UKC

I am looking for insights on the Col Du Maudit Mont Maudit.

I have climbed it several times about a decade ago on the way up to Mont Blanc, but someone has recently told me that the Col is significantly steeper and harder nowadays due to climate change. I was looking to hear if anyone who has climbed it in the last few years would agree with this and are able to describe the condition of the Col, and equivalent Scottish or Alpine grades (assuming the old grading of PD+ is now inaccurate)?

Many thanks

I came down it in 2019 (didn’t climb up it). Felt it was steep and icy down the top section. Then had to traverse around a steeper drop off and broken section to get onto the lower glacier.

Can’t remember how far the abseil was - we had a 60m rope, my partner lowered me and then abseiled himself but I can’t remember if he had to do 1 or 2 abs. So the icy section could have been 30-60m. There were a couple of in-situ metal posts at the top and part way down. My personal recollection now is that I would have wanted two axes and probably a small handful of screws to have pitched it if I were climbing it, although I’m not a super alpinist and other opinions might differ.

No idea on how it was in subsequent/more recent years.

It may have changed in the last couple of years but the last few times I was there the ascent was mostly a zig zag and traverse along a steepish snow face ( exposed but straightforward with one axe / poles ) until the last approximately 50 metres. There is then a steeper and often icy section of around Grade 2. Straightforward with two axes. Sometimes there is a fixed rope, often buried so don't rely on it. People often bunch up here and form a queue, climbing right behind each other. I suggest it is easier and safer to move left or right and climb beside the popular line as there is then nobody above you. I didn't feel the need to place ice screws but you will have them with you anyway so you can decide on the day.

    As usual, get the updated information from either the Cosmiques Hut or the OHM in Chamonix. Have fun...

My experience is a bit out of date as it was from maybe 6 or 7 years ago.

You definitely want to be careful on that section, when we were there there was a group of a dozen or so climbers in the middle with all their ropes criss-crossed and stuck all yelling at each other and (as far as I can recollect) in the time we climbed it, none of them managed to move at all. There were guides with clients who were barely conscious and posing a serious risk to other people on the slope. We had semi-conscious clients repeatedly trying to pull us off the mountain by treating our ropes as situ ropes, no matter how many times their guides shouted at them telling them not to do so. I had one guy repeatedly sticking an elbow into my chest and trying to shove me off down the slope (I have literally no idea why) and he only desisted when I threatened him with my ice axe (apparently some instinct for self-preservation remained activated).

In short, the combination of guides trying to make money and incapable rich people wanting to get to the top creates something of a perfect storm for competent people climbing under their own steam (I imagine it is similar but much worse on Everest). On the steeper section, steer clear of everyone else if you possibly can.

When you are planning start times, clothing, etc. Remember that you will be in a queue of hundreds of people going at the speed of the slowest person for significant parts (but by no means all) of the route.

Get fit, very hill fit, pass them all before the summit of Tacul. Otherwise you'll be fighting against the flow of these parties descending from Tacul as you go up. By Maudit you'll be ahead and they'll be distant specks, likely still coming down off tacul. 

Note. Don't trust the hut staff with breakfast/ start times, they'll often tell non guided parties it's one hour later, so the guides get a so called clean get away. 

I have been up and down it a few times most recently last June.  Photo here from last trip (my young and fit partner was keen to tick Mont Maudit on the way up)

https://www.ukclimbing.com/user/profile.php?id=169451#&gid=1&pid=3

The col du mont maudit has definitely got steeper and harder over the years.  Some years its almost impossible so its difficult to give you a precise grade.  Personally I would always have at least one technical axe in the party (one each would be even better).  Its usually easier early season (June/early July) than later but this depends on how much snow we get in the spring and when the first heatwave strikes.  The Chamoniarde reports will tell you the condition so keep and eye on them.

Hmm... Maybe... We crashed in the midi station and my memory is that we got up at 11pm and started walking at midnight and were still behind a very long queue of people. But we weren't incredibly hill fit and I personally was still quite tired from a lot of days of rock climbing immediately before it. I'm still dubious of the idea that you could escape the crowds on such a popular route... even if you tried just going up almost entirely at night, starting at 9pm or something, you'd probably just be constantly running into descending parties who were running really late on the way down.

