Chamonix 06

Chamonix 3-9 June 2006

Ric decided he wanted to climb Mont Banc. It didn't take much for him to persuade me to be his guide. I suggested that we did it on skis i.e. ski tour. The beginning of June seemed like a good time as there would still be reasonable snow conditions above 2500m and it fitted into both our diaries. What we hadn't accounted for is that most of the mountain huts were closed and also most of the uplifts. The only lifts open were the Ag du Midi and the Mare de Glace railway. The only huts open were Albert Premier, Cosmiques and Les Grand Mulets. It seemed to be a dead time after the winter season and before the Summer season. More of the lifts and huts opened the 2 weeks after we were there.

The lack of huts hampered our original plan for acclimatisation. In the end we decided on Ag du Tour and Mont Blanc Du Tacul.

Day 1 (Sunday) We arrived in Chamonix at 10:00 and after a delayed start due to shops being closed we eventually set off from Le Tour to the Albert prem hut at 1530 arriving there at 1845. 15 minutes before dinner. It was a very hard slog having to carry all the ski gear in addition to the norm. We could only skin for the last 1 Km.
Day 2 (Monday) Ag du Tour 3542m Up at 05:00 much to Ric dismay and on the hill by 06:00, on our skis from the word go. It was not long before Ric had problems with the hired skins not staying glued to the skis. In the end one had to be replaced with the spare. We went up via the Col du Midi des Grands which is not the normal way. The intention was to climb the North summit but it looked much harder than the F in the guide book. We climbed up to the col between the north and south summit then decided to climb the ridge up to the south summit as it looked easier about PD. Reaching the top at 12:00. The normal route up was our decent and that seemed much harder than last time and again not F more like PD. We then Skied down to near the water works near the base of the glassier in about half an hour. Back at the car for 15:00. We got the 16:30 lift up to Ag du Midi and battled our way though a whiteout to the Cosmiques hut.


Day 3 (Tuesday) Mont Blanc du Tacul 4248m Up at 05:00 again, Ric getting used to it now on the hill for 05:50. Too steep in places for skinning even with ski crampons on, had them on and off a couple of time and Ric had problems again with the skin not staying glued to the ski (crap hire gear from Snells!!). We topped out at 12:00. We had an eventful ski down due to the variable snow and crevasses. Ric falling a long way fortunatly into a soft landing after his down hill ski came off on landing after jumping a crevasse. Down at the Col du Midi for lunch at 14:00. Where we had lunch before the short but long slog back to the tunnel. I found it really had going, total fatigue perhaps but neither of us were having problems with the altitude.

Remaining 2 days We managed to get bunks in the Vagabond bunk house and stayed there for three nights before coming home a day early. Ric decided (rightly I think) that Mont Blanc on hired crap gear was probably not a good idea and I did not recover from being sick until mid afternoon on Wednesday. What did we learn, should have had a rest / easy day between Ag du Tour and M B du Tacul. Do not do something as serious on unfamiliar hired gear.
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