This past week while out running with a workmate, he told me he was climbing Mt Blanc. Having "le tres mt blancs" route on my list of casual summer mountaineering objectives, I became very interested since it is surely way early in the season for sane attempts at the summit.
After checking the weather, it was interstingly stable but with high winds predicted near 4000m - tempting enough to go up to the Cosmiques Hut and give it a shot - the worst case scenario is a night at the hut and an early morning run down the Vallee Blanche. I am less than confident in the reliability of the Chamonix Valley forecasts when they are predicting terrible weather since it seems it is never bad there.
As most adventures in 'the valley' go, we drove through the tunnel from Italia to France
We got on the Aguille Du Midi cable car and left Chamonix below - no need for a long approach here!
The signs at the end of the snow tunnel are great - no tourists allow - only alpinists
After the trip down the famous ridge below the cable car, it is a short 45 mins walk to the Cosmiques hut at about 3650m
The view from the hut is amazing - almost a 360 panorama of the main alpine ridge - sunsets and sunrises are spectacular.
Looking West (obviously)
end then East:
This is the climbing route. You start down from the hut about 250m onto the col du midi and then walk over to the toe of Mt Blanc du Tacul (4248m) before starting up. The route we took is indicated and varies from the normal summer route bit which takes a less direct line onto the right hand shoulder and then walks the ridge before the summit pitch.
Dinner in the hut is a fantastic 4 course affair, starting with some yummy cheese and onion soup.
Unfortunately, we went to sleep with an 80kts of wind forecast and from the deck at night, it was believable. It had the sound of huge crashing crashing waves as it ripped across the Col du Midi.
Managing to stay optimistic, we decided to get up at 3 and check the winds. We did, but my partner was a bit altitude sick - too bad, since the winds were pretty low. We shifted the plan to 'lets get up at 7 and then decide what to do'. Mont Blanc du Tacul became the objective and we went back to sleep.
We did not exactly get an alpine start - 8:30am
Here is the avvy debris clearly visible in the route overview pic
Low on the route, the conditions were perfect. We offered a local skier who was soloing the route to rope up with use beneath the berschrund since it was pretty unclear how weak the snow bridges were:
After reaching the ridge crest, it is a short walk to the start of 50m of easy rock terrain which leads to the summit.
The summit, of course, is adorned with a cross and pretty impressive views of the whole range.
The main alpine ridge.
Monte Bianco - a summer objective perhaps
This is the ski route from high on the climbing route during the decent.
Descending over the main bergshcrund just below a huge serac.
Falling into a crevasse here is ill-advised but my buddy did punch through a small spot up to his thighs just below here.
Another shot of the route showing the decent and the start of the ski from the hut.
But no need to start before a quick lunch back at the hut where we left the skis.
Time to start the decent back to the car. Good thing no money was wasted on the 're-tour' Aguille du Midi pass! Just 26kms of fun ahead.
Some guys were touring up to finish the Haute Route.
The Vallee Blanche is an amazing, in not overcrowded off piste ski route. During the day, it is packed but at about 5 at night, it is nearly empty. We saw about 10 others the entire time including a girl having an asthma attack awaiting a helo ride to the hospital. Despite the infrastructure, it is still pretty wild.
Since this is a great snow year, you could ski all the way from the hut at 3600m down to town at about 1000m!!! Only about 10 mins of a steep climb onto the ridge seperates the two. You can see the Dru clearly dominating the skyline behing now. Also visible is the huge white scar on the Dru from the rockfall during the 96 (I think) season.
Soon enough we were back in Cham - just in time for some fondu and beers to celebrate.
GPS track of the ski descent (need to figure out how to stop it from automatically turning itself off) almost all the way to town - we were actually able to ski all the way down and then walk about 400m to the central square.
Enjoy!