chamonix area, I’d definitely recommend checking out this lovely little hotel.
So, 8 days into our trip. The weather forecast looked good for most of the rest of our stay, and I started the day by giving the Gouter Hut a call to see if we could book in for an attempt on Mont Blanc. The Gouter Hut is notoriously difficult to get into, as bookings are generally only taken online, and the booking system opens in the spring giving guides and guiding companies first dibs at booking beds for the season. So, the bigger companies just block book the whole place, and the rest of us are told that it’s fully booked, but to try calling to see if there are any cancellations. We felt very lucky to call and be immediately offered two beds on the Monday night! Today was Sunday, so we decided to head up into the Aiguille Rouge for a spot of easy climbing.
Day 8. Aiguille Rouge and Mic et Maousse. A quick ascent to 2500m on the chairlift took us to the summit of Le Brevent. It’s not often we start a rock climbing day by walking downhill, but we did today. A half-hour stroll down a track, with a bit of short scrambling over rocks, took us to a boulder-filled gully with a large snow-patch.
Above rose the easy-angled ridge of Mic et Maousse. It’s graded AD+ with a pitch at 5a, and the rest just a bit easier, plus an abseil halfway along, so we geared up with a few quickdraws and a handful of nuts.
Andy took the first pitch, which leads up a slab then into a broken groove. The going was straightforward, giving us a chance to enjoy the views as we climbed.
The second pitch was an easy scrambly ridge leading into a corner. Here I found a large block that was loose, but it could be avoided by bridging the corner and pulling out steeply onto a hanging corner with a bizarrely low belay bolt.
Then Andy led up across a flake-line and into a steep crack to regain the ridge. All nice climbing, and never very difficult. Beyond the steep crack was another short scrambling section which finished at a col at the top of this first part of the ridge. We had lunch, then walked down a scree slope to the foot of an adjoining buttress.
This was the 5a pitch. We spent a bit of time trying to work out exactly where the route went, as we could see an obvious hand-jam crack at the top of the buttress and thought we should be heading there. Andy led up, clipped a bolt, then found that at the top of a groove he could step left onto a ledge. From there another crack rose above, and he climbed this to the top. This was an 18m pitch, with just 3 bolts the whole way. Although the climbing was never more than 5a (probably felt about UK 4b) Andy was glad that we’d put in a few nuts and a couple of cams to give a bit more protection.
From the top of the crack an easy scramble led to an abseil point. A quick zip down from here brought us to another broad area full of boulders.
Another diagonal descent through the boulders, and a walk over a small col, took us to the final pitch, 4b over 35m. I led this one, which was generally easy, but again I only found 3 bolts on the entire pitch. A sling around a thread and a couple of nuts in cracks made it feel a bit more friendly. Then it was just a case of belaying Andy up, and enjoying the views over the Mont Blanc range before heading back uphill to Le Brevent for the chair lift down into Chamonix.
Day 9. Mont Blanc approach. We’d originally hoped to have a go at Mont Blanc from the Cosmiques Hut via the Trois Monts route. I’d personally hoped for a couple of nights in the hut, climbing a route on the Triangle du Tacul on the first day, after catching the lift up to the top of the Aiguille du Midi. In my plan, made at home, we’d then climb Mont Blanc via the Trois Monts route on day two, and return to the Cosmiques Hut that night. The following morning we’d nip up the amazing-looking Cosmiques Arete to gain the summit of the Aiguille du Midi and catch the chairlift back to Chamonix. However, plans very rarely pan out. We had two problems. One was that news from Chamonix during the week before we left home was that part of the Cosmiques Arete had collapsed in a massive rockfall – even the Chamonix guides were now avoiding this route! The other problem was that a fault had been discovered on one of the cables for the Aiguille du Midi cable car, and that was declared out of action for the rest of the season! So, we thought, let’s scrap that plan, and just go up Mont Blanc via the Gouter Route, hence my frantically phoning the hut to try to book beds.
