I'm hoping to climb Mt Blanc next season. I've read a little online about the mountain, checked it out on Google Earth, read about a few of the popular routes. Gouter sounds horrible.

So.... what routes are recommended?

Is staying in a hut pretty much mandatory? Is it feasible to just bivy?

Before I could give you any advice I'd want to know why you think it sounds "horrible"? I did it ~30 years ago and didn't think it was horrible - pretty much what I expected and had anticipated.

Now I could guess that you are concerened about the route being overrun by stampeding rude French - but maybe that is not your objection at all - I don't know.

If you are capable of climbing harder routes there certainly are lots of options - but based on the tone of your post that might not be a good idea.

Yes the Gouter, yes Mt Blanc, yes Cham and yes most of the Aplys are going to be overrun by stampeding rude French (and others) in season when the conditions are good. They will all be able to climb circles around you with one arm tied behind their backs. Its just part of the scene. Be aware of it and either embrace it or avoid it. But here I am giving advice without really knowing what you are driving at,

Are the French really that bad?

Oh, and is the Italian side as 'worthy' (for lack of a better term) as Chamonix?

Before I could give you any advice I'd want to know why you think it sounds "horrible"? I did it ~30 years ago and didn't think it was horrible - pretty much what I expected and had anticipated.

Now I could guess that you are concerened about the route being overrun by stampeding rude French - but maybe that is not your objection at all - I don't know.

If you are capable of climbing harder routes there certainly are lots of options - but based on the tone of your post that might not be a good idea.

Yes the Gouter, yes Mt Blanc, yes Cham and yes most of the Aplys are going to be overrun by stampeding rude French (and others) in season when the conditions are good. They will all be able to climb circles around you with one arm tied behind their backs. Its just part of the scene. Be aware of it and either embrace it or avoid it. But here I am giving advice without really knowing what you are driving at,

Well, I only climbed it from the Italian side via the Brenva Spur. Our plans had been for the Route Major, but a storm on the day we walked in to the Ghiglione (sp?) Hut made us decide for a ridge over a gully; turned out to be a wise choice as at 3AM I watched a huge avalanche far below us overtake a headlamp that I assume was attached to a climber on Route Major. There would have been no surviving that one.

Anyway, Brenva Spur was nice, pretty much endless 60 degree slopes leading to a bit of easy grade 4 punching through the upper serac band, then a slog up the final summit cone. We left the hut at 2 am and summited at 9 am so that the snow would be frozen solid and we wouldn't post hole; this was end of August 1985.


http://www.rockclimbing.com/...ont_Blanc_49466.html

We went down the French side via the Grands Mulets, which got us back to our tent in the Valee Blanche quickly, but would have been quite boring as an ascent. Still, it did have a few crevasse crossings and great position, just would have been a long slog as an ascent.

We were the second group to the summit, the first was a party of 10 Italians who had come up the French side and were deep into the wine and singing "Ave Maria." It would have been funny if it wasn't so obnoxious.

Otherwise, what olderic said...

By the "3 Monts" seems to be enjoyable (Mt Blanc du Tacul > Mont Maudit > Mt Blanc).

You can check different routes here : http://www.camptocamp.org/summits/37355/en/mont-blanc#ascent-routes

3 Monts does look very fun. Looks like a great ski.

watch for avalanches as 155 people were killed in Alps last year. Stay in Chamonix for few days and enjoy it.

Mt Blanc from Chamonix


Lazlo, we took the two telepheriques up to the top of the Aiguille du Midi, then followed the ridge down into the Vallee Blanche where we set up our tent and hung out for about a week. Lots of cool, fun, short routes all around, particularly on the rock South Face of the Midi, and the Cosmiques Spur.

We left there and circumvented the mountain clockwise to arrive at the Trident Hut in Italy. I forget how long it took, maybe 1/2 day? Anyway there was no official border crossing, we just showed up and all of a sudden the hutkeeper was speaking Italian instead of French and charging us in Lira. He did accept Francs and we were able to buy a nights lodging, a spaghetti dinner, and a couple of beers that had been helicoptered in; the bottoms of the aluminum cans were convex from the change in elevation, so we couldn't set them down.

Next day we were all awaken at midnight for the climb. We brewed up and ate a bit, and my partner and I were the last to leave the hut. At the base of the climb there was a long queue waiting in line at the first official pitch, a 5.6ish inside corner. We roped up and I headed off left for a ropelength where I found a 5.8ish alternative that I quickly climbed in crampons and we then found ourselves the lead team on the entire route.

The first 2-3 hours or so were on a steep ridge with thousands of feet of exposure to each side, which we simul-climbed with 75 feet of rope between us. We placed no pro, the idea being that if someone fell off, the other would jump over the opposite side of the ridge. It worked out that I lead the entire route with the exception of the serac band, which required a 150' belay. I anchored below, my partner swung through and led it, then he anchored to bring me up and I swung back in the lead until we hit the summit cone where we stopped to eat and unroped.

I think the entire traverse from the Trident Hut in Italy to our tent in the Vallee Blanche took somewhere around 16 hours.

View from the summit, looking north. Switzerland to the far center, France to the left, and Italy to the right.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v293/loransmith/Climbing/MontBlancSummit-1.jpg[/IMG]

Hi Lazlo ,

Just to add my five euros ...
1. Gouter: normal route, overcrowded, but still if you are doing that before the 14 July or after the 15 Aug, you might do all right. It remains a great way to climb Mt Blc.
2. As it has been suggested, you can do via Tacul-Maudit-Mt Blc and back but you need to be well trained. Avoid descent by Grands Mulets, which has become quite unsafe.
3. Brenva Spur; it is not a beginner route. Once you are on it, if any change of weather you are done. BTW, check as Giglione might have been destroyed in the late 90ies.
4. If you want to do it properly (safety margin, proper timing, etc ...) you might want to do something on the Bassin du Geant before (top of Aig du Midi): Cosmiques, Lachenal, North face of Tour Ronde ...
5. Brenva Spur in on the Italian side but you reach it from France. You have also (tens of) great routes on the Italian - Val Veni side that you can access by the Aig du Midi lift or by the tunnel to Aoste , from the less difficult : Aiguilles Grises via Bionassay ridge (need good cramponing technique though) to the most difficult (Peuterey) via medium diff. Innominata. All that needs some altitude training.
6. For the French, they might be (even) worse than you have heard (!!) especially if you are travelling with this prejudice. However, after having worked, travelled and climbed in the US for the last six years and in other places since the late 80ies, I only remember the great people I had met because I wanted it so.
Have a great time , Yves.