York Mountaineering Club – Reports

Mid-September 2009 saw my first big-mountain trip to the Alps. The objective: to summit Western Europe’s highest peak – Mont Blanc.

At 4810m, Mont Blanc was some 3500m higher than I had previously climbed! And I embarked on the trip with feelings of excitement, anticipation, and apprehension!

In the months leading up to September, I tried to keep as fit as possible. After running Edinburgh Marathon earlier in the year, I was determined to maintain a reasonable level of fitness – if I was going to miss out on summit-success, I didn’t want the reason to be lack of training on my part!

General fun and games on the glacier!

Day one of the trip started rather sedately. The 8-strong Mont Blanc team head off for a training day on the glacier. This consisted of brushing up on axe, crampon and rope skills, marvelling at crevasses, and general fun and games with some gentle ice climbing. The sky was blue, and without a hint of a breeze, I was starting to feel confident about the week ahead.

I didn't fall into too many!

Day two – the weather decided to give us all a wake up call! For me, this was a crucial day. The entire Mont Blanc team had flown to Chamonix 3 days earlier to take part in an acclimatisation trek, I was now playing catch-up. Today was Tuesday, and we were due to head off on our two day summit attempt on the Thursday. I needed 2 good acclimatisation days to prepare myself.

Setting out towards the Cosmique Arete (3600m), visibility was down to only a few meters and wind speed was around 100km. It’s fair to say, I felt nervous! My nerves were compounded further as I struggled to see through my steamed up goggles and slipped a few feet off the narrow ridge. Grateful to be roped at the front of the group, I clambered back onto the ridge and continued on to the Cosmique Refuge. After a warm drink and much pleading to the mountain gods, it was clear that the weather was not going to ease up. With disappointment, we headed back to the Aiguille du Midi and back to the sanctuary of Chamonix – at least we would be down in time for lunch!

A welcome break in blizzard conditions

As I reflected over a beer, I concluded that my first acclimatisation day was not a roaring success. A few hours spent sat drinking coffee in the Aiguille du Midi café was not what I had hoped for! Our summit plans were also in doubt; we were nearing the end of the season and the weather was starting to change. Our chance of even attempting the climb was currently 50/50 and we waited nervously as intermittent weather updates were passed on by our guides.

We arrived at the evening briefing wondering what the guides forecast would be – great news! After hours spent monitoring weather data, our guides had spotted a break. However, that break involved commencing our summit bid the following morning! A full day ahead of schedule and for myself, following only precious few hours acclimatisation. I was so relieved and excited that we could now attempt the climb! But I didn’t know how the altitude would affect me; I pushed the thought out of my mind and decided to cross that bridge if and when the time came.

We were happy to be on our way!

Day three, the 8-strong team started on its journey to our first objective – the Gouter hut at an altitude of 3600m. To reach the Gouter hut, the first part of the journey involves a fairly easy, if not lengthy trek to the Tete Rousse hut at 3000m. The weather was still recovering from the previous day’s blizzard. However, we were in high spirits, and glad that many months of preparation towards the climb had finally led to us starting our Mont Blanc attempt.

Tete Rousse at 3000m was a welcome sight. There was still a reasonable breeze and we were eager to refuel and warm up ahead of our main obstacle for day one. The most challenging part of the journey to the Gouter hut is a rock scramble which gains some 600m of altitude. This is both a great experience, as it breaks up the long trek with some technical scrambling and crampon work, but it’s also the point at which you may start to feel the altitude!

Having a quick break before the 600m scramble

It takes around 2 hours to climb the 600m to Gouter. I started out feeling very strong – confident that I had not yet felt any signs of altitude. At 3400m, around 200m below Gouter, I started noticing those signs! Dizziness and breathlessness started to creep in, as we pushed on – eager to reach Gouter as quickly as possible. We were forecast a few hours of snow that evening, followed by a clear break the following morning in time for our summit bid. We wanted to be wrapped up in our blankets before the snow hit!

The most remote toilet on Mont Blanc??

At around 3pm we arrived at Gouter. After a quick drink and snack, I headed to bed for a couple of hours. On waking I felt very disorientated – was it Sunday morning? Had I just been on a late night drinking session? My head was banging, I felt nauseous, and the light was too strong for my painful eyes. I sat up and banged my head – back to reality! as I realised I was on the side of Mont Blanc…

Surprisingly comfortable!

