Matterhorn Training & Chamonix High Alpine Rock – Late Aug 2022

This tough Chamonix based Matterhorn training course offers the opportunity to blend some high & middle mountain alpinism with high altitude granite rock climbing over an action packed & inspiring 3 day programme.  This also gives a great build up to an optional extension to Climb the Matterhorn after this course, after a rest day!

The idea is to enjoy 3 good alpine routes whilst simultaneously refining the essential movement skills on different types of terrain including scrambling, rock climbing and mountaineering on snowy & mixed terrain.

Our Plan A schedule features a rocky middle mountain scrambling and big boot rock climbing day followed by a 2 day expedition to the Rifugio Torino, on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Massif.  This provides a perfect base camp for rapidly accessing quality alpine mountaineering & high altitude rock climbing routes.

Please note that we recommend ideally arriving for this course a day or 2 early to allow for some additional pre-course acclimatisation.

The first day of this solid 3 day programme aims to complete a middle mountain rocky mountaineering traverse like the Perrons de Vallorcine for example, starting over on the Swiss side of the Mont Blanc Range.  This is quite a long day, around 7-8 hours but at more modest middle mountain altitudes (around 2500-2700m) and a lighter pack.  There is sustained quality scrambling, big boot rock climbing and a series of abseils on the Perrons so it’s a fine technical and physical day.  Another option is multi pitch big boot rock climbing and scrambling around the Brevent above Chamonix.

After a night in Chamonix we set off for a 2 day expedition at the Rifugio Torino where we aim to combine some great granite rock climbing with a mountaineering refresher and acclimatisation along the way.   Thus on this first day we plan to combine a blend of high altitude warm up with a glacier approach to do some rock climbing and either with an abseil descent or, for example an easier route with a small summit to top out on.

After a night in the hut a dawn start hopefully sees us crunching across the re-frozen snow on the glacier of the upper Vallee Blanche to access one of the brilliant nearby granite rock climbs like Le Roi de Siam for example. The Roi de Siam is a tough & long multi pitch high altitude granite rock climb, with pitches up to 5C+, on the Petit Capucin (3693m), one of the impressive rocky towers above the glaciers of the Vallee Blanche.  The East Ridge of the Pyramide du Tacul has also been climbed on these courses which is a bit easier but also still a long & tough high altitude outing requiring solid rock climbing, abseiling and mountaineering skills.  These are long routes with abseil descents and we don’t always go to the top before returning back down the route via a series of abseils to the glacier, down the Skyway lift and back down to Chamonix.

Please note that this is both a physical and technical course with a higher rock climbing standard than is required for the Matterhorn itself.  We do thus also offer another Matterhorn training course with a lower standard of rock climbing required.

Course Fitness and Experience Pre-Requirements

This course is designed for climbers with some existing good mountaineering & rock climbing experience who want to do some quality routes with a Mountain Guide.  To make the most of this course you should be able to second F6a on rock (c. UK E1) and have some good existing cramponing, abseiling and mountaineering experience. The planned routes offer tough physical and technical challenges.  Folk preparing for climbing these routes should be able to complete 7-9 hour days of sustained mountaineering and climb again the next day. Many of the suggested routes are exacting and exposed alpine challenges and a variety of practiced mountaineering skills are required from neat scrambling, solid rock climbing with a pack and accurate and reliable cramponing skills.

You can book this 3 day training course as part of a full 6 day Matterhorn programme or just as a brilliant 3 day climbing and mountaineering programme in its own right.