We booked our honeymoon trip shortly after completing our Salkantay trek in Peru. We’d already done some mountaineering in Ecuador, and had upcoming mountains in Bolivia, so it was fair to say that we had caught the bug and were keen on another trip for when we had returned home. It had been a dream of Scott’s from quite a young age to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, so this seemed like a good choice for our honeymoon. It wasn’t your normal honeymoon, but we had spent so many afternoons on beaches or by pools in the last year, we couldn’t bear to waste any more time doing that, we wanted a challenge, and something to tell the grandkids in many years to come!
We booked onto a 6 day mountaineering course with Alpine Guides, which would include 3 days of training and acclimatisation in France and Italy before tackling Mont Blanc. After all the fun of the wedding and a well needed recovery day, we headed for the airport and ordered a bottle of prosecco – well, it was still our honeymoon! We were dismayed to be told there would be a six hour delay due to technical problems, and prepared ourselves for a long wait. Luckily this was reduced to three hours, but we would still arrive too late for our dinner and briefing. Once we had finally arrived in Geneva there was more bad news – the last and only transfer to our chalet accommodation in Chamonix did not leave for another hour and a half, and we also received a message from Alpine Guides that our mountain guide Klemen had broken his arm earlier in the day during a climb! Surely that made up the ‘three things’ and nothing else would go wrong during the trip!
We were assured by Alpine Guides that they would do everything they could to find a replacement guide, and it wasn’t long before we got the good news that Sandy Allan would be joining our trip. We were so relieved, and grateful that Sandy had rearranged his existing plans to accommodate us. It was really late when we arrived at our accommodation for the night, a lovely chalet in Les Bossons, Chamonix called Ice and Orange. We microwaved the food that the staff had left in the fridge for us and headed off for well needed sleep.
In the morning we were treated to a superb view over the Les Bossons glacier and Mont Blanc itself. Due to the recent heatwave across France and Switzerland, it was still up in the air whether or not we would actually be able to climb Mont Blanc. One section in particular ‘The Grand Couloir” is quite dangerous year round, even more so with warm weather as the melting ice above releases rocks, which fall down onto the path below. The path was open when we arrived, but could easily close again in the few days when we would be ready to climb it. The thought of not climbing Mont Blanc was disappointing as this was what we had come to do, but we also didn’t want to get hurt in the process!
Our guide Sandy arrived for our briefing and we recognised him from a recent article in climbing magazine – he had just released a book about his ascent of the Mazeno ridge on Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world – he was obviously very experienced! Sandy had climbed with many clients before, but never a couple on their honeymoon – or ‘honeymoontainers’ as we would call ourselves!
The plan was to go into Italy to climb the highest mountain, Gran Paradiso, but the queue into Italy through the Mont Blanc tunnel was ridiculously long. To avoid sitting in traffic for hours, we decided to stay local and climb up to Aiguille du Tour instead. We caught a cable car up from Le Tour to the start of the trail (it would have been a long old slog otherwise), and continued our walk from there up to the Albert Premier hut at 2702m. This was an easy walk (bar the very steep bit at the end!), though the scorching heat made it a little uncomfortable. We stopped for a picnic on the way up, admiring the glacier, surrounding mountains and view over Chamonix.
Going up!
The hut was a huge upgrade from those we had stayed in in South America. It was massive, and quite modern. We bagsyed some beds, which were bunk beds in a dorm of around ten beds. We joked with Sandy that he had booked us the honeymoon suite, but this was wishful thinking! That afternoon we headed out onto the glacier for some training – familiarising ourselves with using crampons and walking on the ice as well as learning some ropework. On all our previous trips our guides had done all of the ropework for us, so it was great to be taught how to do it ourselves. Some of the knots took a few goes before we could remember them. It was amazing to be back on a glacier after so long and we looked forward to the days ahead.
Albert Premier Hut
Glacier training time
Showing him the ropes!
