Mont Blanc?

Well sadly after getting back from our via ferrata adventure it was becoming apparent that the weather was not coming to the party for our Mont Blanc summit attempt. High winds and thunderstorms were predicted for the next week in the high mountains surrounding Chamonix so our guides advised even going to the mountain refuge where we’d planned to start our summit attempt from would be pointless as the weather would definitely permit us to go no further.

Onwards and upwards though and the guides were working hard to find us a new objective to focus on, somewhere away from the current bad weather surrounding the Chamonix valley that would still be a step up from our initial acclimatisation mission of Gran Paradiso.

After much deliberation amongst themselves, the guides agreed that The Aphubel in Switzerland would be our best bet for bagging another 4000+ summit in the current weather conditions as it was suitably far away from Chamonix. The weather report wasn’t exactly favourable with high winds forecast, but we would go and give it a try and if we would need to turn around during our ascent due to bad weather well then that was just a part and parcel of life in the mountains.

We set off early the next morning as we had a long five and a half our drive over to the region of Switzerland where The Alphubel lies. Upon arriving near the mountain, after a quick bite to eat and a relatively short hike we made it to the mountain refuge we would spend the night in before our summit attempt. Whilst being a fair bit more expensive than the Italian refugio, the Swiss one was never the less very modern and clean. It also had an incredible backdrop of the beautiful (and quite intimidating) Weisshorn across the valley.

The next morning it was an early start up the rocky path in the dark to arrive at the foot of the glacier in time for first light. The glacier was a fair bit steeper and much more icey than the semi snow covered glacier of Gran Paradiso. After about five minutes of walking up it in our crampons it dawned on me that falling over would mean sliding very quickly down a steep sheet of hard ice, quite a long way straight onto the rocks below almost definitely resulting in broken bones or far worse. The guides must have been thinking the same thing, as almost just as the thought had entered my mind they insisted we rope together for safety.

Climbing the Alphubel is a longer undertaking as I believe it’s a 1600m climb from the refuge, we definitely spent more time on the glacier than we had on Gran Paradiso. After a couple of hours on the glacier the mountain flattened out to an open plain and the wind started to hit us. Some parties were continuing on via the ridge line but our guides decided it would be better to continue around the back of the mountain out of the wind.

We continued on for some time out of the wind, where it got surprisingly warm, gingerly treading over crevasses and up a final steep section towards the summit. We were a bit out of breath but kept pushing on until the steep ascent flattened out and the summit lay ahead. It was pretty windy up top, but not so windy that we couldn’t get a few victory photos before heading back down again.

Once again the way down went by a lot quicker than the way up and after carefully descending off the glacier, with sore legs we all hobbled back down to the refuge where Vit and I proceeded in polishing off a few beers in celebration of climbing our second summit in a few days.

Naturally there was a bit of disappointment in not being able to climb Mt Blanc, but for me the goal we’d set ourselves months before was a lot more about being physically fit enough and ready to climb Mt Blanc rather than actually climbing the mountain itself. There’s not a single doubt in my mind that we would’ve made it to the top of Mt Blanc if the weather had have been good, so we’ve come away from our trip with a great feeling of working towards an objective and the sense of satisfaction that comes from hard work paying off.

Of course setting a goal doesn’t need to be climbing a mountain, it can be focused on any dream that you want to come true. By setting ourselves a challenge it’s given us so much motivation to work hard and focus on something we really want to achieve. I can say hands down that if we hadn't have had this trip booked I would not have been consistently getting down the gym to train during the crazy busy period at work in the months leading up to our trip.

So my advice to anyone who happens to be reading this is to go and write down that dream you've been secretly thinking of for years but are scared you could never achieve, tell people about it, even post it on social media and make yourself accountable. Than, grit your teeth and get stuck into it, break it down into little pieces and it will suddenly start seeming more achievable, get advice from people who's knowledge is far greater than your own. What have you got to lose? If you fail at least you gave it your all. Give it a try, you never know, it might just end up changing your life forever!