Thanks to all of you who sponsored and supported me on the recent trip to climb Mont-Blanc.
Unfortunately, as most of you know by now, the weather closed in on the day we were going to do the climb, so the summit will have to wait for another year. After the training we had done - and the great weather we’d had for most of the week - it’s a frustrating end. However, we had a fantastic week - I can’t wait to go back.
Day 1 - Le Tour, Refuge Albert 1er
The team - Olivier, Jerome, Christophe, Agnes, Octavio our Argentinean guide and I - took the lift up to the top of the Tour and then walked for about 4 hours to Refuge Albert 1er. In the afternoon we practised ice skills including using crampons (like 4×4 for your feet) climbing ice walls with ice axe (piolet) and abseiling (rappel).
Albert 1er (despite sharing the same name as Chamonix’s top hotel, where Adelaide and I spent our wedding night) is the least attractive of all the refuges we stayed in. Plus the whole dormitory sleeping really takes some getting used to. I consider myself a pretty heavy sleeper, but I found it really hard to sleep in a dorm with 18 people - especially when you are meant to go to bed at 8pm in order to get up early. I am definitely taking earplugs next time.
The team: Octavio, Jerome, me, Agnes, Christophe, plus Olivier who took the picture.
Practising Ice skills on the glacier with ice axe and crampons
A typical refuge dormitory: don’t bother trying to sleep.
Day 2 Refuge Cabane du Trient
Whilst we all took plenty of photos, they can never really convey just how beautiful it is up there. It is amazing, like a dream.
Glacier du Tour which we crossed on day 2 on our way toward Cabane du Trient in Switzerland.
Abseiling onto Plateau du Trient - and into Switzerland
Apart from the walking itself - linked by ropes in case someone falls into a crevasse - one of the best things about the week was the actual rock climbing. I have pretty much zero climbing experience, but really enjoyed the challenge.
At the top of La Petite Fourche following our first proper climb
Day 3 - Back to the chalet in Les Houches
We arrived home in the early afternoon for a much needed bath. Peps and Benja came for dinner and put on a massive BBQ for us. This - unfortunately - is where my troubles began. I had a massive meat blowout… and then promptly was really ill. Having not really slept much for the previous two nights, I then spent all night puking. Not great preparation for day 4…
Day 4 - Les cosmiques
So, I got up at 5.30am having had around 3 hours sleep - and possibly not more than 12 in total for the last 4 days. Today was the real technical climbing day: the cable car to L’Aiguille du Midi, a roped walk down the spur, then les cosmiques. This is long-ish relatively tough climb (for a novice) back up to the station.
The rest of the team (but without Agnes, who - having climbed Mont-Blanc before - decided to stay at home) said this was the best experience of the trip: challenging, often vertical rock climbing with crampons.
L’Aiguille du Midi from the air.
As for me, it was a bit like a dream, or rather, a nightmare. You know when you’re so tired that, when you close your eyes just for a second, you start to hallucinate? That was me that day. I hadn’t managed to hold anything down since the previous night and was just completely drained, so perhaps it’s not that surprising that I fell asleep - despite the precariousness of most of the belays - pretty much every time we stopped. I am pretty proud to have got to the top (mind you, once you start there’s not much I guess they can do save winching you off with a helicopter) but looking back at some of the pictures (like below), I am not quite sure how I did it. Certainly I couldn’t have done it without Olivier and Octavio.
Climbing with crampons…and some ugly style
Olivier offers some advice from below.
Asleep - again - on the way to the top of L’Aiguille du Midi.
So, thanks to those two, I made it to the top, which was definitely the highlight: as well as it meaning that I didn’t have to climb any more, you’re viewed like some kind of action hero by the tourists above as you swing onto the viewing platform from the vertical drop beneath. Plus I could lie down and sleep - again.
Day 5: Summit day one
Have you ever seen the film Malabar Princesse? If you haven’t, don’t bother. It’s a ridiculous tale of a child who loses his parents to a ridiculous aeroplane-filled-with-gold-stuck-in-a-high-mountain-glacier climbing tragedy: like the Poseidon Adventure On Ice. Anyway, he returns to live with his Grandfather, who is the train driver of le tramway du mont-blanc, the high-mountain train that the swiss originally wanted to push all the way to the top of MB. Anyway, it all paints a pretty bucolic sun-drenched picture of life in the mountains: pretty much the exact polar opposite of the day we took the train…
Le Tramway du Mont-Blanc: the weather has turned
Our plan that day was to take the train to the “eagles nest” and then walk to Refuge du Gouter. From there, we would have made our ascent that morning, leaving in lamplight at around 2am to allow us to make the journey to the summit and back - a 12 hour round trip. However, having feared the worst on the train, after just a couple of hours of walking, the weather really started to deteriorate.
Climbing to Tete Rousse - visibility is next to nothing, and we hear it’s snowing above
I shot this video just after Octavio had made us turn back toward Tete Rousse. As you can see, the weather really closed in on us: you can hear thunder in the background, and the hail and snow really started coming down hard.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksdn1JW_4EE
This is the moment when I guess we realised we weren’t going to be able to summit. I am talking in French, basically explaining the risk of being on top of a mountain with crampons and an ice axe in a storm, and expressing the hope that the weather would improve. It didn’t.
Having skirted past Tete Rousse on our way up, we returned there to spend the night. Whilst it was I think the nicest refuge we stayed in - and I learnt to play Tarot (which I love) - it was pretty frustrating to be here. As we played cards and watched the snow continue to fall, I guess we all knew that we weren’t going to make it.
Le Refuge du Tete Rousse
However, we went to bed early, and the team spent several sleepless hours hoping that the weather would break and that we could make the ascent. Despite waking at 2am and 4am to assess the situation, our guides decided that - with the snowfall - the risk of avalanche was just hign, making an ascent too dangerous.
Day 6: Back down the mountain
I shot this on the way down, pretty frustrated that we hadn’t even had the chance to properly try. But now a week or so has passed, I know there was no other choice.
Looking on the positive side, it was an amazing experience and - perhaps when I return - it will be with some of you., my family and friends. Being up there is the kind of transcendental experience that I recommend everyone share with someone they love. Also, thanks to your sponsorship we raised over �300 to http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/
Our guide Octavio and me. Octavio was brilliant - if you’re going to Mont-Blanc, I would highly recommend his services. Plus, when we went we could share the pain of an early world cup exit - he’s Argentinean (You can contact him on Guia.defazio@ifrance.com )
POST SCRIPT
So now a couple of weeks have passed. Amazing news - and sad news - to report.
When you’re up there - feeling pretty indestructible - it’s easy to forget how dangerous and unpredictable the mountain environment can be. We were shocked and of course saddened to hear that a Welsh guy who had moved to Chamonix to be a guide had been killed on the mountain the day we climbed to Tete Rouse.
I was delighted last weekend though to get a text message from Olivier, Jerome and Octavio who had returned to Mont-Blanc: and made it to the top. Obviously I was disappointed not to make it with my father in law Olivier, with whom we’d planned the trip. But absolutely delighted that he has done it. Christophe and I plan to return next year.
Olivier, Jerome and Octavio make it to the top
Olivier flies the Carve Consulting ‘flag’ at the summit
Since we rarely / never practice what we preach when it comes to telling the, ahem, “Carve story“, we thought we’d break with tradition with a quick snap from our Christmas party on Friday, held in soho’s Floridita, which is where Mezzo used to be. So it was Mojitos all round, followed by dinner and lots and lots of.. shouting. Clearly being unable to hear a word anyone says is a major draw for a fair proportion of the Friday-soir clientele.