`Back at the hut we were served a lovely three course meal. The other climbers at our table did not seem surprised that we were on our honeymoon, in fact one guy had done a similar trip for his! We watched the sunset and got an early night. We had a ‘later’ breakfast booked for 6am, but were still woken up by our noisy room mates who were leaving around 4am. We managed to miss the rush of people and it was relatively quiet when we left. We would first be making our way across Glacier du Tour, up and over the Col Superier then finally we would have to cross the Trient glacier to the Trient hut, allowing us to spend the night at 3170m. Soon after starting across Glacier du Tour there was a large-ish crevice to jump over, and after a short while we arrived below the face of the mountain we were to climb, but first we had to make our way steadily up the steep incline of Col Superior. On reaching the ridgeline we passed over the border into Switzerland. Unsurprisingly, there was no passport control.
Col Superior
On passing the border the weather took a turn and black clouds rolled in – we decided to head straight for the hut and leave Aiguille du Tour for the next day. Just before the hut we practised some ice climbing, and crevasse rescue techniques – which we would hopefully not need!
Walking across the Trient Glacier
The hut was very homely, again with bunk beds in dorms (how very romantic!). It was another lovely hut, with some interesting breasted rabbit statues dotted around! We had arrived at around midday, but with the weather getting worse we spent the afternoon chilling out, in the knowledge that we were spending valuable time at altitude. This time we were treated to a four course dinner, washed down with lots of wine! Everything has to be flown in by helicopter, and we were amazed to have a fresh salad course.
Arriving at the Trient Hut
Sandy and Mrs Rabbit
That night we had a snorer in our room, so didn’t have the best night sleep before our 4am alarm went off. After a quick breakfast and getting ready, we headed back across the glacier to tackle Aiguille du Tour, the weather much improved without a cloud in the sky. The first part of walking was especially difficult as we weren’t on a clear path, it was like walking over the top of a vienatta ice cream. If you weren’t looking at where you were putting your feet it was easy to catch your crampons on one the ice cream peaks, which was exactly what Karen did while she was too busy looking at a small crevasse, and ended up tripping over and losing a leg down it. Luckily no injuries were sustained, but it was reminder to keep focused!
As we neared the route that would take us up Aiguille du Tour we noticed that we’d have to cross a large bergschrund (a large crevasse caused by a glacier pulling away from either stagnant ice or rock). We ditched our bags for this part of the ascent as it was only a short distance to the summit. We could then take off our crampons as the very last bit was a scramble over rocks, which added some variety to the climb. From the top we could see all the way over to the Matterhorn, and various other mountains that Sandy pointed out to us. Mont Blanc was there too, taunting us – would we be able to climb it? We’d have to get back into Chamonix to found out the latest news.
Top of Aiguille du Tour
We’d timed the climb well with only a couple of groups at the top, but on the way down we had to pass lots of groups, often on a very thin bit of path with some nail-biting moments. We headed back down to the Albert Premier hut, and then continued walking back down the cable car. We stopped for a quick rest and saw a large part of the glacier break off and come crashing down the mountain – a spectacular sight and sound.
The rest of the afternoon was spent in Chamonix. We discovered that there had been a landslide which had closed the train line which would have taken us to our starting point for Mont Blanc. Although the route and huts were not technically closed we didn’t want to risk starting the climb and not being able to complete it, or being pelted by rocks, so we decided to climb Monte Rosa – the highest mountain in Switzerland at 4,634m – instead.
The next morning we took a train from Chamonix to Zermatt. The train ride in itself was amazing, with the train line snaking its way round the mountains, very steeply at times. Another train took us to our starting point, and from there it was a three and a half hour walk to the Monte Rose Hutte. The path took us parallel to the glacier, and we could see many glaciers joining together from the surrounding mountains.
We would be doing the normal route up Monte Rosa, and could see the summit (Dufourspitze) from our walk, looking very high and far away! The hut was the best yet, a shiny silver structure sitting on the mountain side, with a really cool decking area and restaurant, and double ‘honeymoon’ beds – but still in dorms! We arrived just in time for dinner, which we were more than ready for after a very steep and tiring ascent.
