Recommended ascents for the improving mountaineer
Considering a high level of fitness, but limited mountaineering skills (some indoor climbing, a few via ferratas and high altitude hikes), what hikes would you recommend as training (and perhaps some acclimatization) for the ascent of Mont Blanc? Ideally they would be in easy/affordable reach from London (via Geneva, Venice, Zurich) and would provide similar technical challenges but perhaps at a lower altitude. The last high altitude hike was painful between 3500 and 5000 meters. After that the diamox kicked in :)
The question was aimed at suitable routes that will provide the training to build the necessary experience. The area where I lack the experience is the use of crampons/glacier hikes. The tour would be guided.
Edit: the comments have proven that this question was misworded, so let me try again. What short trips would you recommend for the novice/improving mountaineer in order to build up the necessary skills to tackle more challenging peaks? The focus is on safely acquiring the technique, rather than physical training. Shorter (1-3 days) treks would be preferred, and so would the travel accessibility. Thank you
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I'll give this a shot, but I'm from the US, and although I've done a little bit of mountaineering in the Alps, I've never done Mont Blanc. Others may be able to give better answers.
First, you need to buy an ice ax, crampons, and crampon-compatible boots. This is going to be expensive, and it is possible to rent gear in Chamonix, but IMO it's just not practical to work your way up to the level of skill needed for Mont Blanc without owning gear and using it quite a bit. Finding usable, well-fitting crampon-compatible boots can be a hard process. Don't satisfy yourself with boots that give you blisters. For Mont Blanc in summer, I think you probably want leather/synthetic boots (not double plastic boots) such as La Sportiva Evos, which will set you back about 300 pounds. The shape and design of that particular boot happens to work well for my foot, but you need to figure out what works for you.
Next, get professional instruction in snow travel and self-arrest, or get instruction through a mountaineering club or from an experienced friend who's willing to devote a full day to it. From googling, it looks like there are courses available in Scotland.
Although you're going guided, there are certain physical skills for snow travel that you need to practice and get in your muscle memory. For example, I've often seen people descending on low-angle snow at an extremely slow pace because they lack confidence and the physical skill. They do things like sitting down and inch-worming their way down the slope, or they laboriously use the ice ax in cane position when they could just be plunge-stepping or boot glissading. So you need to practice these skills. Again, I would guess that you could do stuff in Scotland that would work. These don't need to be big peaks, just anywhere that there's snow and steep slopes. To get really comfortable, you will probably need to spend 10-20 days on snow, experiencing different conditions, higher angles, ice, etc. If I were you, I'd join a mountaineering club in the UK and start going on trips with them, starting with easy stuff.
I suspect that most people going guided on this type of climb have zero crevasse self-rescue skills. This may be OK if the route you have in mind on Mont Blanc is wanded and the risk of falling in a crevasse is very small. However, I feel that anyone going into this kind of situation should have self-rescue skills. I know a professional guide who fell into a crevasse while on a two-man rope team with a client. The client didn't respond competently, and the result was serious injuries and a helicopter rescue. Although Scotland apparently has not had any glaciers for hundreds of years, you can get self-rescue training there; rather than practicing in a real crevasse, they would probably use a cliff or something. If you want to train in an area that has real glaciers, big crevasses, and icefalls, I would imagine that you could get that in Norway or Iceland, but I don't really know.
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I was personally in a similar situation. Having done a basic mountaineering and crevasse rescue course in Tatra mountains in Poland (in winter conditions), some via ferratas and outdoor rock-climbing course I was trying to get to some glacier hikes with friends having similar experience level.
What we did is first tackle some three-thousanders that do not require glacier crossing, example of which is Schrankogel in Öztal, Austria (easy to reach from Innsbruck). Afterwards, we moved towards easy mountains where crossing glacier is necessary. I can recommend Wildspitze (3768 m, Öztal, Austria) for a first try - the snow section is relatively short and ascent from the Breslauer Hut not too strenuous, which allows one to proceed slowly and practice some basic techniques.
What I found a great experience is actually tenting on the glacier during longer tour. I can recommend a little frequented ascent to Weisskugel from Vent (again in Öztal) through the 7 km-long Hintereis-Ferner. This technically undemanding glacier is great to get used to being on ice for hours straight and the views at sunset are amazing.
