Mountaineer­ing in Chamonix

Small libraries have been written about mountaineer­ing here — stories of courage and tragedy and inspi­ra­tional achieve­ments. Modern mountaineer­ing really took off first in Chamonix and it remains a mecca for alpin­ists. However, with the excel­lent infra­struc­ture built up over the last century, it’s also a perfect place to try it at any level.

The classic book on the region is Gaston Rébuffat’s “Mont Blanc: The Hundred Finest Routes”  Though some of the routes are now out of date (notably the Bonatti Pillar, which fell off in 1999) his carefully chosen selec­tion and lyrical writing still make it essential. We have a copy at the chalet, and it’s widely avail­able in both the UK and Chamonix.

“What an extra­or­di­nary creation this is, wrought by earth and time! Silhou­et­ted against the snow and the sky, those granite aiguilles whose soaring lines and glowing rock make them seem overflow­ing with new vital­ity. Ice and rock together are a unity, the one bring­ing out the beauty of the other”

Gaston Rébuf­fat: The Mont Blanc Massif. The 100 Finest Routes

Looking for route information?

Summitpost’s Mont Blanc Group pages are compre­hen­sive and well written — proba­bly the best place to start if you have some ideas to research. She begins with a wonder­ful quota­tion from the Rebuf­fat book and an excel­lent outline of the valley from a mountaineers point of view.

Start­ing out in mountaineering

You can arrange a day or two with a guide yourself — many of them run courses for begin­ners. Discuss what you’d like to do, and they’ll make sugges­tions accord­ing to your ability and fitness level. A day or so out with a guide is truly memorable — their knowl­edge of the mountains allows you to go into places you could never dream of access­ing otherwise.

Chamonix is full of spectac­u­lar mountain areas that are quite acces­si­ble to novices with a guide and good condi­tions, whether you’d like to try glacier walking or perhaps the more straight­for­ward summits. Once again, I would highly recom­mend Neil Hitch­ings as he’s experi­enced, enthu­si­as­tic and patient. More guides and guide bureaux here.

A few suggestions

The Cosmiques Arête — not techni­cally very diffi­cult but with massive exposure and tremen­dous views:

The Domes Du Miage — a wonder­ful series of crests close to Mont Blanc. Blog post from our climb there, with lots of photos.

Armchair mountaineer­ing

We’ve got a good selec­tion of books at the chalet from the thousands written about Chamonix — here’s a few I’d partic­u­larly recom­mend.
Starlight and Storms — Gaston Rebuf­fat
Poetic stories of the mountains from one of France’s great­est climbers. Well worth reading in the origi­nal if your French is up to it.
Solo Faces — James Salter
U.S. liter­ary giant Salter fiction­alises the story of charis­matic sixties climber Gary Hemming. Bleak and beauti­ful writing.
Au-dela des Cimes (Beyond the Peaks) DVD — Incred­i­ble high defin­i­tion filming of Cather­ine Destiv­elle on three climbs around the valley. Thesp-tastic narra­tion by Brian Blessed in the English version! Happily, Cather­ine does her own English voiceover.

Blogs

Alpine Exposures
Incred­i­ble photog­ra­phy AND regular updates on condi­tions — this blog has something for everyone.

Chamonix Insider
Trey keeps you up to date on his lively blog with what’s going on in Chamonix and anywhere else that catches his eye.

Summit­post: Mont Blanc group
As well as route info, this has the most regularly updated trip reports

Alexan­dre Buisse
Wonder­ful photos, many around Chamonix — and a book for tips to improve your own…

Office de Haute montagne
Good info on mountain condi­tions if your French is up to it.