The Monte Rose Hutte
We had a very early morning with breakfast at 2am. We managed to get organised and out the door by 2:45 (‘very efficient’ in the words of Sandy) and had to navigate our way across a boulder strewn path. There were cairns and paint markings leading the way, but in the pitch black it was hard to pick them up in our torch light! We were doing a pretty good job though, and had a group behind us who were obviously using us to find the path. We finally reached the glacier and continued on the ice and soon hit an ice field with lots of crevasses, which were hard to navigate through. Having to climb up some sections using our ice axes and really focus on our footwork. Following this we continued the ascent, the snow slope was steep but we moved at a really steady pace so as not to tire ourselves out. It was better to go slow than need to stop for breaks as that’s when you start getting cold.
As the sun started to rise we could look behind us and see the Matterhorn in the distance, and the rest of the Pennine Alps range – such an amazing sight. Our starting point looked really far away now.
We continued on, with the slope levelling off. We could see groups of climbers ahead of us snaking up in zigzags towards the summit. Sandy had told us that although Mont Blanc was higher, Monte Rosa was technically more challenging. While the Gouter route up Mont Blanc is a ‘walk up a snowy slope’, Monte Rosa has rock scrambles, steep slopes where you need to climb using your axe, and an abseil down on the other side – we weren’t too bothered about the change in plan now and enjoyed this variety in the climbing.
View back over the ridge line
The ridgeline leading to the summit was a long scramble of rocks, with huge drops either side (particularly so on the Italian side), which was a bit daunting at first especially as we had not done much mixed climbing before. The scraping of metal on rock was like finger nails down a chalkboard, but we soon got used to sticking the front points of crampons in-between the rocks & small ledges or cracks. We got to the summit and had our obligatory celebration photo complete with our home-made flag. We certainly had found the climb much easier than any mountain in South America – was it was because the altitude was so much less, or because we were a bit fitter this time round…?!
Summit!!
Ahead of us, we could see groups abseiling down a steep slope – a much faster descent than going back the way we had come! We climbed down to the starting point and attached ourselves to the fixed rope that was set up, while Sandy prepared to lower us down. Putting our weight onto the rope, we walked backwards, making our way down to the next anchor point where we would clip in using our slings and wait for Sandy to join us. We had to do this in a number of stages as our rope wasn’t long enough to make it down in one go. It wasn’t the most elegant descent ever, but we eventually made it down the bottom of the slope, very glad to be on flatter ground.
Another team abseiling down
The sun was out in full force now, so we shedded a couple of layers before continuing our descent. With Karen now leading we John Wayned it at a good speed down the snow slope – that’s walking with feet spaced apart, digging heels into the snow. We passed by some impressive seracs and snow formations, and had to do running jump over one crevasse.
On the descent
After another hour or so of walking down slopes we reached the ice field that we had come through at the beginning of the climb. Now, with the sun beating down, the ice was melting quickly – so much so that we could hear streams of water running beneath us. We needed to get over the ice field as soon as possible before it became too unstable and dangerous. The problem was finding the right path through it, it was a maze of dead ends that needed to be navigated, and with tired heads and legs this was a challenge! Another group was there in the same situation, and between us we found a safe path through and back onto firmer ground.
We were soon off the glacier and back onto the boulder path that lead back to the hut. We finished off the last of our water but still felt very dehydrated. It felt like a long walk back to the hut, crossing over unstable rocks with our legs feeling very heavy. The hut was a welcome sight, a beer from the bar even more so (after copious amounts of water, of course)!
Nearly back!
Well earned mountain beer!
We were thankful that we were spending the rest of the day at the hut, and completing the descent back to Zermatt the following day. We rested, ate and drank, and slept very well that night in our double bunk bed.
It was an easy but long walk the next day back to the train, and we returned to our chalet in Chamonix. It had certainly been an adventurous start to the honeymoon, and had re-sparked our interest in mountaineering. We would be back to climb Mont Blanc one day!
Matterhorn up close
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