Notes for climbing Mont Blanc

I'm thinking of climbing Mont Blanc this summer, with my children (17 and 21) and without a guide. This post is some notes to myself. Notes for anyone else: I was middle-of-a-rope on the Brenva spur 30 years ago and descended fro the top of that alone back to Aiguille du Midi, so am currently puzzled by the AD-D rate given to that route (i.e., Cosmiques) as ascent.

General resources:

* Petzl leaflet showing the 7 "normal" routes. Gives Gouter PD and Cosmiques PD+. Seems fair.
* Mont Blanc 4810m - 5 Routes to the Summit by Francois Damilano - book
* Mont Blanc Classic and Plaisir Guidebook - book of 80 routes
* The Mont Blanc Range: Classic Snow, Ice and Mixed Climbs - The Book. Now arrived.

Actual plans

Note: planning a full three weeks is presumptuous. Oh ye gods of the mountains, know that I know that this is all tentative.

* 07/20: leave 10 am; to Besancon [booked, hotel Citadele].
* 07/21: arrive Chamonix / le Tour; to Albert Premier [booked].
* 07/22: Aiguille du Tour; back to ref [booked]
* 07/23: Tete Blanche / Petit Fourche? To valley [booked, hotel le Chamonix, town center]
* 07/24: To Couvercle [booked]
* 07/25: Pointe Isabella, Couvercle [booked]
* 07/26: Moine? Courtes? To valley, or another refuge?
* 07/27
* 07/28
* 07/29
* 07/30
* 07/31
* 08/01: to Tete Rousses "camp de base" [booked]
* 08/02: Mt Blanc; back to cdb [booked]
* 08/03: descent, or reserve day
* 08/04:
* 08/05: to Cosmiques [booked]
* 08/06: Mt Blanc; back to Cosmiques [booked]
* 08/07: descent or reserve day
* 08/08: leave
* 08/09: return to Coton early in the day

Gouter

There's a nice video of the Gouter Route (aka "View Normale") here, which helpfully  includes some pix of the refuges. It also shows you a little of the Grand Couloir, which as I understand it is the icky / dangerous bit. Another, with drone footage! They seems to have stopped in the Refuge Vallot, which is supposed to be an emergency shelter only.

Note that the Gouter is at ~3800, so makes for an easier summit day by ~200 m than Cosmiques.

Here's a bloke soloing it, looks like quite a nice video starting from 2300 m (he ends up arriving at the Gouter - late in the day, so they can't force him to descend - but they charge him E30 extra and get get to sleep in the boot-room since the hut is full). At this point he's nearly at the Tete Rousse, and you can see people camping, though clearly they are getting sniffy about that in 2019. This also seems to show him - and others, so he isn't just a lone nut - fearlessly climbing the Grand Couloir in mid-afternoon; when I'd thought that rockfall made early morning mandatory (vid: rockfall; another; perhaps a clearer one: I think the problem is one crossing). In fact this Petzl document is particularly helpful, has pics and "accidentology". This (2004) discussion says stay at the Tete Rousse and start at 3am. In 2015 it was shut for a while due to deaths.

A blog of someone climbing it from Les Houches in a slightly mad up-n-back in two days.

Cosmiques

And a video here. Doesn't look technically any harder than the Dome de Neige. A vid including some interior of the Cosmiques hut. There appears to be one difficult section on Mont Maudit.

You can camp on the glacier below (around from) the Aiguille du Midi, or stay in the Cosmiques hut. Either way you start from ~3600 and have ~1200 to go up.

Here's one of someone soloing it, after his friend decides not to do Tacul because of an avalanche the previous day in which two people die... no accounting for taste. Nice views of the Maudit "steep bit". Quasi-insanely they appear to have walked up the Mer de Glace over a couple of days, camping en route.

Pretty well everyone gets to Cosmiques via the cable car. But walking (Montenvers to Requin then up the glacier) may also be possible and perhaps good fun and acclimatising. See this SummitPost, or this proper planned course.

Other stuff

A somewhat dismissive title. But there is lots lots more than two huts and one mountain, obvs.

Tour of the Mer de Glace: Requin, Leschaux, Couvercle.

Torino

The Rif Torino is on the Italian side, you'd never guess. Website. It's reached with by walking up from the French side, or by cable car from teh Italian side, which makes it open lots of the year. Vid of Torino to Mt Blanc du Tacul.

Envers des Auiguilles

Fairly readily accessible from the mountain railway. Various rock routes: Bec d'Oiseau.

Couvercle

From the Mer de Glace (Montenvers railway). Vid: 3 jours autour du refuge du Couvercle, featuring walk in, Pointe Isabella (route 8 in The Book) and L'Aiguille du Moine (rock).

Web page. Says may be being partially renovated in the summer but "Toutefois des places seront disponibles". Or this page says "However if there is work, some places will be available on weekdays and weekends, but limited! It will be essential to contact us by phone at 06.87.99.01.66 (no internet reservations possible for now)." But the reservation page now seems fine.

A recent report on Pointe Isabella.