Mont Blanc
At just over 4800M, Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco (ITA) is the highest peak in Western Europe and it’s massif dominates the French-Italian-Swiss border intersection. The massif provides the playground for outdoor adventure enthusiasts in Europe - winter sports, climbing, Via Ferrata, paragliding and countless others. It towers magnificently over Chamonix and is the lifeblood for the town. When we arrived in August 2022, our small hotel looked directly onto the mountain .. you just can’t escape it and the hold it has on the whole area. Like I said in the last blog, you don’t just head off and climb the mountain when your most challenging climbing experience has been Carrauntoohil in Kerry. We needed to acclimatise to the altitude and practice some snow skills with crampons and ice axes. Our guide, Gareth (a dark-humoured Welsh ex-pat) had an agenda to get us acclimatised and practiced - first a 6 hour hike to spend the night at Refuge Frédéric Chabod, followed by a short but intense lesson in all things about crampons and ice-axes before scaling Gran Paradiso at 4061M.
It was at Chabod that we realised this wasn’t going to be our year to scale Mont Blanc. My daughter had been struggling with her breathing back in Ireland for a while and was carrying several inhalers of various steroid strength. The climb up to Chabod had been tough and her inhalers became less and less effective. We made the decision that we would not proceed with the climb up Gran Paradiso, and without the practice and acclimatization that this would give use, we automatically disqualified ourselves from climbing Mont Blanc with the rest of the team. Upon return to Ireland, my daughter’s diagnosis was ‘long Covid’ and her GP agreed the right decision not to proceed had been made as it may have caused unknown damage to her lungs.
However, all was not lost and we still had 3 days to fill before our return to Ireland. Rather than sitting around drinking coffee and French pâtisserie (very tempting though to be honest), with Gareth we built ourselves a schedule of challenging activities including glacier walking, Via Ferrata climbing, paragliding and hiking along sections of the TMB close to Chamonix. We have vowed to return together to close this chapter out!
