This last weekend was a special one for me. I was in the mountains again. But not just any mountains. I was on the highest peak in Alps - Mont Blanc.
It was not my highest peak. It was not my hardest. But it has that special touch of a special mountain. Let me just describe how we did it in three days.
There was 7 of us altogether. We started our expedition on Thursday evening (around 7 pm). It took us 8 and a half hours just to get to Chamonix (to be more precise it was Les Houches, the neighbor village). Since we came there really early in the morning, we took a short rest and spend the morning for sightseeing of Chamonix, the pristine mountain city and the alpine center of Alps. It is a nice city worth spending more time in, than we had.
We took the 1pm cable car from Les Houches and the mountain rail, to reach the starting point at about 2.400m. The weather on Friday was really bad. It was cold, foggy, rainy, snowy and very windy. But that did not stop us from reaching the first cottage at 3.167m (Tête Rousse). This first part only took us about 2 and a half hours. We took the rest of the day off for relaxation, eating, rehydrating and playing cards.
Next day we started the climb to next cottage (Goûter) at around 3.800m. Again it only took us about 2 and a half hours to get there, and since it was a beautiful day we took some time for sunbathing and sightseeing around the cottage.
Very early next morning (at 2am) we started our ascend to the top. It's not really hard, nor dangerous to reach the peak, but it is the question of weather you can get to that altitude or not. Even thou that Sunday was again very beautiful and that there was a full moon it was very windy. We made a short rest at the last refuge (around 4300m - Vallot) and carried on to reach the peak at 4.30 am.
Because of the wind we didn't stay on top for longer time and started to descend really soon. We made short stops at both cottages to pick the rest of our stuff and we made it on the 1.25pm mountain train. We left the Chamonix at 4.30pm and came back to Velenje at 1.45am on Monday.
Now a short info about expenses and timing.
It was not my highest peak. It was not my hardest. But it has that special touch of a special mountain. Let me just describe how we did it in three days.
There was 7 of us altogether. We started our expedition on Thursday evening (around 7 pm). It took us 8 and a half hours just to get to Chamonix (to be more precise it was Les Houches, the neighbor village). Since we came there really early in the morning, we took a short rest and spend the morning for sightseeing of Chamonix, the pristine mountain city and the alpine center of Alps. It is a nice city worth spending more time in, than we had.
We took the 1pm cable car from Les Houches and the mountain rail, to reach the starting point at about 2.400m. The weather on Friday was really bad. It was cold, foggy, rainy, snowy and very windy. But that did not stop us from reaching the first cottage at 3.167m (Tête Rousse). This first part only took us about 2 and a half hours. We took the rest of the day off for relaxation, eating, rehydrating and playing cards.
Next day we started the climb to next cottage (Goûter) at around 3.800m. Again it only took us about 2 and a half hours to get there, and since it was a beautiful day we took some time for sunbathing and sightseeing around the cottage.
Very early next morning (at 2am) we started our ascend to the top. It's not really hard, nor dangerous to reach the peak, but it is the question of weather you can get to that altitude or not. Even thou that Sunday was again very beautiful and that there was a full moon it was very windy. We made a short rest at the last refuge (around 4300m - Vallot) and carried on to reach the peak at 4.30 am.
Because of the wind we didn't stay on top for longer time and started to descend really soon. We made short stops at both cottages to pick the rest of our stuff and we made it on the 1.25pm mountain train. We left the Chamonix at 4.30pm and came back to Velenje at 1.45am on Monday.
Now a short info about expenses and timing.
- it is possible to peak the Mont Blanc in 2 days, we did it in 3 just because of better acclimatisation.
- It took us 8 and a half hours to get to Chamonix and same to get back home.
- we rented a minibus for 8 people for 30€ per day and spent around 100€ on gas, 84.6€ on toll and additional 41€ on Mount Blanc tunnel.
- the cable car was 12.90€ for return trip and 14.50€ for mountain train return ticket.
- sleeping at cottage was 13.30€ per person on Tête Rousse, and 13.90€ on Goûter. Food was 24€ for dinner at both cottages, tea was 3€ at Tête Rousse and 3.5€ at Goûter, water was 4.5€ Tête Rousse and 5€ at Goûter. We reserved the beds almost a month ahead.
The only thing that is left is the photos. You can find them here.
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