19 June 2024, Great Conditions – But Poor Weather On Both Gran Paradiso & Mont Blanc…
Thanks to this weeks Climb Gran Paradiso & Mont Blanc course team for their great efforts and team spirit. They arrived fit and ready to climb – and climb – and train – they did. But despite the highly impressive snow volume and generally fantastic early summer snow conditions, the weather did not join the party for either climb.
Maz, Matt, Tim, Patch & Mark enjoying the mountain team vibe despite the poor weather on Gran Paradiso…
On Gran Paradiso, overnight rain at the hut just turned in to morning snow as the start of the glacier was encountered and the team turned around in further deteriorating conditions.
Maz, Patch & Mark enjoying the high mountain ambiance despite the windy weather on Mont Blanc / Dome du Gouter
On Mont Blanc, the team were going well but the wind had other ideas and a retreat was made to the Gouter Hut from the summit of the Dome du Gouter. Still a 4300m peak climbed and lots of adventure and training in the mountains enjoyed plus the technical descent from Gouter – and a magnificent bum slide below Tete Rousse in the softened snow after a break at the hut on the way down.
The long, but beautiful early summer approach to the Tete Rousse Hut on Mont Blanc
The advantage of the Nid d’Aigle stop on the Tramway du Mont Blanc being closed is that the lovely, but long, walk out via the lower Bionassay meadows can be made. An inspiring start and fitting end to this Mont Blanc expedition and our early season chapter on Mont Blanc.
Superb early summer snow volume on The Lagginhorn normal route
Spaces are still available to climb Mont Blanc with us in Sept or Oct 2024 and dates are already available for June 2025.
We also have 2 spaces available for our action packed Swiss Alpine Mountaineering weekend, 6-7 July, Climb The Lagginhorn. Great early summer conditions prevail at the moment as per the screen shot of the route above.
10 June 2024
The weather just wasn’t good enough for an attempt on Mont Blanc for our teams in Chamonix at the moment but they managed some good alternative mountaineering from the Aiguille du Midi with a traverse of the Arete Laurence, café at the Cosmiques Hut and a return up the snow ridge to the Aiguille du Midi.
Ascending the final snow ridge back to the Aiguille du Midi. Often considered just ‘the way in or out’ from the Midi, but this is a fine mountaineering outing in it’s own right! Photo Dylan Taylor
Conditions remain good and snowy on the Gran Paradiso with teams still climbing the North Face. Snowy conditions prevail across most of the northern Alps with the potential for some classic ‘old school’ summer alpine routes featuring snow and even ice routes in places like on the Tour Ronde.
On the fun mountaineering traverse of the Arete Laurence – en route to the Cosmiques Hut – with Mont Blanc du Tacul – and it’s famous Triangle – behind on the left. Photo Dylan Taylor
Our teams have also been enjoying the fine scenic Via Ferratta ‘Evettes’ at Flegere and the rock climbing in Chamonix.
Snowy conditions on the Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger with the North Face on the right and South Face on the left. Taken from the hut webcam 10/6/24
It’s looking pretty snow on the famous peaks of the Swiss Valais also at the moment with screen shots from today on the webcams for the Eiger and Matterhorn.
Very snowy looking conditions on the north face of the Matterhorn, right, East Face on the left and Hornli ridge heading up between them in to the cloud.
7 June 2024
Morten, Richard, Tom & Toby on the summit of Gran Paradiso. Photo Dylan Taylor
The theme of impressively high snow volume continues and well done to both our teams who climbed Gran Paradiso this morning from the Chabod Hut. The snow got a little soft on the way down, making for slightly slow going, even in the tracks at times towards the end of the descent – but the Lemon soda and pasta at Chabod base camp made up for this and the good conditions were appreciated. Well done to Chris who came last year and struggled a little with the altitude and physicality of the mountaineering – but this season having trained well and come out a few days early to help with acclimatisation – he’s flying.
Phil & Chris on the summit of Gran Paradiso after a snowy ascent from Rifugio Chabod
The exposed but brilliant ridge providing the descent of the Gran Paradiso summit ridge
5 June 2024
Our early summer Climb Mont Blanc season has got off to a flying start with several teams all sumitting in good style in early June having done our late May Mont Blanc training course. Our guides reported impressively snowy glaciers and slopes and overall some of the best conditions they have ever experienced on Mont Blanc!
