Good News and Bad News

I'm now back home from Chamonix after a long and boring journey with delayed planes and slow buses. Unfortunately on the trip I didn't get a chance to make an attempt on Mont Blanc. There were a few factors acting against us; weather, the Tramway du Mont Blanc being closed for maintenance, the arrival and departure times of others in the group and some pre-existing injuries to others in the group. Despite realising early on that we probably weren't going to get an attempt on Mont Blanc we still got out up hills, onto glaciers and completed a lot of the high altitude training and acclimatisation required for a successful trip up Mont Blanc.

I did however manage to reach my first alpine peak after climbing Mont Blanc du Tacul with one of the other group members. One of the main reasons for not getting up Mont Blanc was that we didn't have enough time for a two day assent, Mont Blanc du Tacul is very handily close to the Aiguille du Midi cable car station making it easy enough to complete in a single day. At 4,248m Mont Blanc du Tacul isn't exactly a small mountain and I'm pretty chuffed to have made it up the face across crevasses and scrambled onto the submit in good time; especially considering that until a few days earlier I hadn't ever used crampons or an ice axe.

By all accounts Mont Blanc du Tacul is actually a more technical climb than Mont Blanc itself, all be it, much shorter. I'm pretty happy to have made it up and it I think that had we been able to make an attempt on Mont Blanc I would have made it to the summit. I've come back from the Alps with a new found love for alpine climbing and would definitely like to return soon to complete more peaks and finally get up the big one. Mont Blanc du Tacul might not have been my original goal but I'm in no way disappointed about any of the walks and climbing which we did. I'm still young, and Mont Blanc will still be there for years to come.