After those tours as well as acclimatisation on Argentière Glacier (close to Chamonix) we were able to climb Mount Blanc from Aiguille du Midi taking the 3 Mouts Traversee route (http://www.summitpost.org/mont-blanc-3-mounts-traversee/202778), sleeping in tents at Col de la Brenva, ascending Mount Blanc peak in the morning and descending through Dôme du Goûter Normal Route. However, you should judge your and your partners abilities and consider having some experience on four-thousanders before tackling Mount Blanc, as acute mountain sickness might kick in :)
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For my answer I make the following two assumptions:
You either have someone who can show you the techniques involved, you have access to some courses to teach it or you are a very serious self-taught person. In any case I will suggest tours to gain experience on your own after you learned the techniques (at least theoretically).
I am based in Switzerland near Zurich and do not know the Chamonix or Venice area, so I will talk about a location close to Zurich.
The key abilities to do Mont Blanc guided are rope handling, glacier and steep snow techniques. So that is what I propose:
The area in Glarus around the mountain "Toedi" is perfectly suited for all levels of such trainings. It is located at 2.5h by train or 1.5h by car from Zurich airport (overwiew / detailed map). Your base would be the hut "Claridenhuette" (red marker below the glacier) which is accessible either walking from "Tierfehd" (red marker) or from "Urnerboden" (red marker) via the cable car to "Fisetengrat" and from there to the hut. From there the possibilies are endless. For the very beginning there is a flat glacier nearby, where walking on crampons with a rope on a glacier, walking on sloped snow, crevasse rescue ... can be trained. To apply these newly learned skills you can do a tour on eg "Clariden" which is basically a long walk on the glacier with a moderately steep (max 40deg) incline at its end. Many more tours to be made. When you have gained more experience, the tour to the "Toedi" is very similar to the Mount Blanc save the altitude. There are also huge crevassed areas, steep slopes and long distances. But this tour is already quite advanced.
Anyway you can easily get to the hut using the maps I showed you and then you will see the possibilities yourself or can ask the personel, they will gladly point you to suited areas for training. Of course there are also various guided courses available there, but they are expensive.
For additional training the region of Zermatt (4h by train from Geneva) offers great tours in moderate difficulty.
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I'm still a little unclear what your asking but here goes.
This tally's reasonably well with my own experience. I've spent a lot of time in the mountains of the UK (Mainly Snowdonia in North Wales where I live). My long term ambition is to move into more alpinism type route in France, Germany, etc. (much like yourself)
As such I'm going to answer your question slightly indirectly and tell you what I've been doing to get up to where I wish to go (and this will hopefully help you too)
I've been rock climbing for a number of years. This has helped me develop a number of skills that you will likely need for alpine days, specifically:
- Rope skills
- Making belays
- Moving on rock
- Placing secure anchors
I knew though that these skills likely weren't enough for what I wanted to do. So my next step has been to get some winter training (the Alps are obviously covered in snow and ice so this is very important).
I actually looked into doing a winter skills course in Scotland but found these prohibitively expensive. So I decided to teach myself (this isn't for everyone, I'm a bit of a nerd on these types of subjects and I like to think I'm aware of my own limitiaions).
so I bought the following items:
- Ice Axe (walking style not climbing style)
- B2 rated boots
- C2 rated crampons
- Ski goggles
I already own a full set of winter and waterproof clothing. I then spent the winter in Wales (when it snowed) walking paths I knew well and gaining experience. I practised self arrest and various other winter specific techniques that I could only do with snow.
We then spent a week in Scotland walking in the cairngorms (ticking off munroes). I'm now pretty confident up to winter Grade II.
I don't feel (TBH even after all of this practice, etc.) that I have enough skills to tackle the Alps quite yet (I also can't afford it right now as I'm trying to save to buy a house). I have not done any crevasse rescue or work on glaciers (because there aren't any in Scotland).
I would suggest that Mont Blanc (via the ordinary route I think it's called, the most common one) is typically everyone's first Alpine mountain and you will struggle to find any other peak as accessible (with a guide). So I can't really suggest another European hill to do as training. There are numerous less busy alternatives though, Mont Blanc can get very busy.
Obviously none of these mountainous areas are anywhere near London, I'm lucky I live in north Wales. But I would suggest spending as much time as you can in winter in Scotland, etc. this will help you hone you winter skills which you will need for a summer accent of Mont Blanc.
Good luck!!
Interestingly I've just finished reading an article in the perils of alpine routes on Mont Blanc, prob worth a read http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=7563
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