10 October – Col du Geant & Aiguilles Marbrees From Rifugio Torino
With no other teams on the mountain and up to thigh deep snow in places to break trail through, it was a wintery early autumn day for our team at Rifugio Torino this morning.
Crossing the Col du Geant en route to the Col Rochefort with the Dent du Geant beyond
The peaks and cliffs are plastered with snow and rime ice and there was enough fresh snow to make trail breaking significant work both crossing the glaciers and hoovering up the ridge on the Aiguilles Marbrees!
Wintery mountaineering conditions in early autumn on the Aiguilles Marbrees
And we had come here as plan B as there was going to be a lot more snow further East on the Monte Rosa! Thanks to our team for their flexible approach and having a big experience in the mountains – training, trail breaking, mountaineering and this is what one of our guests Liam had to say about this trip:
I know it’s been plan b and c and d this week I’ve been here, but wouldn’t change it for the world. Been really different to the original plan, lots of learning and hard snow. Really enjoyed it all! Thank you for all the guiding teams and logistics
Pristine fresh snow – up to thigh deep in places – and a good effort breaking trail from the Torino Hut
We are already taking bookings for next years early autumn mountaineering courses – Mont Blanc training, Lagginhorn, Monte Rosa and Mont Blanc – so please check out the dates and details for those on our mountaineering course planner here.
8-9 October – Rifugio Torino Via Skyway Monte Bianco
Around 60cms of snow was forecast early this week for the high peaks of the Monte Rosa Massif, and there was already plenty of fresh snow prior to this, see our post below. So our Monte Rosa team, the last of the season headed west and up Val d’Aosta instead of East and down it.
Monte Rosa team deplaced to Rifugio Torino – here on the Petit Flambeau
There was less fresh snow and wind at Rifugio Torino than Gnifetti today, so it was a good choice, but it was still pretty wintery and the team did well to make even the very short ascent of the Petit Flambeau.
With better weather today, Wednesday, 9th October they made it round to the Col d’Entreves for an aller retour scramble up the West Ridge to make for a pretty wintery outing with very few other teams about!
The autumn glacier journey from Rifugio Torino to the Col d’Entreves
Team ascent of the Sw Ridge of the Aiguille d’Entreves, snowy conditions 9th Oct 2024
Early October – A Dam Good ‘Rock’ Climb At Emosson – Emossionel
The stunning wall that is the Emosson Dam – a pretty cool place to climb!
With the road up to Emosson still open, the café still open…and the remarkable route on the dam still open – an amazing half days rock climbing can be had climbing Émossionel, F6c right up the middle of the striking dam wall. The curvature of the dam means the first 2 pitches are slabby, the middle pitches goes vertical and beyond and the last 2 are significantly overhanging!
Setting off on the thin and slabby first pitch of Emossionel on the dam wall at Emosson
A key is required to access the base of the route and 25CHFs per person is paid at the café to get this and set off on the half an approach walk / scramble across and then down to the base of the dam. It’s a great compact adventure with some pretty wild exposure on the hanging belays and highly recommended! More photos and info on our dedicated gallery here:
Early October – Arve Valley Rock
The very popular and apparently very good new 7b+ at the recently developed ‘grotte’ at Balme in the Arve Valley
Lots of teams have been gravitating to the newly developed cave crag at Balme in the Arve Valley which has some impressive steep routes with the added bonus of it staying pretty dry even in a downpour. There are a few 6a – 6c+ “warm-ups”, a very good steep and quite juggy 7b+, some silly steep 7bs coming out the back of the cave itself and an apparently brilliant hard 7b+ on the right which is a new ‘must do’ Arve Valley rock route.
Steep and bouldery start to a new addition at Balme, featuring a tufa higher up and reported to be one of the best 7b+ in the Arve Valley!
Early October Lagginhorn Weekend
Magnificent early autumn dawn whilst climbing the Lagginhorn. Tasch / Dom beyond Saas Fee behind. Photo John Crook
Well done to our team who made the most of the last weekend of opening at the lovely base camp of the Weissmies Hut and climbed the Lagginhorn in style in some pretty snowy conditions but stunning light and beautiful cool weather.
Pre-dawn departure from the Weissmies Hut with Saas Fee below and Tasch / Dom beyond
Our teams bobbling headtorches up the West Ridge on the Lagginhorn as dawn arrives over the giants of the Saastal.
The lower section of the West Ridge was rocky but the upper third was well snowy and gave a real alpine flavour to this accessible, yet physical and moderately technical ascent. It’s a great time to be out in the mountains and if you’d like to join the team for this in early October 2025, check out our Lagginhorn course details and get training over the coming year!
Nick on the summit of the Lagginhorn, early October 2024
Early October – Chamonix Mountaineering – Mont Blanc – Monte Rosa
Chris came in early October to do some mountaineering training, classic Chamonix alpine routes and then hopefully climb Mont Blanc. The weather was unsettled but this gave some stunning early autumn snowy conditions like here on the Cosmiques Arete:
Chris mountaineering, training and acclimatising for Mont Blanc on a snowy and stunning Cosmiques Arete
The snowy conditions continued and half a metre of fresh settled on the higher slopes on Mont Blanc – so we went east instead and profited from the slightly better weather in the Monte Rosa Massif and Great base camp at Rifugio Gnifetti. The hut was still open but it was pretty snowy here too!
Chris on the scrambling / fixed rope approach to Rifugio Gnifetti after the 4×4 taxi has been taken from Gressoney
The Rifugio Gnifetti has 200+ beds and whilst it’s a remarkable place, it can also be remarkably busy! Not in early October though and Chris and John had a big adventure climbing some of the 4500m peaks on the Italian side of the range in impressive snowy conditions with nice snow volume on the glaciers already in early autumn.
A big adventure on the very high mountains of the Italian – Swiss Monte Rosa Hut behind Rifugio Gnifetti
If you would like to join our Monte Rosa course for early October 2025 – there are already options to book on to this plus a Mont Blanc training day and Lagginhorn weekend which proceed it to allow for some pre-course training and acclimatisation.
A snowy Rifugio Gnifetti in early October 2024
Late September 2024 – Mont Blanc Ascent
We start our Chamonix mountaineering reports for October…in September! Well, it felt autumnal enough to be autumn, the Gouter Hut was already closed but we still had a wonderful ascent of Mont Blanc via 2 nights at the Refuge Tete Rousse.
Martin at the old Gouter Hut on the way to Mont Blanc summit in late Sept 2024, Photo Kev Avery
The team had already warmed up with a chilly & snowy but stunning and rewarding ascent of the Weissmies.
Dawn on the Weissmies. Lovely early autumn conditions in mid Sept 2024
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Our summer / autumn 2024 alpine mountaineering season is now finished for group courses but we can still arrange private guiding and see our Chamonix Autumn / winter / spring mountaineering page for more details.
We also have a space available on our North Wales Matterhorn training course this weekend, 12-13 October based in Llanberis on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park.
Likewise, the following weekend in Snowdonia we have a few spaces still available for our Mont Blanc training weekend, 19-20 October.
For this coming winter and spring we have lots of inspiring ski touring and ski mountaineering courses available and, for those looking at climbing Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn or Eiger next summer 2025 season, bookings are already well underway, so don’t delay.
Get training, get booking, and get climbing!
Stunning Eiger summit for Max after climbing the Mittellegi Integrale ridge.
