OVERVIEW

Mont Blanc is renowned as the milestone for mountaineering activity. It emerged from this place, mountain climbing, rock climbing, and other activities already done since 1800s. Mont Blanc, the highest mountain on the Alps, is located in three countries, France, Swiss, and Italy. It has many climbing routes, from the hard one to the easy one. Climbing from the foot of the mountain to using a cable car until Aiguille du Midi at 3,842m. Even hut and hotels are provided here.

In terms of climbing Mont Blanc, we use Du Gouter route, which start from Chamonix valley to Les Hauches (1,010m) and continue by cable car to Bellevue (1,794m) and again by tram to Nid D’Aigle (2,380m) where the climbing start to the top of Mont Blanc. It needs 4 days to climb from Chamonix and back. Chamonix, the exotic city at the foot of Mont Blanc and also known as “The Capital of Mountaineering”, many events were held here both in summer and winter. 1924 Winter Olympic was held here.

With rocky and snow terrain demand us to have the skill of glacier walking and self-rescue. We will allocate some times to train or refresh the skills on the mountain during the trip, while also acclimatizing.

ITINERARY

DAY 1 - 2

Geneva-Chamonix
Take a flight to Geneva, Swiss. Arriving in Geneva, we will continue by bus to Chamonix for an hour. The distance is 81 km. Drive to the hotel, check-in and rest

DAY 3

Chamonix
Sightseeing at Chamonix

DAY 4

Chamonix-Tete Rouse Camp (3,187m)
From Chamonix to Les Hauches (1.010m) by cable car, and continue to Bellevue (1,794m) by gondola. Then using the tram to Nid D’Aigle (2,380m). Start trekking for 3 hours to Tete Rouse (3,187m). Make a camp and stay overnight.

DAY 5

Acclimatization day to Refuge Du Gouter (3,863m)
Trekking for 4 hours to Refuge Du Gouter round trip with rock and ice terrain. We will train for glacier walking and self-rescue on the way there.

DAY 6

Summit Day
Start at 2 am after early breakfast. We will pass Refuge Du Gouter and trek along the icy terrain until the top of Dome Du Gouter (4,304m). After that the terrain change to ice field before finally get to the ridge that will lead us to the summit. Climbing to the summit will take 7 hours while descending takes 5 hours.

DAY 7

Tete Rouse Camp-Chamonix
Descend to Chamonix

DAY 8

Chamonix-Geneva
Back to Geneva and take the flight to another city for city tour. As alternative, we can go to Paris (France) or Milan (Italy) for city tour.

DAY 9

City tour

DAY 10

Fly back home
Fly back home. End of expedition.

PREPARATION

You need to be able to walk with some weight on the pack because there are no porters here. We expecting you can handle this very well. So good physical fitness required.

Training should focus on cardiovascular capability. you can do running two to three times a week for 1-1.5 hour per session. Running on a route that have elevation gain will be a lot better, or use treadmill if there’s no such terrain in your hometown. You can change one of your running sessions in a week with cycling or swimming and especially you need to do also stair climbing with at least 10kg pack and up to 20kg. It will be a good cross training. Besides that, muscle training is advisable. Strengthen your upper and lower body muscle, as well core muscle. You can do it at the gym or do your own set of push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, plank, etc.

In addition, go weekend hiking regularly. It’s highly advisable for you to be able to walk with 20kg pack in a long time. It can be started with 8 km round trip hike with roughly 10kg pack, ascending and descending 600m, in less than 2.5 hours. The aim is to ascend 900m carrying an average pack of 20 kg in 3 hours. To reach it, try to increase the difficulty of your training in some way, either by adding weight to your pack (no more than 10 percent per week) or by completing the hike in a shorter amount of time.

The capability to acclimatized are different for each person. So, building up your fitness even more will not be a waste. Just make sure you don’t injure yourself by overtraining and always have enough rest. Train 6 month before will increase the rate of success. But if you don’t have that much time, train at least 3 months before.

GEAR LIST