The route starts on the Tramway up to Nid d’Aigle, the top station at 2372m. It’s a couple of hours walk uphill from there to reach the Tete Rousse Hut, which is where a lot of people spend the first night. We wanted to get higher on the mountain the same day, so carried on up a snow slope above the Tete Rousse. The slope brings you to the crest of a ridge, then into what is probably the most dangerous section of the entire way up Mont Blanc, the Grand Couloir. This is a broad gully which is regularly raked by falling stones and boulders. The rocks become dislodged by thaw conditions higher up, while some are also accidentally knocked down by people high up the mountain. Those who choose to spend a night at the Tete Rousse Hut do so because it then allows them to cross the Grand Couloir in the early hours of the morning, when it is a lot colder and there are fewer people up above them. This does mean a massive climb on summit day though, so we thought we’d take our chances in the Couloir. There is a fixed wire across the gully, where some advise that you should clip in with a long sling in case you get hit by a rock. Others however, reason that this just slows you down, and the best approach is to just move across the Couloir as fast as you can. When we crossed the ‘fixed’ wire wasn’t fixed any more – it had been wiped out by falling rocks sometime before, and was now about 50 feet below the path. We’d already seen a few rocks come bounding down, but in what appeared to be a quiet spell, we just legged it across as fast as we could. Then it was onto a broken ridge which is fairly easy scrambling at PD grade, but there is a wire and bolts in places for those that want a bit more security. We didn’t bother with the rope, just leaving it in my rucksack, but did haul up on the occasional cable. At the top of the ridge is the old Gouter Hut, now defunct, and a short ascent on icy snow led to a ridge which we followed to the new Gouter Hut.
As we approach the hut the weather closed in, limiting views to just a few metres, but once we’d settled in at the hut and were having dinner with a friendly young couple and their guide, the clouds parted, giving us superb views across to the Aiguille de Bionnassay – one lovely looking 4000m peak I’ll have to return to climb another time.
Day 10. Mont Blanc. An early start after no sleep whatsoever, and it was just a case of following a line of head torches up steep snow slopes above the hut. I think from memory that we got away at about 4.20am. There were many people ahead of us, and a lot behind too. It seemed that most parties were with a guide, and initially we overtook quite a few until we reached the Vallot Bivouac Hut at 4362m. The sun was just starting to rise at that time, and our desperately cold hands and feet at last began to feel a bit of warmth. I don’t think Andy will mind me saying that he was still struggling with altitude, and at one point we were typically taking two steps, then stopping for a five minute rest. A bergschrund between the two knolls on the Bosses Ridge gave a bit of a steeper section, but otherwise the climbing was just walking on steep snow, often on the crest of a lovely arete. We reached the summit at around 8.45am, meaning that our time from the hut was actually pretty respectable.
We enjoyed the views and sat in the snow for a while, chatting, taking photos of each other and for some of the other people we’d shared the ascent with. A handful of paragliders took off from the top, making us realise just how far we had to walk to get back down to the Nid d’Aigle for the last tram home.
The descent was long, but relatively straightforward. The long slopes down to the Gouter Hut went pretty quickly, then it was back down the ridge to the foot of the Grand Couloir. As we descended the ridge we could hear and see some really big boulders bounding down the Couloir, which was a bit worrying, but when we got there we crossed without any mishaps. We reached the Nid d’Aigle tram station in time for the 4.00pm tram down, after a memorable 12 hour day on Western Europe’s highest mountain. Mont Blanc at 4808m.
Day 11. Aiguillette d’Argentiere. We agreed that after our exertions yesterday, day 11 would be a rest day. I envisaged a couple of hours climbing at a valley sport crag, after a leisurely breakfast, then a protracted lunch in Chamonix. I thought Andy had the same ideas. My mistake was in saying to Andy, “why don’t you have look at the guidebook and choose which climbs we’re doing today?”.
