Climb Mont Blanc in the Summer, Highest peak in the Alps, from Chamonix.net
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Climb Mont Blanc in the Summer
Chamonix is dominated by the white majestic dome of
Mont Blanc, at 4,810m the highest mountain in western Europe.
Every
year the summit of Mont Blanc becomes the ultimate objective for
mountaineers the world over, all striving to stand on top of the roof
of Europe and look down on all of the major summits of the Alps.
To
climb Mont Blanc from Chamonix, people normally chose one of the two
most common routes. Slightly more technical, the route from the
Aiguille du Midi, over Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit is generally
quieter, and highly dependent on conditions.
The slightly
easier and more reliable option is via the Tramway du Mont Blanc to the
Nid d'Aigle, then up the Aiguille du Gouter and the Bosse ridge.
While not technically challenging, ascending Mont Blanc requires a high
level of physical fitness and experience using crampons and an
ice axe.
This is the classic and most popular route to climb Mont Blanc. Keep in mind, you need to book the Gouter Refuge in advance because this hut is crowded. You take the Bellevue cable car from Les Houches and then take the Tramway du Mont Blanc to the Nid d'Aigle (2,372m).
From here there is about 5 hours of walking/scrambling to the Gouter refuge (3,817m).
To climb Mont Blanc using the Cosmiques route, you must take the cable car to the Aiguille du Midi (3,842m). From here, you descend the Aiguille du Midi arête to the glacier du Tacul, where there is approximately 1h walk on easy terrain to the Cosmique Refuge (3,613m). The day after you start climbing the Mont Blanc du Tacul. This ascent can be difficult at times. Due to warm temperatures in recent years more crevasses have opened up and at times this has required climbing on some steep exposed terrain.
Hike up a famous route with a snowboard or a pair of skis, such as "The Three Mont Blanc's", "The Descent of the North Face" or "The Corridor Route". The most frequented and most dangerous is the Classic Route via the Grands Mulets hut at 3051m. The first ascent of the Mont Blanc on skis was via the classic route in 1904 by Ugo Mylius with Oberland guides: Tannler, Maurer and Zurfluh. The first descent from the summit on skis was by a Swiss guide, Elias Julen in 1930. Marco Siffredi popped up to the Blanc for a quick surf after returning from his first descent of Mt. Everest on a snowboard in 2001.
