UKC

HI

I am looking for any information I can get for Mont Blanc. I'm not looking for historic tales or stories of tragedies and heroic solo attempts etc. Neither am I planning on going there any time soon.

However I am a keen "armchair adventurer" and would like to learn as much as I can possibly glean about the mountain - routes to the summit, maps, places to base camp, travel etc.

Can someone suggest some options?

Thanks
Alistair

In reply to alistair musgrove:

Mont Blanc Massif, Vol I, edited by Lindsay Griffin

Mont Blanc and the Seven Valleys by R. Frison-Roche

In reply to alistair musgrove:

Gino Buscaini. Mont Blanc Vol 1. It's in Italian but doesn't really matter and it is entirely definitive up to ~1990

In reply to alistair musgrove:

That's great

thank you

In reply to alistair musgrove:

It has to be Gaston Rebuffat's The Mont Blanc Massif: The Hundred Finest Routes. It's arguable the best of a great bunch of MB books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mont-Blanc-Massif-Hundred/dp/1898573697

And here are the routes, in order... http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=485

In reply to alistair musgrove:
There are chapters in Bonatti's 'Mountains of my life' that recount some of the tragedies on the mountain. notably the attempt on the central pillar of Freney on the Italian side.

He also made some ground breaking ascents else where in the greater massive on for example the Grandes Jorrases and Les Drus some with partners and others solo.

Lionel Tearry done a fair bit of stuff also although it's been some time since I read 'Conquistadors of the useless' so I cant be any more specific than that.

There's also an updated version of the already mentioned '100 finest routes' that is well worth looking at
http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/review.php?id=5777

In reply to Tony the Blade:

That's fantastic, thank you so much.

Plenty of bedtime reading there

In reply to alistair musgrove:

You won't regret spending £20 on it. I've had mine for donkey's years and it's still going strong.