A month had passed since Climbing Italy’s highest peak Gran Paradiso and I was getting bored with local cragging and wanted to do something BIG, Looking up I could see the biggest mountain in western Europe, Mont Blanc and though I should give it a go.

After speaking to a few friends who are experienced climbers and getting the general idea that the Gouter route was a straight forward scramble followed by a long snow walk I wanted to go it alone.

Having a few days off work and a great weather window I headed to Les Houches’ Bellvue cable car at 8am to start the climb. Getting the first lift up I started the long walk to the Gouter ridge scramble which goes past the Tete Rouse hut.

Chamonix looks very small from up here. Crossing the Grand Couloir on the ridge can be quite dangerous as there is often a lot of rock fall, I didn’t see any but I must have been lucky. I was straight across and carried on up the scramble to the refuge on the ridge.

Looking back down the ridge makes you feel very high and exposed. There are some wires in place to hold on to but it is an easy scramble and good fun.

At the top of the ridge you get to the snow line and the Gouter hut, I didn’t stay in the hut but bivied near it on the ridge, It is quite expensive to stay so I decided to just have food there so I could climb a little lighter. Food was still not cheap with 1l of water costing €5 and soup €7. It was however very filling and gave me the strength to make the summit!

I slept to the left of the new refuge with the other cheap skates in this shallow grave that someone who climbed a day before had left me!

It was cloudy in the evening and I thought I would have to head back down when I woke, but instead I woke up to the clearest sky I had ever seen and committed to bagging the summit.

Leaving the bivi at 1am with the hopes of being the first on the summit, I made good progress towards the Vallot hut at 4,350m and reached it at about 3:30am.

Chamonix twinkling away miles below just before I reached the Vallot hut. I climbed into it and slept for an hour because at this rate I would be on the summit way too early at about 4:30am! Leaving the hut again at 4:30am I carried on towards the summit. Not seeing anyone ahead was pleasing but also daunting knowing that if I slipped off the Bosses Ridge no one would see me go! I could just make out head torches below me heading up the Dome du Gouter and by now some leaving from near the Cosmiques refuge.

I had made it! Summit at 5:30am after some very slow climbing towards the top. It was freezing and very windy! I had my spare pair of socks over my gloves and didn’t want to take them off. I waited until I saw the first person on top with me and asked him to take a photo as I didn’t have the strength to work self timer, this was a good 15 minutes after I got there! The sun was coming up over the Alps but the flash still came on!

There was something very special about being on the roof of Europe alone at sunrise, It was by far the single biggest achievement of my life, way above my degree! The excitement was short lived as I knew what came next… The descent!

Coming back down from the summit early has its downsides, you meet all the people climbing up! I had to step off the main track countless amounts of times and some of the places I did it was not very safe, especially when you are not roped to anyone.

Just above the Vallot hut on my return I snapped this pic of sunrise. it really captures Alpine climbing and early mornings up high!

This warming sunshine kept me going back down to the Gouter to pack up my bivi and head back down to town.

The rock scramble down was fine but when I started walking the trails my feet really started to hurt and by the time I reached the Nid D’aiguille I was walking bare foot and swearing alot! Finally made it back to the lift and was down to town by midday, Very exhausted, craving a beer and overwhelmed with satisfaction that I had climbed Mont Blanc, and climbed it alone!

Keen to bag another Alpine summit I headed with a few friends to Italy to climb its highest mountain, Gran Paradiso. At 4,061m it would also be my first time above 4000m and a great start to my high altitude climbing career.

Going from Chamonix throught the Mont-Blanc tunnel we were straight into Italy and heading down the Autoroute towards Aosta. Turning up the Valsavarenche valley towards Pont we then arrived at the car park just below 2000m.

Keen and ready to go, Me, Iris, Gregor, Owen and Jo.

You head up the river on its left bank then follow signs for the Emmanuel refugio. This valley is beautiful and the path going up gives you great views of the surrounding mountains.

Gregor treking his way up to the refugio.

The refuge we were staying in was amazing, right next to a lake with a great view. The food was good and the beds were comfy.

Leaving the refugio at about 4:30am for the summit the going was quite fast, we were up to the snow line and had our crampons on within the hour and then began the plod. Straight away we were given fantastic views of the south side of the Mont Blanc massive.

There was a really good track leading all the way up the glacier and we kept a steady pace for the first half of the snow climb to about 3,600m.

Gregor again with a small que forming behind! The motivational talks began here!

Not far now Gregor, For a chain smoker with no acclimatisation he carried on going all the way up with no real complaints!

Summit pose! We were actually about 5m below the summit but with the amount of people scrambling about up there and the consequences of a fall being fatal, we decided this was high enough! After a few minutes at the summit we began the long 2000m+ descent back to the car and a well deserved beer!

Glad to have done my first 4000er and climbed a countries highest mountain, next stop Mont Blanc!

With summer in full swing and being very keen to start some alpine climbs I meet up with James Clapham and his friend Jason to take on my first peak, Aiguille du Tour at 3,540m.

To get to the start of the route you arrive at Le Tour and head up to the left of the Le Tour glacier up the obvious path. This leads to the Albert Premier hut which you can stay in for a price. We opted to bivi just above the hut at about 2,800m near a small rock ridge.

It was a pretty sheltered spot but it did start to rain in the night and I woke up soaking wet and freezing cold at about 3am keen to get moving!

Setting off under head light at about 4:30am we plodded up the glacier to the start of the climb. Instead of climbing the classic summit route we opted to climb the Table couloir which is a grade or so higher and includes climbing up a 45-50′ couloir with a rock band in the middle and then traversing the ridge to the summit.

The route is shown in red.

Climbing this hard snow with one axe for my first time was very daunting and I was very nervous, especially during the rock band in the middle of the couloir.

James placed a few bits of gear in the rock band as there was a couple of tricky moves. We passed this fine and carried on up the couloir. At the top you head right towards the summit, traversing the ridge on both sides on rock and snow until you reach the summit.

For my first time walking in crampons and high altitude climbing there were some ropey moments, like walking across this exposed ridge!

Arriving at the summit at about 7:30/8 we just beat the crowds that had climbed the classic route.

Classic summit pose, Pleased to have completed my first alpine route.

The descent followed the traditional route down the swiss side, back on to the Le Tour glacier and then back down to Le Tour. It was very hot on the way down and I ended up being very sunburt after shaving my head the day before!

Thanks to James and Jason.