UKC

Has anyone done this in one very long day?

- took first cable car to Aiguille du Midi
- hike/climb to Mont Blanc summit
- return to Aiguille du Midi
- cable car down to Chamonix

Would love to hear the experience and/or comment/advice. Is it only possible for real profs?

Cheers!

In reply to Removed Userherblai:
Yes, went up as you describe but walked down the grand montes route back to the valley. It was a very long day. I was quite fit at the time.

The issue at the moment tho' would be the horrible conditions re. Seracs on the Tacul.

In reply to wbo:

Given that the normal start time from the Cosmique is 1am, this sounds a bit flaky as plans go. No doubt some of our guiding contributors would explain why, much better than I could....

In reply to Removed Userherblai:
Possible but extremely unlikely.......especially if you need to ask. Don't forget you WILL need crampons and sandwiches too.

In reply to Removed Userherblai:

I have been up Mont Maudit a couple of times in the manner you describe, but it is a LONG way from there to the main summit. No real reason if you were very fit and acclimitised, but 4800m is pretty high.

In reply to Removed Userherblai:

It does get done quite a bit this way. I suppose it's OK if you're short of time or you simply want the tick, or of course the bragging rights. To my mind though you miss out on a lot of things that turn a relatively simple straightforward route into an alpine experience like the dawn coming up on the col de la Brenva, for instance.

Certainly coming back to the Midi is the shortest and easiest option. Don't go down the Grands Mulets even if it looks very inviting. Going down the Goûter takes a lot longer than going back to the Midi, is more dangerous and you could possibly miss the last train which would really piss you off.

In reply to Removed Userherblai: I really regretted going down the grand mulets. I wouldn't do it again

In reply to Removed Userherblai: I've done Chamonix-> Mont Blanc-> Chamonix in a day via the 3 Monts route up and Gouter route down.

We got the first telepherique up and I think we were on the summit of Mont Blanc about 1330-1400.

Was a brilliant, but very long day out. I was fit and acclimatised.

In reply to Removed Userherblai:

we did it like that but descended past the gouter hut to the hut below it = maybe the tete rousse?
very lond hard day but absoluetly amazing.
it was with a guide at the end of a weeks holiday.

In reply to jon:


I went down this way once and it was awesome. More spectacular than the Gouter, and nice to still do a traverse rather than midi and back.

But that was 10 years ago. What is wrong with it now? Is it just much more dangerous now (I know some years it has been), or...what is bad about it?

In reply to BruceM:

Every few years people get taken out by serac fall on the Petit Plateau - if I remember correctly the last time was a group of Italians on skis, in descent, which was really unlucky. (Nowadays during the ski touring season no-one goes up the Grands Mulets proper, preferring the N ridge of the Dôme du Goûter.) Then below the refuge in later season the crevasses open up to such an extent that long zigzagging traverses between them are necessary to find crossing places. I've been down a couple of times in the summer and the last time (probably 15 years ago) there was a long bouncy wooden ladder spanning a huge crevasse - felt like I was in the Khumbu icefall! Then just below that there's the tottering towers and crevasses route finding horror of the Jonction which is so unstable it changes from day to day. Returning to the Midi is much quicker and safer (cue for someone to mention the Tacul seracs in the afternoon - which are no more dangerous than when you went up past them in the morning...)

In reply to BruceM:

In addition according to this: http://www.camptocamp.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=1985458#p1985458 it seems that the Grands Mulets refuge closed yesterday for the season. One can only assume that this is because of the dangers of the itinerary.

In reply to jon:

Hi Jon
its not strictly true that no-one goes up by the Petit plateau in the spring. Although the majority of parties do use the North ridge of the Gouter, the petit plateau is certainly an option. I was there in early june and a large slab had released at the start of the steep bit of the ridge. I thought (after talking to Ludo the very helpful guardian) that the petit plateau would be safer, and we crossed the dangerous bit in about 10 minutes. I think the activity of the seracs there varies from year to year and this year it didnt seem to bad. Its certainly safer than the Barre des ecrins where you are under seracs for much longer. I can appreciate that for a guide doing a route on multiple occasions serac risk has to be thought about very carefully. I can hear Roger Payne's voice in my ear.

In reply to BruceM:

It was about 20 years back when we came down the Mulets, and it stands out in my memory, and not entirely in a good way. At the end of a long tiring day you really want a simple descent, which this wasn't. Crevasse avoidance was slow and tiresome and you can get tempted to do things (like dodgy jumps) which you really know you shouldn't.

In reply to jon:

I know what you mean - descending from Mt Blanc in 1983 we were about 200 metres from the glacier edge, an hour and a half and a couple of kilometres later we got there. Two years later it was all of twenty minutes from the refuge to leaving the glacier.

In reply to jon:

Cheers. I imagined it must be the serac danger, which seems scarier everywhere these days.

In reply to philipjardine:


No, you're right, I didn't word that very well. The only time I've skiied Mont Blanc I too went straight up the Grands Mulets and I guess some still do. Maybe a better statement would be that the N ridge of the Dôme du Goûter is far more in vogue these days due to the serac danger of the Petit Plateau. Of course, once the seracs have purged there should theoretically be a relatively safe period. However, in summer when one considers the other objective dangers it just isn't the easy option that it appears when you look down from the summit. Add to that the almost exactly 2500m of descent to the Plan de l'Aiguille as against 1270m summit to the col du Midi, then it seems like a no-brainer to me.

In reply to jon:

yes i certainly agree about the summer descent

In reply to Removed Userherblai:

It was a long time ago - 1982 - but we did Les Houches to les Houches in 24 hours, leaving straight after lunch. cable car, train, doss in the snow near the Gouter Hut until about midnight, sunrise on the summit, descend via bosses, gouter, train and cable car, back to les Houches.

I wish I was still that fit

In reply to Removed Userherblai:

I reckon it is doable but you would have to practically run it. I have set off from the Midi at around Midnight (to avoid the 2am rush) and got down to the Plan at 4pm (we were very very tired)

In reply to jon:

If only that were so.
Indeed one English-language ski mountaineering guidebook does not even mention any alternative to ascending the Grands Mulets glacier.

The time I climbed with skis (? 2010 ?) all the other parties skinned up the Grands Mulets, which left me to skin up and higher kick my own steps up the North ridge of the Dome du Gouter.
When I descended the Grands Mulets on skis (rapidly) in the afternoon, the ice blocks fallen recently from the seracs above were obvious.

Ken

Another way to do it (with skis in a big snow year) is to start from the Tunnel entrance first on trail then up past the ancient ski lift, cross La Jonction and up the North Ridge of the Dome du Gouter.

Starting perhaps at midnight.

Or there is "le vrai Mont Blanc" -- starting on the valley bottom from the city of Chamonix (choose from the church or the hotel de ville).

Ken

In reply to kenr:

Gosh, is it a city now?