After watching the weather forecast all morning, Nate and I finally decided to go for Mont Blanc and left our apartment in Chamonix Sud at 1pm. We hiked up past the entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel to La Para and put our skis on at about 1,800m (6,000ft). We followed the path of the old tram up to Gare des Glaciers and traversed to the Glacier des Bossons. After a sketchy crossing of La Jonction on thin snow bridges we reached the Grand Mulets hut at 8pm after about 7,000ft of climbing. Thankfully it wasn't too later for dinner and we had some cream of mushroom soup and spaghetti carbonara with a few Alaskans before going to bed. We woke up at 3:30am and started up the climber's right variation to the Petit Plateau. This route is exposed to some seracs but the hut-keeper says he has only heard of two collapses in ten years. We quickly skinned across the Petit Plateau which is threatened by much more active seracs. We climbed a short step on the climber's left to gain the Grand Plateau and then headed climber's left (left of Le Corridor) to reach the Col de la Brenva. From here we climbed a short section of 50 degree ice on the ridge then made a slow high-altitude slog to the summit.
We skied ice off the summit back down our ascent route and then cut into the North Face where we found some soft snow. We stopped to make water and watched as clouds engulfed the summit. The snow quality deteriorated on the rest of the descent and by the bottom it was the worst isothermal mush I have ever skied. Finally, a couple hours of hiking back to Chamonix.
Music:
Chapelier Fou - Muance - Oracle
Chassol - Big Sun - Mario, Pt. II
