Climbing the Mont Blanc is the dream of all mountaineers. During this course, created for complete beginners in mountaineering, you will prepare your ascent to the Top of Europe with four days to discover technics of mountaineering, ascend the summits of Tête Blanche and Aiguille du Tour, and tour the glacier trek around the Aiguilles Dorées; you will sleep three nights in altitude to acclimatize carefully.
Then, you will have one night and one complete day to recover energy in Chamonix, before to use the cable car of " l'Aiguille du Midi " to reach quickly the Cosmiques mountain hut, 11,854 feet over sea level. After a short night in the hut, you will start your ascent to the Mont-Blanc, following the " Three Mont-Blanc route ". Our experience of these training courses has led us to choose this route, which has a better rate of success than the two other easy routes (Goûter route, Grands Mulets route).
The ascent of Mont Blanc will take place on the sixth day or the seventh day of the training course, according to the best weather period: the seventh day is one day to rest and relax in the event of bad weather in altitude.
------------------------------------------
Safety: on the " Three Mont Blanc route " of Mont Blanc, according to the safety rules of the National Trade Union of French Mountain Guides (Syndicat National des Guides de Haute Montagne), we have chosen to post one IFMGA Mountain Guide for two climbers. This choice has been made for your safety; it is also much more efficient for this long ascent to create homogeneous roped parties of two climbers with similar ages, rhythm or technic. During all the ascent, and during all the coming down till the end of the glaciers, you will be roped with your guide.
------------------------------------------
Rate of success: more than 80% of the mountaineers which followed these training courses reached the summit of Mont Blanc.
This remarkable rate of success to climb Mont Blanc (statistics show an average rate of success of 55% for roped parties on the Three Mont-Blanc route, and of 50% for roped parties on the Goûter route) is due to twenty years of experience of this ascent. This training course has been created to surmount the five main causes of failures on the Mont-Blanc route:
- insufficient equipment: bring all the gloves and under-gloves that we ask you to carry, adjust your crampons to your mountaineering shoes (crampons not perfectly adjusted will tire you out walking on the ice), make sure your mountaineering shoes are warm and confortable, and don't forget your Thermos flask.
- lack of practice in ice climbing: you will spend two and a half hours training during the ice climbing school, on the first day of the course, this is vital to success during your ascent of Mont-Blanc. This ice climbing school will be completed by a training to safety technics to be used in case of a fall on a snow slope, and a study of rescue technics in crevasses, on day 3, on the glacier close to Trient hut.
- insufficient training: you must train seriously during the three months before the training course: run 30 minutes three times a week, bike six hours a week, or walk 8 hours each week-end, on routes with a few steep hills.
- some programs do not include one extra day, to shift the ascent one day later in case of bad weather: our programme includes one extra day.
- the main cause of failure: insufficient acclimatation. If you spend all your training course sleeping in Chamonix (height: 3,445 feet over sea level), you will not be acclimatized, even if you ascend high summits each day. The goal of this course is to get you to sleep high (one night in "Albert 1er" hut, 8,865 feet, two nights in "Trient" hut, 10,400 feet), to bring you to a perfect acclimatement. After four days and three nights in altitude, you will spend one night and one complete day in Chamonix to recover energy, and then you will ascend Mont-Blanc with the best chances of success.
------------------------------------------
Duration: 7 days, one IFMGA French Mountain Guide, speaking fluently English, for 4 beginners in mountaineering during the first four days (except during the ice-climbing school on the Mer de Glace, with one mountain guide for 4 to 8 climbers), one IFMGA French Mountain Guide, speaking fluently English, for two climbers during the ascent of Mont-Blanc. This course is limited to two groups of 4 climbers per week.
------------------------------------------
Meeting Place: Chamonix, by 07.30 a.m. (in June and September, meeting time 8.00 a.m.), at the Montenvers train station (not to be confused with SNCF railway station, located at 200 meters). Do not be late, we will quickly catch a train going up to Montenvers.
End of the course: Chamonix, mid-afternoon, at the Aiguille du Midi cable car, after the Mont-Blanc ascent.