An early June dawn arrives just above the Gouter Hut with good snow cover on the glacier above.
There is an update on our first ascent of the season on our dedicated Climb Mont Blanc conditions page here.
The snowy early season route up to Tete Rousse near the glacier – taken instead of the steeper summer paths up the rocky ridge
We had another team reach the summit on Monday with Kat, Tom and Gav climbing from Tete Rousse, across a very snowy Grand Couloir and rapidly up to the Gouter Hut on quite steep and exposed terrain but swift climbing conditions.
Superb snow cover on the glacier between the Gouter Hut and the Dome du Gouter with the Aiguille du Bionassay behind
Likewise, the glacier above the Gouter Hut is very well filled in and had a good track, all the way to the Vallot and up the Bosses Ridge.
Kat, Tom & Gave on the ascent of Mont Blanc
There is a short icy section on the Bosses Ridge, but it’s not very tricky and has some in-situ gear and opportunities to belay at the top.
10-15m icy section on the Bosses Ridge with a few teams queing here on the descent and several teams still with skis.
But generally the track has been pretty good and snow volume is impressive giving some really enjoyable early summer climbing conditions.
Descending towards the Vallot Hut after the aller retour up the Bosses Arete to Mont Blanc. Dome du Gouter beyond.
Similarly impressive conditions have been reported from Gran Paradiso where lots of teams have been climbing both the routes from the Chabod & Vittorio Emanuelle as well as the north face which was reportedly in very good snowy conditions albeit with ice available in places for anchors.
Very impressive early summer snow volume on the glaciers above Rifugio Chabod and below the Gran Paradiso. From the webcam at Chabod
Our Climb Mont Blanc & training teams have mainly been climbing from the Skyway & Midi lifts, staying at the Torino and Cosmiques Huts and also enjoying the high snow volume at high altitude with some of the classic ridges giving a very different feel to the largely rocky ambiance now normally encountered in mid to late summer.
Climbing the East Face of The Aiguille du Toule before descending the West Face.
Phil, Chris and Neil enjoyed the great conditions and weather for the traverse of the Aiguille du Toule from the Skyway today and all the classic easier ridges around this area like the Marbrees, Entreves and Petit Flambeau have all been climbed as well as some teams heading up to do the Dent du Geant. The Tour Ronde has also been in good condition with the ascents of the old fashioned normal route and even the Rebuffat ice couloir between the North Face and The Gervasutti Couloir.
Summit of the Aiguille du Toule with the south face of Monte Bianco on the right and the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey on the left.
Likewise on the Aiguille du Midi side of the Vallée Blanche we have had teams climbing the classic Cosmiques Arete and Arete Laurence in great early summer snowy conditions. Teams have also been climbing the Chere Couloir, Voie Normale on Mont Blanc du Tacul and, in the short periods of good weather between recent storms, the 3 Monts Route up Mont Blanc.
Patagonia…or the Cosmiques Arete! Snowy early summer conditions as part of our Mont Blanc training & acclimatisation programme.
Stay tuned for more updates over the next couple of weeks as we have various teams aiming to Climb Mont Blanc, Gran Paradiso as well as some Swiss Alpine Mountaineering and Chamonix Rock Climbing.
Gav, Jin, Kat, Tom & Martyn – Good Mont Blanc Training in ‘bad’ weather.
Our Climb Mont Blanc courses often book out 9-12 months in advance – and the dates for June 2025 are out now, so please check our Climb Mont Blanc page for more details and also get in touch to join one or more of our Mont Blanc training weekends this autumn, winter and spring in Snowdonia and both the East and West Scottish Highlands.
We also still have a couple of places available on our Climb The Lagginhorn courses in both early July and early October.
- 6-7 July, Climb The Lagginhorn, 2 places still available
- 10-14 Sept, Climb The Dufourspitze, 3 places still available
Plus we also have spaces available on our early autumn courses including Climb The Lagginhorn and Monte Rosa Mountaineer in early October. Check our open courses page for the latest availability on all our group courses for this coming summer and autumn seasons in the Alps.
The return to Rifugio Torino after the traverse of the Aiguille du Toule