UKC

1400m.

Rockfax Description
IV, 1400m, 1 day. An amazing and wild route. Don't be fooled by the grade of this one; it is a long and serious journey through some fantastic scenery. The route can be climbed by countless variations so good route finding is vital if you are to find optimal conditions. The route we've described is reliant on good cramponing snow. If this line isn't looking good, it is possible to follow the ridge crest more closely although the rock is of poor quality.
1) Climb up the broken glacier below the route and avoid the first rocky section by going around it to the right.
2) Head up the snowy gully 100m to the right of the ridge crest to reach the middle snow field.
3) Climb the snow field to access a wider gully and follow this to the ridge crest.
4) Head up the ridge crest over some occasionally chossy rock.
5) Step right and climb up a final calf-busting snow gully to join the Goûter Route (p.341) and follow this to the summit of Mont Blanc. © Rockfax

UKC Logbook Description
The climbing is wonderful, not difficult but sustained, exposed and very, very strenuous.

The approach is climbing in itself. The only way to get to the Quintino Sella hut is by the Miage Glacier and the Mont Blanc glacier. You can also get there by the Gonella Hut but is was closed when we where there (early in July 2017) and it is dangerous in summer...

The Mont Blanc glacier was icy and it is much steeper that we expected.
Getting to the ridge from the glacier was easy and the climbing to the hut
is funny and very beautiful, but loooooong!...

Ticklists

Batoux's 100 finest routes in the Mont Blanc massif , Alpine Dreamz

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User Date Notes
jogle03 29 Jul, 2016 Show βeta
βeta: Started from aiguille noire campsite which added 3.5km to the walk in but allowed us to bus over from chamonix without any excess kit. Long walk in to the bottom of the glacier. The snout is not in good condition, we climbed about 50m on the very edge of the ice before dashing across a dangerous couloir to reach rock. Steep climbing on grass/Rock until about half way up when the rock starts a lot better. Long day, took us closer to 8 hours. Hut is being renovated so next season will be hooked up with electricity and now has a helicopter platform. Started on summit day at 1am - first snow slope from hut was not great so we took a climbing traverse onto rocks on the right hand side. Short climb up small couloir got us into the plateaux. Easy going to base of spur, the bergschrund was not in condition so we skipped onto rock early and stayed on rock as much as possible. Short sections of snow inbetween the rock, mostly in condition, some hard ice and a bit of windslab. Topped out on the ridge about 20 mins below summit, descended via Goutier route. Long day, 16 hours all in (3 hours behind guide time).
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βeta: Started from aiguille noire campsite which added 3.5km to the walk in but allowed us to bus over from chamonix without any excess kit. Long walk in to the bottom of the glacier. The snout is not in good condition, we climbed about 50m on the very edge of the ice before dashing across a dangerous couloir to reach rock. Steep climbing on grass/Rock until about half way up when the rock starts a lot better. Long day, took us closer to 8 hours. Hut is being renovated so next season will be hooked up with electricity and now has a helicopter platform. Started on summit day at 1am - first snow slope from hut was not great so we took a climbing traverse onto rocks on the right hand side. Short climb up small couloir got us into the plateaux. Easy going to base of spur, the bergschrund was not in condition so we skipped onto rock early and stayed on rock as much as possible. Short sections of snow inbetween the rock, mostly in condition, some hard ice and a bit of windslab. Topped out on the ridge about 20 mins below summit, descended via Goutier route. Long day, 16 hours all in (3 hours behind guide time).

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Route of Interest
Royal Traverse

Grade: AD+ 2 ***
(Mont Blanc)

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