UKC

So the plan would be to get an evening flight to Geneva on Friday night (7th Sep), transfer to Chamonix/somewhere and check in to a hostel. Then climb on Saturday and Sunday before flying home on Sunday night.

Am inexperienced so would get a guide. Weather permitting my preference would be to get up in to the mountains as opposed to rock climbing, etc in the valley. I adjust well to altitude but understand I'd still struggle on anything above 3,500m... with all that in mind are there some PD-ish routes that would fit into this itinerary? Or would it be a waste of time?

Any advice much appreciated.

In reply to James1982:

james,

this late in the season, your opportunities higher up will be restricted mostly to rock anyway - we are having a serious heatwave out here at the moment and the do-ability of many medium altitude snowy/mixed routes has been seriously degraded..

check out the latest conditions on the OHM website at:
http://www.ohm-chamonix.com/info-montagne-conditions-montagne-11100000.html

earlier in the season, you'd have a good shot at e.g. Tour Ronde, maybe Domes de Miages, Les Courtes traverse, Chardonnet Forbes and the like, but its looking like too late for these and similar..

Hope this helps

Andy

In reply to James1982:


The Matterhorn!

In reply to Tim Chappell:
Beat me to it! =)

In reply to James1982:

In a long weekend in September, I managed:

Drive down overnight Thursday night.
Rock up Friday morning, have breakfast, go up the Midi, Cosmique Arete then down to the Cosmique hut.
Saturday - North Face of the Tour Ronde then back to the Cosmiques Hut (missed cable car, long walk back).
Sunday - Feeling tired and rough so sack off plans and head down to the valley for beer and pizza.
Monday - Petite Aiguille Verte in the morning then drive home
Tuesday Morning - Back at work.

In reply to galpinos: does anybody know if any lifts are open in october 15/16th weekend maybe for some walking or sight seeing in chamonix

Wondered how long it'd be before Matterhorn got mentioned

Cheers for the suggestions and advice.

Although conditions are far from ideal now I guess there's a chance things may have improved in a couple of weeks time? I'll keep my eye on the weather and possibly go last minute if the outlook improves.

In reply to stuart58:

I think it's all here:

http://www.compagniedumontblanc.fr/fr/horaires-pistes?id=4

Can anyone recommend a guide/organisation who I could talk to in a little more detail about what might be possible for me?

I know there are websites which list guides, etc but personal recommendations are always good...

In reply to James1982: I went ski-touring last April with a chap called Greg Sauget who was thoroughly nice, excellent English and I'd not have a second thought about getting in contact with him through ChamEx.
http://www.chamex.com/about-us
I've not climbed with him though.

In reply to James1982:

I would have thought a couple of routes from the Cosmiques hut would be the best experience to get up snowy peaks with minimal effort. Most other venues would require hut walk in times which is a bit of a waste when time in limited. That would rule out other venues such as Arolla. Saas Fee and Zermatt are alternatives but longer to get to from Geneva (3-4 hours)

The other main glacier/snowy venues around Chamonix would involve half a day up to the hut.

Either way it would be quite an expensive trip if you throw in a guide. You could call it your "Alpine Grand tour"

In reply to galpinos: Blimey, that’s a mega weekend…

I’ve done font for a short weekend quite a few times, which works well. Leave work collect mates and drive overnight Friday, pitch ~4am. Circuit sat, whole or half circuit sun then drive home leaving ~4ish arrive 12/1am back at work monday. But the added distance to cham! Ouch!

In reply to gingerdave13:

We've done it for a long weekend ski touring in Valmorel as well. It works ok driving in shifts as a four.

Not done it for a couple of years though....

Cheers all. Dropped an email to Cham Ex who suggested doing Aiguille d'Entreves or Tour Ronde on day 1, sleeping at Torino hut and then doing Dent du Geant on day 2. Probably quite punchy to do a 4,000m peak on the Sunday but they seemed to think it'd be a great couple of days and conditions were currently good on these routes...

Plenty to think about, not least the price which is pretty high especialy as I have the cheaper option of Font on the "Boulder Bus" (very convenient as I live opposite Mile End Climbing Wall in London and it leaves from there on the Friday evening, returning Sunday).