UKC

Hey

I’m gearing up to climb Mount Blanc with a group next week. I’m arriving in Chamonix a couple of days earlier, just to allow some time for extra acclimatisation. 
 

I’m looking for advice on acclimatisation strategies that can help me adjust without wearing myself out too much before the intense week. One idea I had was to take the lift to Aiguille du Midi and spend a few hours at the top, perhaps even take a brisk walk there before taking the lift back down. What do you think of this plan? Is this a good approach, or do you have other ideas that may be better?

Thank you in advance for all your suggestions 🙏

Mont not mount.

I think you would be better off with some uphill and downhill walking.

Possibles:

Lac Blanc (2350m) from Montroc (valley train to here) back via La Flegere.  Great views.

Albert Premier Hut from Le Tour (1200m ascent to ~2700m)

Mont Buet (3000m) from Le Buet (valley train to here)

I think you mean the Plan du Midi; there´s no way you can reach the Aiguille du Midi (3842m) with just a brisk walk. You could take the telepherique right to the top and spend a few hours there, but you´d be more likely to get a headache than any long-term acclimatisation effects. I assume you´ll be doing at least one 4000er together before attempting Mont Blanc, so no point in rushing it on the first two days.

Maybe spend a whole day slowly ascending from the valley to the Refuge d´Envers des Aiguilles (2488m and a truly beautiful spot), spend the night there and descend the next morning? The ascent is in three stages: 1. Chamonix to the Plan du Midi (2300m), 2. The Grand Balcon track to Montenvers (mostly pretty flat), and then 3. Montenvers - the Refuge d´Envers des Aiguilles. If that sounds like too much, then you could do the first stage with the telepherique. On the other hand, if your general walking fitness isn´t up to doing the whole thing on foot, then you won´t have much of a chance on Mont Blanc.

Montenvers to the Couvercle hut (2687m) as the 3rd stage would also be an option and the acclimatisation effect would be greater, but it´s only to be recommended if you already have glacier experience and the conditions are good.

A few hours up high won't really help.

I find I need to sleep high to get any improvement. Go stay in a hut between 2500 to 3000m.

It will be a rough night. Might feel a bit unwell in the morning, but you'll be fine when you get moving again.

I did the cosmiques arête as a warm up with a night in the cosmiques hut.

You could go and stay there and not do the arête but it was a dodgy descent from the telepherique and crevasses to the hut as i remember. 

That could really be asking for trouble unless you know from past experience that you will be ok.

I would recommend a day walk up to 3000m max, just turning back if you feel rubbish, then, depending on how that goes, after a night in the valley, a night at around 2500 to 2700m before walking higher as far as is not too grim. 

I assume you will be going to at the very least 4000m before attempting Mont Blanc.

Wow that’s quite high isn’t it! (Cosmiques hut 3600m).

I had no idea it was that high and went with a guide.

I fortunately had no Ill effects.

Perhaps go somewhere lower to acclimatise

Hi.

I've recently returned from Chamonix.

We did Grand Paradiso (4060m) ish. 3 days before our summit attempt on Mont blanc. Spent 3 days on Grand Paradiso in total. I've never been above 3000m before but I didn't feel any effects at all. Maybe I'm just lucky. 

This was excellent training and the hut was amazing.

I'd definitely get some decent height in ur legs/lungs beforehand. Also make sure ur well rested before u attempt Mont Blanc

Maybe you could give us some idea of your previous experience? That would help with suggestions/recommendations. I was going by what‘s on your profile, which is why I suggested a long walk instead of anything more ambitious.

Good plan, the more acclimatisation you can get in the greater your chances of success and of a more comfortable summit day.

    As others have said a few hours spent at the top of the Midi will have limited effect and there is nowhere you can have a 'brisk walk around' as you are straight onto narrow ridges and crevassed glaciers. ( You could go up and down the steps in the station but really quite limited). I am presuming you will be solo for these first days.

   Mt Buet is a great option. You could do it in one longer day but you may find it better to stay the night in the Berard Hut, a couple of hours from the road, and then have a longer slightly slower ascent to 3,000 metres and have a delayed picnic around the summit ( assuming weather holds ) before descending. Expect snow fields but no glaciers, usually lots of Ibex, Chamois, eagles.

A walk up to the Albert Premier Hut, spend the night then return to the valley is a good shout. If you have the skills it is possible to gain some height above and behind the hut without getting onto technical or crevassed terrain before you descend. 

If you have done the above and still feeling good and have any spare time you could then get the lift up from the Italian side ( bus service through the tunnel ) and spend the night at the Torino hut, about 3,700 metres. Not much walking around area as you are straight onto crevassed glacier but the coffee is awesome!