------------------------------------------
Tour Itinerary:
Day 1: The Montenvers train will bring you up to an altitude of 6,263 feet. A short footpath, and a few fixed ladders will bring you down to the glacier.You will then adjust your crampons, and easily cross the glacier towards its right bank where the ice climbing school will be held. You will learn how to step up, step down, and cross a slope with crampons, using your ice axe either like a stick or like a anchor. Afterwards, you will rope on, and discover the technics used by a rope party to ascend a slope, cross the crevasses, and use ice pegs for her safety. By 12 o'clock, you will catch a train to go back down to Chamonix.
After lunch (snacks) in a forest near Chamonix, you will be driven in the guide car to Le Tour, the highest village of the valley. You will be lifted by a cable car to the pass of Balme, height 7,152 feet. From there, a pleasant path crosses the mountain pastures, providing a fantastic wiew on the "seracs" of the "glacier du Tour". Following the ridge of a moraine, the footpath will finally reach "Albert 1er" hut, 8,865 feet. Night in the hut. Duration of walking: 4 hours, including the ice climbing school. Difference of level: + 1,713 feet (add + 360 feet up, and - 360 feet down for the ice climbing school).
Day 2: At dawn, a short footpath will quickly bring you up to the glacier. You will rope on, adjust your crampons, and, slowly walking up, will reach after three hours the snowy summit of "Tête Blanche", height 11,250 feet, on the Swiss border. There, you will not find any custom-house officer, but a magnificent wiew on the glacier of Trient, the "Aiguilles Dorées", and all the summits of the Swiss Valais, including Matterhorn.
After a snack and a few photographies, we will go down for a while on the track followed from the hut, and then leave it to ascend the Tour pass, height 10,791 feet. From there, crossing the plateau of the glacier of Trient, you will reach the beautiful hut of Trient, 10,400 feet high, which offers a sunny terrace and excellent beers ! Night at Trient hut. Duration of wallking: 5 hours. Difference of level: 2,726 feet up, 1,191 feet down.
Day 3: As you spend two nights in Trient hut, your rucksack will be very light today. A soft rise from the hut brings you up to the "rimaye" of the Aiguille du Tour, 11,621 feet high, your goal for today; the "rimaye" is the crevasse which separates a summit or a snow gully from the glacier below, and, as the glacier is going down a few centimeters a day, the rimaye should get wider and wider. Happily for the mountaineers, the snowfalls or and the small avalanches coming down from summits or gullies will fill it in, allowing mountaineers to go across it.
Above the rimaye, a easy climbing route on granite rocks leads to the summit of the Aiguille du Tour. You will come back to Trient hut by the same route, in the end of the morning. You will then have a training to safety technics to be used in case of a fall on a snow slope, and a study of rescue technics in crevasses, on the glacier close to Trient hut. On the terrace of the hut, in the afternoon, your guide will learn you the main knots used by climbers. Night at Trient hut. Duration of walking: 4 hours and a half. Difference of level: 1,693 feet up, 1,693 feet down.
Day 4: Just before dawn, you will leave the hut, towards the Gilded Peaks (Aiguilles Dorées). Close to these sharp-edged granite peaks, is the passage of the pass of Plines, height 10,807 feet. A easy way down will bring you to the very small hut of the Gilded Peaks, where you will have a pause to enjoy the panorama on the glacier of Saleina, and the impressive north face of Argentière Peak.
It will be time to head towards the pass of Saleina, 10,718 feet, a slope of 200 feet high which incline is 45 degrees: we may have to cut some steps to help the roped party to rise up to the pass. Afterwards, you will easily walk to the pass of the Tour, height 10,791 feet, where you will join back the tracks going to "Albert 1er" hut, and the footpath to the cable-car of the pass of Balme. Transfer to Chamonix, where we will separate in the beginning of the afternoon. Duration of walking: 6 hours and a half. Difference of level: 1,962 feet up, 5,210 feet down.
