quote="ICanMakeIt"] Charles. I would love to hire a guide, but cannot find one that offers 2 or 3 days of service (the least amount of days from a guide I have found is 5 days). /quote]

I think it would be possible to hire a guide for a 2 days MB climb. Send a question to the Tourist office of Les Houches. When I came there in July I was helped by a very helpful young guy (he was Swedish and I think his name was Frank.) He arranged me a reservation at the Goûter hut. I'm sure the Tourist Office can recommend you some local guides. Here's the contact info:
Vallée de Chamonix Mont-Blanc Haute-Savoie
74310 LES-HOUCHES
Phone: 04 50 55 50 62
Fax: 04 50 55 53 16
Email: info@leshouches.com
Webpage: www.leshouches.com

Bon chance!![/quote]

ICanMakeIt wrote:

charles wrote:I would echo what other people have already written. Although relatively straight forward, or at least I found it so, the route you want to do has it´s moments, is non the less quite long and is high. You seem to be going to put yourself under a fair stress with the whistle stop plan.

How fit are you? You´ll need to be fit. If you´re fitness plan will comprise walking up and down the train from Paris to Cham, you might be really blowing on the way up.

If you really want to give it a go, have you thought of hiring a guide?

Charles. I would love to hire a guide, but cannot find one that offers 2 or 3 days of service (the least amount of days from a guide I have found is 5 days). And I would love to spend more time in the Alps than 2 or 3 days, but I just do not have the time. It sounds like my hope of climbing while in Europe simply would not work, or if it did- it would have worked merely because of good luck/weather, so I may just have to wait until later in life and hope I make it back to Europe someday. Thanks for the response!

At the end it´s up to you. If the weather´s good and stable, you feel confident and fit..what the hell then give it a try! You might be able to latch on to another rope up there at the hut, or even find someone who is also solo. Just be careful and talk to people there, you can get good info from the hut wardens for example.
The only thing is that you are inexperienced and even if you went up something else, you often have to cross glaciers, alone, even for an experienced climber, that can be very dangerous.
Mont Blanc will still be there long after we´re all gone... you´ve plenty of time

ICanMakeIt wrote:the way I see it, one or two days in the area is better than none.

That's absolutely right!
I don't propose not to go there, but if you are new to the area, take the trip to the other side of the valley (the Brevent side) and - if you are lucky with the weather window at all - savor the magnificent view over to MB and the needles of Cham by doing a pano day hike up there - and you will be mentally prepared for later visits and climbs on the MB side.

Cheers
Reinhard

Sounds like a great project. One piece of advice: don't arrive & plan to climb Mt Blanc right away without proper acclimatization. Spend at least two nights at altitude (with descents to the lower altitudes in between) is the minimum; otherwise you will most likely get headaches or other symptoms of altitude sickness. Believe me, I went through it a few years back while climbing Mt Blanc (read my trip report on SP).

Lots of luck in your plans.

JanG

As I have mentioned in a few threads on this site already, if you get the weather next July that we got in 07, you'll be lucky to get in much climbing anywhere near Chamonix.

I spent 1 week at the start of July in the area, and our planned Mt Blanc climb, viaTacul and Maudit, was called off even before we landed in Geneva. This was because of the avalance conditions on Tacul that had killed 2 people just a few days before.

We managed to get a few climbs in, nearly killed ourselves in the process (through bad luck not bad management).

I'd go there with an open mind about what to climb (there are 100's of great routes out there) and if you get Mt Blanc in the process, well done!

AndrewSmyth wrote:As I have mentioned in a few threads on this site already, if you get the weather next July that we got in 07, you'll be lucky to get in much climbing anywhere near Chamonix.

I spent 1 week at the start of July in the area, and our planned Mt Blanc climb, viaTacul and Maudit, was called off even before we landed in Geneva. This was because of the avalance conditions on Tacul that had killed 2 people just a few days before.

We managed to get a few climbs in, nearly killed ourselves in the process (through bad luck not bad management).

