I want to do the Italian normal route on MB in late July and want to acclimatize with a PD or easy AD climb a day or two before. A relatively short rock, ice or mixed route from the Italian side would be ideal. Any suggestions?

MichaelJ wrote:I want to do the Italian normal route on MB in late July and want to acclimatize with a PD or easy AD climb a day or two before. A relatively short rock, ice or mixed route from the Italian side would be ideal. Any suggestions?

There are several interesting alternatives on the Italian side - I give you just these

1) Aiguille Des Trelatete via the Pt. Mt. Blanc (sleeping at the Giovane Montagna Biv. Hut). This one is quite long, but excellent in terms of acclimatization and "getting into the character", so to speak.

2) Mt. Dolent normal route (sleeping at the Cesare Fiorio bivy hut). Straightforward and not difficult at all

3) Pt. Innominata normal route (sleeping at the Monzino hut). This is a bit more difficult than the others PD+/AD-), outstanding panorama, not too long, should be perfect


Remember that to acclimatize properly you should do also a "low" 4000 (Gran Paradiso, Breithorn, MB De Tacul).

Hope this has been of help

I climbed Gran Paradiso before Mont Blanc the last year and it was a good acclimatization.

Hi Rafa

Im doing the reverse, i climbed Mont blanc last year and in June this year im climbing Gran Paradiso.

Anything i should be aware of on the normal route or about the Refuge on the way upto the Paradiso.

I agree,I was also getting aclimatized on Gran Pradiso before climbing Mont Blanc.
It takes 2 days via normal route from Pont and despite the fact it's not the most interesting route it's worth to climb.
Regards
jck

I'm going to be in the Chamonix area with a couple of mates in mid-June and fancied a trip up Petit Mont Blanc. I can see on here that it seems a fairly easy trek/climb up a snow ridge which should take a couple of hours up and down. Does anyone know how long a walk it is from the nearest car parking to the Rainetto Hut (is this same one as Giovane Montane?). Basically I need to know can I do the whole trip in a day.

Cheers

dtmbass wrote:I'm going to be in the Chamonix area with a couple of mates in mid-June and fancied a trip up Petit Mont Blanc. I can see on here that it seems a fairly easy trek/climb up a snow ridge which should take a couple of hours up and down. Does anyone know how long a walk it is from the nearest car parking to the Rainetto Hut (is this same one as Giovane Montane?). Basically I need to know can I do the whole trip in a day.

It's a long day
Apart from main season private cars are allowed up to cantina visaille at about 1600m. Road continues to lac de Miage (~2000m), than a path is signposted. From ~2400m onwards I expect the whole thing will be snow-covered; short parts may be quite steep. The Bivacco Rainetto aka Montane is a little red CAI-box sleeping nine people. From there on it is a piece of cake, snow with 30 degrees maximum and finally perhaps ten or twenty meters on easy rock. As long there is no deep, soft snow (!) I would suggest 5-6 hours from the parking. Very nice view at the impressive SE-flank of Montblanc!

Martin