Day 5: After a comfortable night in the valley, the forenoon will be free, to enable you to visit Chamonix, and to recover energy. By mid-afternoon, you will meet your guides at the "Aiguille du Midi" cable car station. The cable car will lift you up to a height of 12,605 feet. You will rope on with your guide, and follow down the "Vallée Blanche" ridge, reaching the Cosmiques mountain hut, 11,854 feet high, after a walk of 20 minutes. The Cosmiques hut was built in 1991, and provides a comfortable reception. After dinner, you will go to bed for a very short night: the alarm-clock will ring at 01.00. a.m. Duration of walking: 20 minutes. Difference of level: 100 feet up, 656 feet down.
Day 6: One o'clock, you get up, have a quick breakfast (maybe, you will not be very hungry, it is an unusual time to get up!), and you leave the hut by moonlight. The " Three Mont-Blanc route " begins by a long ascent on the snowfields of the Mont-Blanc du Tacul, at low speed, to keep your energy for the last slopes of Mont-Blanc. After two hours of ascent from the hut, you reach the ridge of the Mont-Blanc du Tacul, at a height of 13,451 feet.
A short way down, and the route ascends the slopes of Mont-Maudit, finishing with a steepest snow gully, 170 feet high, with a gradient of 45 degrees, which leads to the Mont-Maudit pass, height 14,255 feet. The sun is now rising on your left on the famous mountains of Switzerland (Matterhorn, Eiger), as your route zigzags through the Brenva Pass, the "Mur de la Côte", and near the Red Rocks. The body is tired, but as you are acclimated, your globules and your figthing spirit will give you energy to reach the Top of Europe, 15,781 feet after 6 hours of ascent. Emotion will be deep in your heart, some mountaineers cry, other meditate, these moments are yours.
After a few photos, you will go down to the cable car station of Plan de l'Aiguille, 7,579 feet, following the "Grands Mulets" route, walking on "l'arête des Bosses", near the Vallot hut, and through the "Grand Plateau" bordered by seracs. Leaving the glaciers in the beginning of the afternoon, you will finally reach the footpath of "La Jonction", and then the cable car station. Going down to Chamonix in cable car. Descent from Mont-Blanc to Chamonix by the Goûter route if the Grands Mulets route has too many opened crevasses. Duration of walking: 6 hours of ascent, 5 hours coming down. Difference of level: 4,390 feet up, 8,665 feet down.
Day 7: one extra day to shift one day later the ascent in case of bad weather. If the ascent has been attempted on days 5 and 6, that day will be a day to rest in Chamonix.
Your mountain guides will do everything possible to make a success of this training course. But, in high altitude, exceptional risks may exist : storms, avalanches, and your your guides, responsible for your life, may change the program of this training course for your safety.
If exceptional risks during days 5, 6 and 7 turn the ascent of Mont-Blanc to be unrealizable, you will ascend the Dômes de Miage, height 12,041 feet, or Gran Paradiso, 13,323 feet, or another summit, during days 5 and 6, or during days 6 and 7. No refundment will be made in that case, and the ascent of Mont-Blanc will not be postponed to any other date. The choice between trying to ascend Mont-Blanc or trying to ascend Dômes de Miage or Gran Paradiso or another summit will be made by the Mountain Guide (s).
Member discount:
10% discount for InfoHub customer. Request a free gift certificate.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
The price includes:
- guiding by a Mountain Guide, and all his expenses
- the following group equipment: radio linked to the relief organization, first-aid kit, survival blanket, ropes, maps, compass, GPS, altimeter
- the loan of a mountaineering harness
- transfers by car, train or cable car related to the normal course of the program
- lodging and half-board in the mountain huts during four nights (dinner and breakfast are prepared and served by the hut-keepers)
The price does not include:
- optional insurances Generali/Europ Assistance
- your lunchs
- your drinks in the huts
- lodging and half-board for the nights in the valley
- your personal expenses
- the transfer from Chamonix to Les Contamines, and back, in case of an ascent of Dômes de Miage on days 5 and 6, or days 6 and 7
- additional transfers related to a modification of the program
- generally speaking, all the expenses not indicated in the paragraph "the price includes"
Also see tour packages in:
Europe
France
Switzerland
Mountain/Rock Climbing
Glacier Tours
Email it to a friend:
Click here to email this vacation to a friend
|
