Success on Mont Blanc: Part 3

In the very early hours of the morning, everyone else in the hut got up and started their ascent to the summit. I woke up later and noticed that the wind was howling outside. Refuge Goûter sits on the edge of a cliff, which makes for an incredible view, albeit in high winds. When Kevin woke up, he noticed the same thing, and we were both happy that we hadn’t attempted a summit in those conditions. Kevin was already feeling very sore, and a summit attempt at 3AM in high winds didn’t seem like a good idea.

I got up and packed up my stuff. My brother got up a little later and got packed up. We both ate as much of our food as we could, as we wouldn’t need much on the descent. We finally got going around 9:30 AM, as the first people to summit that day were returning to the refuge. It was quite windy, and we were glad to be heading down, instead of being blasted on the snowy ridgelines of the upper mountain. I got our harnesses hooked up with a rope, and put everything else away in order to manage that.

The descent from Goûter down to Tête Rousse was time consuming for us. We took extreme caution, and backed down most of the mountain. I used the rope to ensure that Kevin had an extra failsafe as he was still feeling sore, but he never ended up needing it. It is quite intimidating when you stare down the mountain for a distance and can barely see your destination far below. We tried not to do that, instead preferring to focus on just the next few steps, taking each problem on one at a time.

One thing that was a little odd for me, was that Kevin was consistently feeling a little cold on the trip, whereas I was the opposite. Even on the descent, where I wasn’t exerting myself, I immediately took off my coat and descended in just a long sleeve shirt and gloves. We encouraged each other and psyched ourselves up during the descent in order to stay sharp. The mental game was just as important as the physical aspect, which consisted just of finding the right spots for feet and hands to cling onto the mountain.

Soon enough other groups passed us by, as they sped down the mountain. We were no longer phased by this. Our success on Mont Blanc was not determined by our speed, but by getting all the way up to Refuge Goûter with no guide and no prior mountaineering experience, and getting down the mountain safely while slightly injured, all without needing a rescue operation. We kept descending, and eventually Tête Rousse stopped being a dot in the distance, and it grew quite close. There started to be more sections which we could walk normally, without backing down the mountain.

We made it to Tête Rousse, and took a brief break after taking off our crampons and stowing the harnesses and rope. We were pretty much safe. The descent from there down to the Eagle’s Nest and the tramway took a long time, and I finished off a fantastic sunburn, but they were not dangerous. We took our time as my brother’s injuries were starting to aggravate him, but we did make it.

Finally back in town, we managed to offload our gear and make it to the hotel. I could finally exhale and feel good about getting off the mountain safely. It’s true that we didn’t summit, and that is a real shame. If I had thought that there was any way to do it safely and get back down the mountain, I would have gone for it. The reality is, we made the right decision, even though it hurt. As it happens, we took so long to get down the mountain, that even leaving at 9:30 AM, we didn’t exit the rental shop until 7 PM. We would have never made it to the summit and all the way back down. I call our trip a success from an amateur’s perspective. There were very few other groups attempting the mountain without a guide, and those that were, seemed to have more experience, and certainly had lighter packs than us. We did the best we could, and we came home safe, sound, and on time for my brother Kevin’s wedding. But that is a whole ‘nother story!