He chose Les Cheserys, an area of impressive slabs an hour’s walk above Argentiere. However, we only had with us a 50m single rope, and the guidebook warned that all the multi-pitch climbs on the slabs need two 50m ropes for the abseil descents. Andy wasn’t to be dissuaded. He has his eye on couple of remarkable pinnacles that lie below the slabs, called the Aiguillette d’Argentiere. The climbs here only needed a single rope, and it did look really impressive.
Keeping in mind that this was a ‘rest day’, we started with the Normal Route 4b, which Andy led. He belayed me from the top, and we abseiled off.
I then had a quick lead on a climb called Siesta 4c, then we relaxed for a while in the sun while another couple climbed the Northeast Arete. As soon as they were clear of the first belay we roped up and I took on the amazing traverse of the Northeast Arete 5a. This follows a wide flake crack, which in Cumbria would be described in the guidebook as a ‘hand traverse’. With a bolt every few feet it felt nice and safe, although it did require a bit of neat footwork.
Once on the arete there was a good ledge with bolts for a belay. I brought Andy over, then started up the arete itself. This looked intimidating from below, but once you got on it, it was really straightforward. You climb the arete on its left side, then step right onto a ledge. An easy move around the corner on the right then leads to the short upper slab, which took us in the sunshine back to the summit block, ready for an abseil descent.
As we relaxed in the sun after the climb, a girl came over for a chat, and to tell us that she’d photographed us from higher up the hill, as we descended from the pinnacle. She emailed us the photos later, and said she really wanted to return to climb the Northeast Arete having seen us doing it! How nice of her.
We packed up and wandered back along the path, stopping to photograph ibex on the way. A fine end to a really nice rest day.
Day 12. La Joux. A proper rest day, brought about by rain coming in during the morning. We visited the little crag of La Joux, but Andy didn’t feel much like climbing. I had a quick climb up a couple of easy pitches, La Jouvencelle 4c and La Joufflue 4c, with a guy from Monaco taking the piss remorselessly the whole time. He was a nice guy though, and it was all good fun, but then the rain came and we heading into Chamonix for the afternoon. No photos today I’m afraid!
Day 13. Servoz. Our flights home during the afternoon meant that we really didn’t have much time for a climb, so we headed to the nearest crag we could find, Servoz, just up the valley a short way from Saint Gervais les Bains. You can’t get much more roadside than this, which accounts for how busy it was. There were ropes everywhere, with people top-roping, and a couple of large groups abseiling. Time was tight so we blasted up the two pitches of a climb called Tangente 4c, then abseiled off and hit the road to Geneva airport.
So, would we have done anything differently with hindsight? No, I don’t think we would. I think we enjoyed the freedom of not having booked a guide or gone through a guiding company. We’re capable of looking after ourselves in the mountains, and I think given that this was a first Alps trip for both me and Andy we were sensible in choosing our objectives. We didn’t climb anything via a particularly hard route, but we did climb three 4000m mountains, including Mont Blanc. We had some good days mountaineering on Mont Blanc, Lagginhorn, and the Feechopf on Alphubel. We enjoyed some great lower level climbing on Mic et Maousse and the Aiguillette d’Argentiere, and even managed to drag ourselves up some nice easy sport climbs at Blindspot, Feechi, Servoz, La Joux, and Cheserys, something that neither of us really enjoys at home.
A great trip, and as is often the case, it’s just opened up my horizons, and I’m already leafing through guidebooks and thinking about next year. It could be back to Chamonix, or ventures into the Bernese Oberland, Monte Rosa, the Ecrins, Bernina, or perhaps somewhere with slightly smaller mountains such as the Otztal or Stubai Alps. Who knows. One thing’s for sure though, I enjoy the planning of these trips almost as much as I enjoy being on them!
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Really enjoyed both posts, great photos and writing and as with the previous post brought back some memories of my time in the Chamonix valley