Well hello there! yes
Sheila sorry DAISY did manage to reach the summit of Mt Blanc last Wednesday morning at 8:20am after a string of hilarious (disastrous?) events.
We were SO well organised to start off! We had bought all our food in advance and lovingly packed it all neatly in zip lock bags. We had the best of sleeping bags and warm gear, stoves, pots, cups everything! in fact, the trek to the Tete Rousse hut was a bit of a nightmare with the weight of all our gear! complete madness. Anyway, we arrived at the Tete Rousse only to discover that there are the most comfortable of beds and beautiful meals to be had. Out of stubbornness we cooked our boil in the bag meals on a tiny gas stove anyway and watched everyone else tuck into what appeared to be three course meals accompanied by beer and wine
We couldn't get a place in the Gouter Hut at all, completely booked out so we thought we could stay at the Tete Rousse and summit from there with an acclimatisation walk to the Gouter Hut in between. I now understand why the owner of the TR hut was laughing when I told him of our plans! Anyway, the next day we packed up very light, food, sleeping bags, extra warm clothes etc left behind at the TR hut. We crossed the infamous Grand Couloir which I actually found ok despite what we'd read about it. This lead on to the 'rocky scramble' or so it's called to the Gouter hut. I actually hated this part. It was a lot longer and steeper than I'd expected and very slippy with icy, snowy patches here and there. There were cables fixed on the dangerous parts that you could clip into but these seemed to be coming loose where the bolts were fixed into the rocks. Crowds of climbers were both heading up and down and there was a lot of waiting around and avoiding inconsiderate climbers - especially those who drop their ice axe on you from above and don't apologise! So 4 and a half hours later and with the cloud thick around us we arrived at the Gouter hut. "Change of plan guys!" There was no way we could go back down to the Tete Rousse at this stage. We were stuck here for the night!
After lots of pleading and begging with the hut owner we were allowed to stay - bed less of course! and all we could think about was our food and lovely warm gear and sleeping bags down below. My usual altitude headache and sickness set in all of a sudden and I doubted I'd be able to go on at all. Tears were coming out my eyes with the pain and nausea and I lay my head on the crowed table and tried to ignore all the sweaty socks left drying out on the table and the nearby Spanish team tucking hungrily into runny omelettes.
After about an hour and several painkillers I was feeling better. We couldn't move from the table in case our places were taken but we were hunted out at dinner time and had to stand outside in the cold.
Finally, 8pm was lights out. This was by far the most insane night I have ever had. There must have been 70 people in the room. Many had sleeping bags and mats but of course we didn't. We begged for food and managed to get some biscuits and water for a mere 50 euro!
I lay on the stool to sleep and some of the lads lay on the table, some were under the table. People were everywhere! Of course we didn't sleep a wink but the whole situation was very entertaining! At 1am shivering with the cold everyone began to stir. At 2am we got some stale bread and hot chocolate, strapped on our crampons and headed out into the night. It was a really beautiful warm night. The trail of head torches ahead of us and the lights from Chamonix below was a really magical sight.
Approaching the Vallot hut we all started to feel cold and headaches began to set in. The Bosses ridge was just as scary as we'd heard. It wasn't just the fact that it was steep and narrow with a sheer drop on either side it was more the trail of people coming down that scared us. There was no where to go! one frightened woman actually grabbed on to my leg as she was passing! I was saying let go let go but she was clinging on for dear life! At this stage we were so unbelievably cold we just wanted to get to the summit so that we could get down as quickly as possible. We finally reached the summit at 8:20am with frozen fingers and toes. We took three summit pictures and then my camera batteries died. We made our way down the mountain as quickly as we could so that we could warm up. At the Vallot hut altitude sickness (or something hit me again). I was so ill, kneeling down on the snow with my head pounding. It was a tough slog back to the Gouter hut. They gave us some plain spaghetti and then we headed all the way back down to Les Houches, back to civilisation. We got there at 8pm dreaming about warm showers and clean clothes only to discover that our hotel was completely locked up with all our stuff inside!
So we were left with only one choice....to stay in our dirty clothes and plastic boots and have some beers in La Christiana.... all in all a great trip!
