Tuesday evening’s weather forecast was announcing a great weather for the next two days, clear sky, few wind, some few cumulus clouds in the evening. A perfect two days weather window between rainy days. The project planned a week ago was then put into action. With my friend we decided to climb the Mont-Blanc entirely by foot without using the Bellevue gondola lift or the Mont-Blanc train (TMB) up to the Nid d’Agile like all other alpinists who ascent the summit by the “normal” route do. Although it remains a nice alpine route, climbing the Mont-Blanc by the normal route (not technical), with thousands of “tourists” pulled by their guides up to the summit each year, kind of lacks flavor. But the challenge of climbing it integrally by foot from its base down in the valley, which nearly nobody does anymore, made it more attractive. From the village of Les Houches, it adds 1,300 meters (4,265 ft) of altitude difference compared to using mechanical transportation to the Nid d’Aigle. It makes a total of 2,700 m (8,858 ft) ascent the first day to the Goûter lodge and then about 1,100 m (3,609 ft) up and 3,700 m (12,139 ft) down the second day (which ended up to be 1,200 m (3,937 ft) up and 3,800 m (12,467 ft) down due to a bridge no longer existing. But well 100 m (328 ft) doesn’t make much difference at this level).

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