MT BLANC 4810

The weather finally came good at exactly the right time for us. Reuben Berg and I climbed Mt Blanc at 7.15am this morning.
Nevertheless when we met the week before prospects didn't look good. It was cold and raining in the valley and high up there was stacks of fresh snow. However despite all this doom and gloom the long term weather forecast was good for the nights we had booked in to the Gouter hut. So our priority was to gain as much acclimatisation as possible because with out this Mt Blanc would be impossible.

There is probably a small book to be written about our novel attempts to get acclimatised in such terrible weather, but needless to say it worked. Tuesday everything clicked and we powered our way up to the Gouter Hut, arriving ahead of everyone else and bagged the best beds Wednesday we awoke at 1.45am and were away by 2.45am. Perfect conditions underfoot although a little windy. a great trip.

Windy Weather

Norrie & Jane Nicoll called me the other week [I climbed Mt Blanc with Norrie 15 years ago] and they said "what can we do for 3 days which will be fun, not to tiring and not too scary [Only a little scary]"
So on our first day we climbed the beautiful long Via Cordia. The next day I persuaded them to do the Via Ferratta at Plateau D'Assey [as featured in the MTMG video]
Then yesterday the plan was to go for an expedition on the Mer de Glace and learn how to use an Ice axe and crampons. However this didn't work because as we were waiting for the train it was announced that it had closed because the wind was too strong.
So we needed a plan B. As so often in this game there was no plan B, but we quickly came up with one: It was to go and climb the magnificent voie Caline.