I'd go there with an open mind about what to climb (there are 100's of great routes out there) and if you get Mt Blanc in the process, well done!

Weather, buggers up the best layed plans!

I'm reviving an old topic, since this might be a relevant question for many newbies, as it was for me when I did Mont Blanc last May.

As the original poster, I had very limited time - I got to Chamonix just in time to rent my shoes Sunday evening, and met up with my guide early monday morning. We then used half a day learning crampon-technique, glacier-travel and crevasse-rescue(yes, very limited, but at least some basic principles where discussed) and then we climbed the Cosmiques-ridge later that day vefore once again descending from the L'Aguille du Midi to spend the night at the Cosmiques hut.

After an early start, 1h30, we found ourselves at the summit approx 6hrs later, after traversing Mont Blanc de Tacul and Mont Maudit, by whats known as the Trois Monts-route. We went back down the same route, and gathered a substansial number of vertical meters that day, but took the cable car down at around 15h00.

I was back on my train to Paris at 16h45, and arrived there 6 hrs later, having spent less than 40hrs in Chamonix.

Yes, in the aftermath I can very well see it was ambitious, but my plan going there wasn't to summit Mont Blanc at all. I only asked my guide if he was willing to try it (if conditions allowed) late the first day. I had reserved him for 2 days anyway, so I guess he didn't mind and he was well equipped.

The point I'm trying to make, is that if the weather allows you, it might be very well possible to make such a speed ascent, even for a newbie. In that sense you shouldn't just shrugg off the original posters desire to do so. (Then again, I have seen far worse answers than in this thread, but for someone new to the forum, some might seem a bit harsh at first glance).

Not to mention I did this in early May, when almost everybody is skiing the mountain and "it is not recomended" to do it by feet. And yeah, I had never put crampons on before either. So I would say it's very much doable in a short time-frame.

On the other hand, being a bit more experienced now than before this venture, I would most def use more time the next time. Acclimatize more and profit from that to enjoy the climb more than last time. It was waaay hard and way strenuous, but putting yourself into hard situations like that make you more experienced.

Anyway..

Alex.

axelandr wrote:I'm reviving an old topic, since this might be a relevant question for many newbies, as it was for me when I did Mont Blanc last May.

As the original poster, I had very limited time - I got to Chamonix just in time to rent my shoes Sunday evening, and met up with my guide early monday morning. We then used half a day learning crampon-technique, glacier-travel and crevasse-rescue(yes, very limited, but at least some basic principles where discussed) and then we climbed the Cosmiques-ridge later that day vefore once again descending from the L'Aguille du Midi to spend the night at the Cosmiques hut.

After an early start, 1h30, we found ourselves at the summit approx 6hrs later, after traversing Mont Blanc de Tacul and Mont Maudit, by whats known as the Trois Monts-route. We went back down the same route, and gathered a substansial number of vertical meters that day, but took the cable car down at around 15h00.

I was back on my train to Paris at 16h45, and arrived there 6 hrs later, having spent less than 40hrs in Chamonix.

Yes, in the aftermath I can very well see it was ambitious, but my plan going there wasn't to summit Mont Blanc at all. I only asked my guide if he was willing to try it (if conditions allowed) late the first day. I had reserved him for 2 days anyway, so I guess he didn't mind and he was well equipped.

The point I'm trying to make, is that if the weather allows you, it might be very well possible to make such a speed ascent, even for a newbie. In that sense you shouldn't just shrugg off the original posters desire to do so. (Then again, I have seen far worse answers than in this thread, but for someone new to the forum, some might seem a bit harsh at first glance).

Not to mention I did this in early May, when almost everybody is skiing the mountain and "it is not recomended" to do it by feet. And yeah, I had never put crampons on before either. So I would say it's very much doable in a short time-frame.

On the other hand, being a bit more experienced now than before this venture, I would most def use more time the next time. Acclimatize more and profit from that to enjoy the climb more than last time. It was waaay hard and way strenuous, but putting yourself into hard situations like that make you more experienced.

Anyway..

Alex.

Points taken! And well done!
Charles