In the beginning of June I went on a week long mountaineering trip. We were 4 women and had 2 awesome guides, Juliana Garcia and Anouk Erni. The goal was to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, at 4,808 m. We had a few days of acclimatization where we summited Grand Paradiso. We took the classic Goûter route on Mont Blanc.
Bellevue
How did you get to Mont Blanc? We took a taxi. No joke, our strip started with a taxi ride from Les Houches up to Bellevue (1,800 m). From there we started hiking and the trail climbs steadily across the Mont Lachat ridge toward the Nid d’Aigle and the start of the real ascent. We started in T-shirts and slowly made our way into winter.
Up to Tête Rousse
A long, rising traverse leads to the Tête Rousse refuge (3,167 m).
When we got to the hut, the clouds were below us and the feeling of being on top of the clouds was amazing.
Here we stayed for the night, and we woke up to the most beautiful sunrise over the mountains. We left around 5am which is a bit later than the usual start time, but we wanted to ditch some strong morning winds higher up.
The Grand Couloir & Refuge du Goûter
Above Tête Rousse comes the infamous Grand Couloir du Goûter, a famous place where when it’s too warm, suicidal rocks fall off the mountain taking everything and everyone with them along the way. We luckily had good conditions to cross and we did so quickly. Next, we climbed up a steep rocky ridge all the way up to the Refuge du Goûter (3,835 m). At the hut we waited for a while for the winds to calm down. Around 11am our guide said we can make an attempt, and all of us jumped excitedly into the crampons. The clouds were still thick and visibility was very poor. The wind had calmed down.
The attempt
From the Goûter hut the route continues onto the glacier toward the Dôme du Goûter and the Vallot shelter. This is as far as we got — we turned back here at around 4,200m. I felt bad about it, but at the same time it wasn’t fun at all to hike on the glacier without seeing anything. And if Juliana says we go back, then we go back!
Back to the hut
So we went back to the hut and stayed there for the night. We ate a lot of good food and it made me think how French love good food and you can find it even in huts at 3,800m.
The descent
The next day we woke up around 5 and went for breakfast straight to the Tête Rousse refuge. We also crossed the Couloir one more time without any issues. The moods were high in both rope teams, but Helena and I were particularly happy, we loved this descent.
Back to Bellevue
We took a different way back to Bellevue, through the snow with crampons and went back to T-shirts once we were down.