I’m not sure if I suffered altitude sickness, severe dehydration – or a combination of the two, but all I can say is it was like having the worst hangover ever! Evening meal in the Gouter consisted of some salty meat, vegetables and a small glass of orange juice. I forced some fuel inside me, struggling to look around the hut as my head continued to throb. It was now 6pm, we would be getting up at 2am for a 3am start. I really started to doubt if I would be able to continue, but I decided to give myself the best possible chance – and headed back to the bunk after drinking a litre of water (which incidentally costs €5 a bottle in the hut!)

Day four – 2 am. The throbbing headache had gone, but the nausea remained! However, I felt a million times better than the previous day and started to feel positive again about the day ahead. After a quick breakfast, we readied ourselves for the big day. In the penultimate week of the commercial Mont Blanc climbing season, the Gouter hut was remarkably empty. We were happy to have the luxury of relative peace and space to prepare ourselves.

3am and we headed out into the darkness. Here we go! I thought to myself, this was the moment I had been waiting for! Trekking through the deep powder snow from the previous night was hard work. Indeed, the guides later commented that it had been one of the toughest ascents they had made all season. With only a head torch for our source of light – the darkness helped focus our thoughts. There were 8 of us attempting Mont Blanc, split into 4 teams, each with a guide. I was at the rear of our 3-man team and spent the first hour or so concentrating on trying to keep the rope tight – aware of the possibility that one of us could easily slip into a crevasse.

The schedule for the day was tough. To reach the summit, and then trek back down to Chamonix can take around 12 hours, with the climb from Gouter to the summit taking around 5 to 6 hours. The slopes were heavily loaded and we focussed on sticking to ridge lines, keen not to have to take evasive action in the event of an avalanche!

Just over 2 hours into the climb we reached the Vallot hut at 4200m. The Vallot hut is a very simple shelter, but was still a welcome sight as my heart pounded and my legs burned! My relief was soon dashed as our guides declared that we would not be stopping at the hut, we were making good progress and they wanted to continue! Which I guess is an easy thing to say for a man who had climbed Everest!

By this point the 8-man summit team had been split in two. Four of our comrades and their 2 guides were still making their way up the slope towards Vallot. The early morning pitch black sky was starting to brighten as myself and my 3 Mont Blancians (later to be self-dubbed “The Dream Team!!) set off on the final 610m of altitude gain.

The final 2-3 hours of the climb are somewhat of a blur. I recall beautiful alpine scenery, amazing and intimidating drops into 100’s if not 1000’s of meters of space, and what seemed like miles and miles of deep snow!! My nausea was still lingering and I was feeling drained, but I decided to focus on each step I took – if I thought of the distance left to the summit, I’m not sure I would have made it to the top.

Awesome! on top of the world! (well... Western Europe!)

Shortly before 9am on Thursday 17th September (day 4), the 4 of us were making steady progress along a sun-drenched ridge. I was sure the top of the slope was going to reveal yet another slope to climb! But no! There it was! We had reached the small summit of Mont Blanc, 4810m above the earth! The sky was cloudless and blue, there wasn’t a breath of wind, you could see for miles and miles! Feeling quite emotional, we took the obligatory summit shots, thanked our 2 guides and readied ourselves for the descent. I knew that we were only half way there – we had to make sure we had enough reserves for the 5-6 hours descent back to Chamonix. It was only when we were safely down that we would properly celebrate our achievement. After only 10 minutes on the summit we turned around and started to follow our tracks back down the mountain.

Nothing but miles and miles of views

At around 3pm on day four – we slowly trudged back into Chamonix. We were greeted by some of our climbing buddies who explained how 4 of them had turned around at the 4200m point – we were disappointed for them, but equally they knew they had given the climb their best shot.

Heading back down - taking time to appreciate the views!

After successfully reaching the summit of Mont Blanc, I can say that it was one of the most memorable, exciting and challenging things I have ever done – I loved it. So much so, that the 4 of us who reached the summit will be returning in September 2010 – this time to attempt the Matterhorn! I’ll be sure to acclimatise better however… and if I can remember – I’ll write another (lengthy) report sometime next year!