2007 Mt. Blanc

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Aug 11, 2007
Activities Activities: Mountaineering
Seasons Season: Summer

Mt. Blanc by way of Gouter Route

 
2007 Mt. Blanc
 
After three days of waiting for good weather, one night in Chamonix and one night in Nice, we returned back to Chamonix. We took the tram to Auquille du Middi to acclimatize at an elevation over 2,000 m. The next day, August 11, 2007, my friend Tomas lead us along the Aiquille du Gouter (3865m), Dôme du Gouter (4304m) route through a foot of fresh snow to Mt. Blanc (4808m).
In the photo on the left: Johanka Dobransky, Tomas Dobransky, me, my husband Jiri and our Czech friend Bohumil Valenta.

Our trip started very easy, since we took a tram to Nido de Aguila (2372m) on a cloudy to overcast day. We dressed up warmly. At the beginning of our hike no one knew, how far we would be able to continue, since clouds were covering the sky. When we got approximately 2 km in the trail the sun begun to shine through the clouds so we took of our jackets, and since we had nice warm weather we soon even removed our fleeces, for a while.
Except for one avalanche, which created an incredible noise just behind us, ascending to Refugio de Gouter (3167m) was pretty safe.
The Refugio de Gouter was packed. There wasn't room to sit down even for a while.
The evening was relaxing at Refugio de Gouter and we could purchased tasty dinner, coffee and tea. Unfortunately we got only about 40 minutes sleep on the tables and floor since some noisy mountaineers were talking and drinking till 2:00 am.
We got up at 3:30 am and after quick breakfast we began our hike. We had one stop at Refuge Vallot, where I fell a sleep for approximately 20 minutes and with a small snack, like a cup of peaches and a hot tea, I regained lots of energy.

 
Mt. Blanc
 
 
Mt. Blanc
 
Beside the breath taking view from the summit of Mt. Blanc in beautiful weather, we enjoyed the ridges with the sun shining to the fresh snow.

Since there had been stormy weather for a while, climbers had piled up in Chamonix and this route became very crowded, especially on the way back, though we had experienced a nice sunny day again.













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