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VOC does Europe: Mont Blanc via the Pope Route (and/or some other mountaineering antics?) (Intermediate-Friendly) · Mon. Jul. 1st, 2024 - Sat. Aug. 31st, 2024
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Start: Monday, Jul. 1st
End: Saturday, Aug. 31st
Description:
I'm going to be in Europe for several months starting this summer, and would love to throw together a rope team of VOCers to tackle something usually out of the club's geographical scope - maybe we can bring a little club flag or something!
My main goal would be to climb Mont Blanc as well as some of the other peaks in the Alps ranging from PD to low AD alpine grades. Depending on group experience, I would also be very keen to tackle something big but beginner-friendly such Gran Paradiso (F).
Regarding Mont Blanc, the Pope aka Italian route is the second most popular way to summit the mountain in the summer. It's typically done over two days, coming in at 20 kilometers and over 3200 meters of elevation gain. At the end of the first day, you get to stay at the extreeeeemly bougie (by North American standards) Rifugio Gonella, which features actual beds and blankets and cooked meals!
The route has the advantage of not being the 10km Gouter route on the French side, which attracts a veritable conga line of climbers in the summer. It's rated PD+, with most of the technicality arising from glacier navigation and a section of 45 degree snow climbing. The rest is a lot of hiking on various terrain. Towering at 4800 meters, Mont Blanc is well past the point at which you can start feeling the effects of altitude, so acclimatization over the climb will be key.
For this objective, you should have some experience roping up on a glacier (something like G1 would be great!) as well as walking in crampons and self-arresting with an ice axe. Climbing at high altitude can be much harder than one expects (especially given the massive elevation gain we will be doing), so you should be in excellent fitness condition. Some experience with how you respond breathing thin air would also be helpful! Regarding gear, expect to bring some pretty utilitarian overnight gear (with the exception of a non-emergency sleep system because euro huts 8) ) as well as basic snow and glacier gear.
If you're interested in doing this or anything else in the alps this summer, please get in contact at allen10to11 (at...) gmail [dot] com. I'm also a pretty novice European so if you have any other cool ideas for things to do, let me know! Let me know if you have any questions! I'm leaving the date of this trip ambiguous as my schedule is stilll quite up in the air, and I imagine it'll be easier to coordinate a date and logistics (travel, gear, etc.) once we get some people together.
Route starting from Gonella Hut :)
Posted: 2024-03-27 19:38:17
Last modified: 2024-03-28 17:33:40