Midgets on Mont Blanc

Prologue
A Sunday in Oslo, Sheri and I went climbing at Centrum Athletica when Sheri suddenly asked if I'd like to come along to Chamonix to climb Mont Blanc. She caught me off guard, and I found myself accepting in the least enthusiastic way: "Yeah, why not?"

1st stage: Acclimatisation
After finding ourselves based a good 40 minute walk from Chamonix we started our first day desperately searching for a boulangerie before taking the telepherique to Aguille de Midi, 3800mas to try to acclimatise. The weather was foggy and wet, but we still had our gear with us, even though we expected no more action than going to the loo in the Aguille de Midi restaurant. However, the last 200 altitude metres up to the final station the cable car suddenly broke through the clouds and we were greeted with a Mont Blanc massif bathed in brilliant sunshine! We met an English guide down at Plan d'Aguille, and tried to prompt him for conditions on the Grand Mulets route. He strongly warned against attempting it unless there were tracks already due to the sheer distance and altitude on summit day. Well off the cable car and with a spectacular view of the whole massif, it appeared that the Grand Mulets route was immaculately free of tracks. To say we were intimidated by Mont Blanc himself is no exaggeration, and when the warden at Refuge de Grand Mulets could tell us that we were the only booked guests!

The first day was spent plodding around on the upper part of Vallee Blanche, being scared to death on the top of the ridge from Aguille de Midi, and grateful for the melon Abraham (=the hunk acclimatising beneath) served. In the evening we shopped until we dropped, almost literally, shopping is definitely best done without rigid boots and goretex.Day two turned out to be a rest day at Aguille de Midi. The weather was wondeful, but by the time we got to Aguille de Midi, the famous Mont Blanc donkey (l'âne du Mont Blanc) covered the whole massif. Our plan was to have a training day on Mont Blanc de Tacul, but that was not to be. I can tell you that the Croque Monsieur on Aguille de Midi is not worth...anything really.

2nd stage: Nid Aigle - Refuge de Goûter
Due to an absolute lack of correspondence between SNCF and the TMB we had to get the second train of the morning, much to my dislike, being worried about increasing rockfall in the Grand Couloir. The walk was estimated to 5 hours, but the Midget Express got there in 4h 30 including breaks. The weather was actually quite sad, sunshine in the beginning, but then we entered the cloudy layer, which also happened to be windy. By Tête Rousse there was nearly no visibililty, and I considered giving up. However, Chief Midget was in no such mood, and we moved on. Few minutes later the Grand Couloir emerged from the fog, in the last clear moment the next 12 hours or so. And I have to say I was somewhat relieved. The couloir is the scene of a number of accidents related to rockfall every year, but I think someone should point out that whole couloir is crossed in no more than a minute and a half, and that you can see most of the top of it, making it possible to dodge anything falling. Apparently there is a tendency to bottleneck effect there, as it is necessary to cross one by one. Sheri and I however, were able to cross unhampered and uninjured.
Before scrambling to the Goûter I used to snigger at people who said they'd "climbed" Mont Blanc, but having seen the scramble I stopped laughing. The last three hundred altitude metres up is quite an exposed scramble, and not always secured with via ferratas either. With increasing altitude it's really quite strenuous. We were running out of energy, and after asking a guide how much longer it was and on learning that it was another 200m, we stopped to eat a little on a somewhat sheltered spot. This break became the joke of the day only minutes after, when we realised that the guide meant 200m, not 200 altitude metres as we thought...

The Goûter Hut was a unique place. We were a bit worried that our reservation hadn't been noted, but everything went well. But what a place. Even the day on arrival it was clear at least to me that even without the summit this hut was worth the climb, just to have been there. Not because it was nice, because it wasn't. Not because the food was nice, because it wasn't. But only because the Goûter Hut is the Goûter Hut, last stop before the summit. At eight the last supper was finished, and everyone went to bed, anxiously anticipating alpine start and breakfast at 2am. The smell in the dorm was impossible to describe, but I'm sure you'll believe me if I say that it made an impression.3rd stage: Summit Day
The alarm went off at 1.30am. And the headache was impossible to ignore. At 3800mas a headache is not only your average sign that the brain is still there, it should be taken as a sign of beginning altitude sickness. I first felt it at 2500mas, then it disappeared until it came back at 3500. In retrospect it might have been due to sore neck muscles, but I didn't want to be one of those in need of mountain rescure who started for a 4800m peak with a thundering headache and ignored it... A brief trip to the loo and the decision to stay behind became clear, the wind was very strong even though we could see that the sky was clearing. I went back to sleep with very mixed feelings, knowing that I'd made the right decision yet still immensely disappointed.

At half seven we rose again, headache gone and looking out to blazing sunshine. We decided to check Goûter and Tête Rousse for accomodation, as we would not make it down to Nid Aigle before nightfall if we decided for the summit. For some reason however, the warden at Goûter promised to fix us a bed, and we were able to head for the summit.
Around four and a half hours later we nearly blew down from the summit. The wind was dreadful, and we did meet a party of three sturdy men who had turned back only ten metres from the summit point, so it never was quite evident that we would make it. I do not have any real photographic evidence of myself one the summit as I was covered in almost all the clothes I had, including facemask. The summit walk was a great trip, a little to my surprise to be honest. I was thinking that it would be a little boring, but the summit ridge is really spectacular, and with the wind we had rather a lot more exciting than your average plod...Epilogue
Mont Blanc done in style, with an excellent team that brought out the best in each other and had fun while doing so. Fantastic weather, and we both believe that my headache on summit night was a strike of luck - we met so few people going down, that we really do believe that most of the wannabe summiteers actually turned back, and then we think we would've turned back too, so we both think that postponing the summit attempt seven hours really was the reason why we made it.