SIX DAY PROGRAM
How can people often with no experience climb Mont Blanc in only six days? It’s totally achievable if you are fit enough, but six days is only a minimum amnt of time to acclimatise for Mont Blanc so you’ll still need as many other factors in your favour as possible. Our ascent program is the result of 19 years and 4500+ clients on Mont Blanc, we’ve climbed this mountain every which way over the years and have now settled on what we think is the best possible Mont Blanc ascent program.
Booking the various huts on Mont Blanc is extremely competitive which means that the program for the week will not always be the same; we use different combinations of huts to get to the summit but you will always have two nights and therefore two possible summit days reserved for you (see Huts and Routes). You will however need to follow our Fitness Guidelines carefully in order to be able to comfortably summit via any route, even in marginal conditions.
And if despite every effort conditions are so bad it’s not even worth trying Mont Blanc? We’ll go pretty much anywhere in the alps to fill your week with exciting mountaineering (no extra cost, see this FAQ). Click on the diagram below to see the basic program for each day:
Day 1
EQUIPMENT CHECK THEN TREK TO CHABOD HUT (2710M) ON GRAN PARADISO
You first day will start with an 8:00am breakfast. All your kit is going to be checked by the guides this morning so you’ll get everything you’ve brought with you including items you’re not sure about laid out in your room before heading off to eat.
Your guides for the week will arrive during breakfast, and your Course Directing guide will then sit down with you and explain how the week is going to work. After breakfast the guides will come to your rooms to check all your kit thoroughly to make sure you have everything you need, and equally importantly nothing you don’t (electric razors and huge blocks of wet wipes are unlikely to pass inspection). Ice axe, crampons, helmet, harness, and boots you can hire from us – anything else you’ll need to provide. Don’t worry if you’ve brought the wrong gloves or forgotten something, we have a quick trip round the shops in Chamonix afterwards where there are some good cheap (and not so cheap!) gear shops.
When all this is done and everyone is happy we’re off over the border to Italy for our three day training climb of Gran Paradiso (4061m). We just need to get into position today though, so after an obligatory cappuccino it’s a two and a half hour steady hike of about 1000m height gain up to the hut. Evening meal, maybe a quick session on how to put crampons and harnesses on, then an early night. You won’t sleep too well as it’s you first night at altitude, but that’s kind of the idea!