Death Defying Expedition

Well after reading the book "The Seven Summits" I had toyed with the idea of climbing some mountain somewhere, this coupled with the fact that I  had just turned forty meant that I desperately needed some macho adventure to prove my youth. The opportunity to do both things presented itself late this summer. In a casual conversation with a friend, he mentioned that he was going to climb Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc 4807m). I immediately jumped in with the suggestion that I would love to do it with him. He told me that unfortunately the climb was full but he would put me in touch with Martin the "expedition" leader for future reference. I spoke to Martin and two days later he called me to say that due to cancellations there were two spaces available on the climb. Now came what was probably the most dangerous part of the whole trip, asking Cindy to release me from my promise to spend a week in August with her and the kids to go on my personal ego trip. Fortunately she said OK and I was on for climbing the highest mountain in the Alps.

The plan called for a three day "acclimatization" climb of Monte Rosa (the highest Mountain in Italy) followed by  one rest day and then on to a two day ascent of Mont Blanc. Prior to the departure I did some research and discovered two scary statistics relative to my planned trip. The first was that more people die on Mont Blanc every year than die in the Alaskan Rockies every ten years, the second was that 50% of the people who try the climb never make it, either due to fatigue, injury or bad weather.

From the start my adventure was blessed. Weeks of bad weather lifted and  we started our adventure from Alagna Val Sesia 1180m at the foot of Monte Rosa on a beautiful sunny day. The first days climb took us from the village over the Colle D'Olen to the rifugio "Cittą di Vigevano" at 2871m. A climb of almost 1700m. It was a tough long day but the reward at the end was a fabulous view and a great meal. The next day we left for our next goal, the Rifugio Cittą di Mantova at 3498m. This rifugio is at the base of the Lys Glacier, one of the many Glaciers on Monte Rosa and was to be our starting point for one of the many 4000m plus peaks present on the Monte Rosa complex.

A late start (in mountaineering terms - 6am) the next morning we left with no particular objective in mind. Climbing the Lys Glacier for about 2hrs we reached the Colle de Lys. With my nose bleeding and my head spinning the team decided to pity me and try for one of the "lesser" peaks which now surrounded us. Turning to our right we started the suggestive climb along a narrow ridge to the top of Ludwigshohe 4341m. The thrill of my first 4000m peak and the stunning views made me forget my blood nose, my spinning head and my aching feet. From the peak we decide to tackle two other 4000+ peaks on our way home. First we climbed the challenging (for me anyway) Corno Nero 4322m - ice picks and crampons the order of the day on the very steep yet thankfully short face . Just to bag another four thousander we popped up the Balmenhorn 4167m on our way home. 

In one day I had gone from zero alpine experience to bagging three four thousanders - I felt (excuse the pun) on top of the world.............

After a rest day we met in Courmayeur for our next challenge. With our experience guides from Tika Saab, Andrea, Gianni and Carlo we traveled up the Cable Car to Punto Helbronner. There the seven of us plus our guides departed, not even bothering to don  our crampons, for the "easy" walk across the Valley Blanche Glacier to the Des Cosmiques hut. On the way we climbed a small peak to practice with our crampons and by 3pm we were at the hut. The mountain huts are very very rustic, no showers, bunk beds that sleep 20 people, rooms with up to a 100 people - but no one seems to mind and after a hard days hiking the food tastes great and you are happy just to have somewhere to lie down for a while. And lie down for a while is all you do, because we were up at 1am the next morning for a hearty breakfast and an hour later with lights on our heads, crampons on our feet and ice axe in hand we headed across he Glacier to start our climb with the ascent of Mont Blanc du Tacul. The route we were taking to the summit is known as the three Mont Blancs route. Going over the shoulders of the Mont Blanc du Tacul (4248m) and Mont Maudit(4465m) before reaching Mont Blanc. The route is rated PD+ (Peu Difficile - French for a little hard) but don't let the rating fool you - it is no surprise so many people die on Mont Blanc every year - the route was the hardest, scariest thing I had ever done, and I have always considered myself rather brave. Anyway back to our expedition, we had at this stage already "lost" one member of our party. Suffering headaches and perhaps a lack of confidence in her preparation one of the two ladies in our group pulled out before we started the second day. The first part of the climb was a steep slog up a 600m flank of Mont Blanc du Tacul. At the top, sensing that my climbing buddy was not going to make it to the top of Mont Blanc I asked the guides if I could change ropes. It proved to be a wise decision as my buddy was to be the second "partial" casualty. I say partial because he did summit Mont Blanc du Tacul before returning. 

The climb to the is made even tougher by the ups and downs. 1700m of climbing, 90% of which are over 4000m are required to cover the 1200m of height difference between the Cosmiques hut and the summit of Mont Blanc. After skirting the shoulder of the Tacul we hit the first of two very tricky sections - climbing over a crevice through a gap in an ice wall and then doing two sections of very steep ice face. For a person who had never used an ice axe or crampons until two days before I was now relying on them for my life. A slip in either instance would have meant a fall of several hundred meters and certain death for me and the four suckers tied to me. Fortunately it was still dark while we were doing all of this and I had no idea how bad it was until the return trip. Once past the two obstacles we rounded Mont Maudit in the weak dawn light surrounded by mist. As we trudged along the mist lifted and there was Mont Blanc. From here it was just a hard slog. My heart pounding, my lungs screaming for air we trudged 50 or a 100 paces at a time, stopping to rest, looking up at the summit which never seemed to get any closer. Having come this far though, nothing was going to stop us and at 9:30, seven and half hours after we started, we hit the summit. Exhausted, cold and surround by cloud we could hardly exalt at our fantastic achievement - we were on top of the world (or at least Europe) - Mont Blanc (4807m). A few minutes rest and the Gods smiled on us again - the cloud lifted and spread around us were the most beautiful views you could imagine. We had done it! All I needed to do now was survive the descent so I could tell everyone about it.

Going down was tough - I did another couple of first, rappelling down the ice face we had climbed in the dark and falling into a crevasse (something which my two climbing buddies also experienced) - fortunately I was roped to a fixed point at the time. The walk still had one last cruel blow in store for us - having descended back into the Valley Blanche we had to climb 200m back up to the Aiguille du Midi to catch the cable car back to Punto Hellbronner. Well after 13hours on the road those 200m were sheer torture. The French thinking they are such macho fellows have made the access to the Aiguille du Midi really dangerous. Walking uphill along a snow and ice covered ridge half a meter wide with a several thousand meter drop on one side and several hundred meters  into a crevasse on the other was no fun and I am not embarrassed to admit I did most of it close to being on my hands and knees. Finally we were finished walking, it was 4pm, 14 hours had passed since we had left the Cosmiques hut. A spectacular cable car ride across the Valley Blanche and we were on our way back to Courmayeur, exhausted but filled with a fantastic sense of achievement.