Some folk just have an evening meal and loiter at the hut until kicking out / bedtime at 10pm, then set off. Of course it's never deserted, it's a honey pot, you just have to try to be on the right or safer end of any congestion. 

Yeah, I recognise that. I've been to plenty of places with tricky terrain that required technical gear and I've been to quite a lot of places that were incredibly busy honeypots, but for me, I think Mont Blanc has been the only time that I've encountered the combination of large numbers of incompetents _and_ at least moderately tricky terrain both at the same time. I guess there are a few other places in Europe like the Hornli Ridge where this combination also occurs but I think it's a relatively rare phenomenon and if the op hadn't experienced it before, I thought it worth highlighting.

Totally agree, for many it's their only alpine peak ever and all that entails. 

I think you can miss out the now steep section to the Col du Mont Maudit, you certainly used to be able to (unless that's changed as well now).

From the Col Maudit (not the same one, it's the one you cross to bypass Mont Blanc du Tacul) at c.4029m bear left and climb the slopes leading to the summit ridge of Mont Maudit at the point where the Frontier Ridge (Kuffner) joins it. Traverse the ridge to the summit and drop down to rejoin the Trois Monts route after the steep section to the Col du Mont Maudit.

It's moderately technical ground, PD/PD+ ish  from memory but it avoids the numpties and queues and only involves a modest extra height gain and no extra distance.

It also has the benefit of avoiding the seracs on Mnt. Maudit which have got worse over the years as well.

What I'm describing is probably the blue line shown on here

http://www.goat.cz/index.php?path=Alpy_Vrcholy_MontMaudit_MontMauditVystupy

The first time I did Mont Maudit, we went up the East Ridge - which i think is the blue route - and down the red dotted route.  Precisely because the col was steep, icy and crowded.

Definitely a good alternative to have up your sleeve.

The East ridge is lovely, and although short is more definitely PD+ or AD-. The red dotted descent route weaved through the seracs.

I was away from home when I posted above but I'm back home now and have looked in my guidebook (1990 Alpine Club M. Blanc vol1) and the route I was describing is called the North East Ridge from Col Maudit (route 157 for anyone who's interested). The topo in the book does correspond to the blue line on the linked photos so it must be the same one. It's the nearest there is to an East Ridge on Mont Maudit so it must the one you did as well.

In the AC guide its only given PD which seemed reasonable at the time. It was 30+ years ago when I climbed and descended it (on separate occasions) without any particular difficulty but maybe it's got harder? I descended from the Col du Mont Maudit at around that time and it was a moderately steep but easy enough snow slope done with one axe. When I passed by that way again in about 2008 I was quite surprised how much steeper it had got, though we still only needed one axe, just!

Yes, the North-East ridge.  It's AD- in Morin's book.  It's also worth noting that the direct line from the col to the summit of Mont Maudit is AD-.  The easy line is to follow the track towards Mont Blanc for a few hundred metres, then head up and left to bag Mont Maudit.  That's a walk apart from a possible scramble to the summit itself.

We used two axes up and down from the col last year.  It's just a lot less stressful when it's steep. We couldn't get into the Cosmiques for the Midi-Plan, so we did Mont Maudit from the first cable car.

Presumably that's the Col du Mont Maudit?

When you did the NE ridge of Mont Maudit from the (other) Col Maudit did you need two axes? I recall that getting from the col to the point where the Frontier/Kuffner ridge joins it is the steeper bit but it's so long ago that I can't remember whether we needed two axes or one. If it gets AD- now maybe it needs two anyway?

I ask because I may well be in the area in June and Mrs pec feels she ought to climb Mont Blanc before she gets too old and going via Mont Maudit is an option in at least one direction. Thanks.

Conditions change so much. It wasn't very steep up to the ridge. Definitely one axe. The ridge itself was lovely scrambling on big flakes. The final section, where we traversed round the summit was icy and awkward. We might have wished we had two axes there. We reversed that bit, then headed down through the seracs to join the Trois monts route back to the midi, bagging the Tacul on the way.

Thanks, seems like one axe would do. I'm happy climbing steep snow with one when other people seem to start to resort to two and I'd rather not carry two on a big day for the sake of 50m or so.

I would consider it more like bullet hard ice at times, this isn't like daggering up neve.