Gran Paradiso is good but not a route I would recommend to solo unlike the ones above. As Robert says, you need at least one 4,000 metre peak under your belt before attempting Mt Blanc ( 4,800 metres ). I would assume one or more 4,000 metre peaks are in your itinerary for the week with your group.

Hi All

Thank you so much for all your advice and suggestions. I find your answers very helpful, I will definitely take them into consideration! You’re right - the plan is to climb Gran Paradiso with the group and then spend one or two nights at a hut on a higher altitude before attempting Mont Blanc, but somehow I worry I may need more time to acclimatise.

As for my experience - I did Mt Toubkal but it was quite a while ago - 2019 now. We did it very quickly though, basically climbed it over two days, so now learnt from experience that maybe more time to acclimatise should be given. I climbed it, although it was quite slow and painful. 

This May together with some friends we climbed Mt Olympus in Greece in one day - from Prionia to Mytikas and then spent the night at the Spilos Agapitos hut before heading back. 

In terms of preparation - it’s mostly running for at least 45 - 60 minutes x 3 times a week, most of the time making sure my heart rate is within my endurance phase. I’m not very quick runner - lately went to some running event and did 10k in 1:06:23 (so not the recommended under 50 minutes). 
 
I’m not an athlete but I’m determined so I’ve decided to give it a go and at least try. 

Sounds like you´ll be fine, if the weather and conditions are favourable. Good luck!

Lots of good suggestions already on here.

Worth remembering to fit in a rest day before going up Mt Blanc though.  Don't cram in extra acclimatisation at the expense of a day off before the final climb.  No point starting out knackered.  What is more (hopefully people who know more than me will intervene if I am wrong), I think your body will be continuing to carry out acclimatisation adjustments, even whilst you have a day sat around in the valley, so it is not as if it will be lost acclimatisation time.

Good luck!

Altitude affects different people differently. I went to Chamonix most summers as a student. I was fine going straight up to the Aiguille du Midi (3700ish) on the first day, would feel a little uncomfortable, but still able to do a route and enjoy it.

In bad weather and when I've had a suitable lift pass (i.e. not paying for it as a one off) I've just gone up to the Midi to just sit around and feel like that helped acclimatisation quite significantly, which seems to be contrary to the general opinion of this thread. You could always find a quiet corner and do some squats/press-ups. I think that there's quite a lot of value in this option, especially if you can spend a decent amount of time up there (not sure if possible these days with the raffle ticket system) because it's 1000m higher than any of the other Chamonix based suggestions in this thread, 1000m extra is very significant acclimatisation wise. If you start feeling bad you can always go down, but I think the percentage of people who can't relatively happily sit up at the midi is low, it is after all a big tourist attraction. The other advantage of this method is that it's not tiring, you say the week is going to be intense, this is something you can do the day before the intense stuff starts to give some acclimatisation without any tiredness.

You can't go up to the Midi and take a brisk walk because it's straight into glaciated terrain, which is unfortunate because otherwise that would be ideal for acclimatisation.

If you know you won't be badly adversely affected by going straight to 3700m and have lots of money then doing Arête à Laurence (PD 4b) or Arete des Cosmiques (AD 3) with a guide would be a great bit of acclimatisation imo. If you don't know you won't be affected badly by the altitude it could be horrible.

Have fun

You make an important point, different people respond to altitude differently. Some people are fine going straight to 3,700 metres and possibly doing some exercise, others are not. It is great that it helped you.

   I can't speak for the other responders but I chose a conservative approach as the OP has not been to high altitude ( hence their request for advice ) so they ( and I ) have no idea how they will respond. I would not like to recommend something where they may be fine, but also they may feel quite unwell - not ideal at the start of their holiday.

    Jumping from 1,000 metres ( roughly valley height ) to 3,700 metres would not be normally recommended as a useful acclimatisation profile. This article maybe of interest to the OP:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/skills/series/altitude_and_acclimatisat...

Absolutely a conservative approach is safer and if OP has any doubts about whether what they are doing isn't safe acclimatisation wise they should go for the more conservative approach. Should have made that clearer.

That said, I don't think that going up to the Aiguille du Midi to sit around is dangerous, at least not moreso than some bits of every day life e.g. driving. There are 100's if not 1000's of not acclimatised tourists heading up there for sightseeing every day of the summer. It's evidently safe enough for the French government anyway. If you start to feel noticeably unwell it's possible to get the lift down to recover and even if there's a queue I've seen people who are obviously not feeling good get prioritised to get in the next lift down.