UKC

Good old sky news, you just can't beat it.

http://news.sky.com/story/mont-blanc-tourists-treating-mountain-like-theme-...

200 people try to climb it per day in the busy season, is that correct?

In reply to subtle:

Its hardly news. Apparently 20,000 attempt to climb it every year.

Pick a stat, any stat. Lol

In reply to subtle:



There are nearly 300 bunks in just the Cosmiques and Gouter huts.

In reply to subtle:

In answer to the question, it might be on the French side, certainly not on the versant Italiene!

This particular French mayor has a long track record of making self-advertising, provocative statements though.

In reply to Simon4:

I remember finishing the Brenva Spur. From the Col de Brenva? to the top was windy and very cold and lonely.

The sudden change to windless and warm at the summit was stunning.

But not as big a shock as the appearance of hundreds of folk.

In reply to Rick Graham:
Yes, I recall at the top of the Tournette spur, where we had only been with one other party that we had been in the very remote bivi hut with, suddenly joining the very last bit of the Bosses ridge route.

It was like a procession of the damned, unfit, unaclimitised, trudging, dragged by impatient French guides one after the other in the same footsteps, headtorches serving only, as Milton puts it as :

"Black light, that can but illumine scenes of woe "

Or if you prefer T. S. Elliot :

"so many, I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet"

We made a point of annoying the guides by making a cup of tea at the top. Which we then swapped with some Czechs who had arrived at the summit with a bottle of Scotch.

In reply to subtle:

Why does many people tackling something make it a theme park? Have they installed rides on MB or something?

In reply to Lion Bakes:


Yup - youtube.com/watch?v=mV6hDRvxYqc&

I really wish we had one of these in the UK somewhere.

In reply to wintertree:


Oooh yeah! I want a go!

But it seems a little slow, somehow.

In reply to The Lemming:


Nice one, well done


Ah, we are never truly alone

In reply to subtle:

I once summited a few days shy of the 200th anniversary of the first ascent. There was a film crew on the summit (who asked me to move when I flopped down) a man camping and dozens of folk. It felt quite celebratory, especially as I was on my own anyway.

Best not to try it hoping for solitary, zen-like calm.

In reply to wintertree:

I went on the one in andorra, it was feckin ace and bloody quick....

In reply to robal:
I went on a little one inNorway, but id like to try a big one. It was really good though