Mont Blanc 2017

Maxim, guide of 7 summits Club: Well, that ended our stay in the mountains. Contrary to popular belief that the autumn is not good season and it is a little late for climbing, we had a great four days! We have training on the rocks and the ice, made a trial ascent, worked out the basic techniques of climbing. And only at the end the weather held us up. We not only managed to put a beautiful point, climbing the Breithorn.

However, no one's upset, because now there is a great reason to come back here again...

Maxim, guide of the 7 Summits Club:

Sunny weather continues to pamper us.

Today we climbed to the summit of Aiguille de Toule 3500. As planned, then we  had a little practice on the glacier and solidified in the previous days knowledge by great climbing.

Natalia guided by Dmitry climbed to the top of Mont Blanc from the refuge of Gouter  for 4 hours 30 minutes. So fast our girls this season didn't run on the highest peak of the Alps. Congratulations to Natalia Bykovsky and her guide! So this season in Mont Blanc  for the 7 Summits Club is completed, will give the mountains a break from us!

"The weather was so-so at first, but on top of everything inflated..."

Valeriy Glazyrin climbed the highest peak in the Alps Mont Blanc in the group of  the 7 Summits Club under our program from 6th to 13^th of August....

... And presented us with a selection of 82 photographs, beautifully illustrating the route of ascent...

photo gallery

A message from a guide of the 7 Summits Club: Part of the band "the Odessa steamer" ascended to the summit of Mont Blanc. Weather "pleased" guides, but customers  managed to suffer until the top. Well done!

This summer season in the Alps is almost over. There will be only one group next week...

A message from our guide in the Alps Roman: Four days of Mountain school passed quickly. First, we trained a little bit on the rocks and climbed a small route, where he did some technical moves while climbing in pair. Then we moved for a couple of days on the glacier Dent du Géant, where he mastered the basics of movement on the glacier roped. Well, to make it more interesting, we went on two routes: Aiguille de Toule and the Aiguille d'Entreves. The weather was great especially on the last day, which we were happy!

Natalia Bojeskova and Valery Glazyrin climbed the highest peak in the Alps Mont Blanc in the group of  the 7 Summits Club under the program from 6 to 13 August....

Message from France: We climbed Mont Blanc via Gouter route. Weather presented a real challenge in the form of a strong cold wind. Many groups are turned back,  not reaching to the top 100 meters away. But our team fought till the end, for which Mont Blanc gave us the top, though in the fog)))

Members of the group of Mountain school of the 7 Summits Club, traveling on the program "Climb Mont Blanc", climbed to the hut Tete Rousse.

Group of the 7 Summits Club worked on the program "Climbing  Mont Blanc" at 29.07 - 05.08. 2017. After a course of training and acclimatization, the team made a summit attempt on the highest mountain of the Alps. Unfortunately, the weather on the summit day was bad. Cold, wind and lack of visibility. But the team fought until the end. Outcome: 5 participants - on the top, 4 participants stopped at the hut Vallo. All successfully descended down and flew to Moscow.

Day 5 - 4810 m!

Thank God we managed to sleep! After a cup of tea and a sandwich with jam, we dressed and went out onto the path. We we're not the first group to go out so we could see people's flashlights in the pitch darkness, that way we could see what was in front of us. After an hour's journey, we begin to meet those who turned back. Something happened to them. Mountain sickness or something else. No one is discussing that on the way up. Alright then! Now take a step and take another step and make sure that the rope does not stretch. We got lucky with the weather, the path is trampled down. Everything goes according to plan. You have to hold on. Walk and breathe as evenly as possible. Somewhere at 3 am it was already quite sunny and we already met groups that climbed to the top. One of us just raised his hand to greet them. After about 6 hours we were on top of Mont Blanc! We did it!

Thanks to Roman and the weather! This is a great success for us! The story of how we descended 10 hours on our last energy to the station Nia D'aigle (2380m). We won't tell you... We want to leave only good memories!

We started our climb early in the morning and approximately 8.30 we were at the final station of the Mont Blanc tram called Nid D'aigle (2380m). In front of us waited 7 hours of climbing through Refuge de Téte Rousse (3187m) to Refuge du Goûter (3863m) from where we would have to climb all the way to the top of Mont Blanc (4810m).
It so happened that not long before leaving for Chamonix, our program got an "easier" program because of an issue with overbooking at all shelters. But they did not take into account the fact that the 7 hour ascent (for professionals it takes five) and the attempt to climb to the the summit on the same night is a very serious test for an office manager and student. In my opinion, our chances of climbing to the top equal approximately 20%. After we reached the rock ridge (with a difficulty level of 3) along which we climbed for about 4 hours, We thought about every step we made and hoped that we got to the Refuge du Goûte. At the shelter, we had supper and went to bed around 9 pm. It is hard to sleep at such altitudes because you can feel your heart beating through your throat. You have to force yourself to fall asleep and at least slightly fill up your energy. We are going to wake up in 2 a.m. We are waiting for an even more serious test!

Day 1 (1020 m) with Savva Kalashnov

Chamonix met us with heavy rain and low clouds. But even in this weather you could see the mountain range that was rising up into the clouds and beyond. The clouds were covering the majestic beauty, but even then the view was amazing! The weather forecast for the next three days wasn't very promising. Our instructor Roman said that the cyklone turned to be pretty scary in higher altitudes, it's snowing like it's winter up there. Because of this, our program was altered to make the aclimatisation easier. By the looks of things, everyday we will decend to Chamoni× except for the last day before the final stretch. We'll see, people say it's easier to reach the summit that way. We spent this evening walking around in Chamonix, eating and buying/renting everything we needed for the climb. The city went to sleep 20.00, all the stores closed and only restaurants continued to attract us with their smell. But they couldn't lure us, we are already satisfied and tired...

See you tomorrow!

Day 2 (3295 m)

Training has finally started! It was awesome! The weather has finally cleared to reveal the sun, it was beautiful! We took the lift to 3295 meters, put on our "armor" and took a stroll up Glacier d'Argentière For the first time it was more than enough. While hiking up, we saw how a French climber fell down into a crack in the snow. He was walking and suddenly disappeared into the snow! We couldn't get the camera out to film his fall but we filmed how he was being rescued. Everyone was so calm, like it was normal business, when someone disappeares into the ground like that... And that's why you never should go into the alps alone. If your technique is good and you trust your comrades, mountaineering is an awesome hobby... But if not, it can be very dangerous, mountains don't allow errors! @ Chamonix, Mont Blanc 3842m

Day 3 (3842 m )

I barely have power to write this today! Today was a very productive day, this day started in Aiguille du midi 3842. The walk was completed with good spirit and almost without altitude sickness. We descended from the mountain happy and tired. We also had a lot to do in the evening. Tomorrow's ascension to Reduce du Goûter 3863 is going to be at least twice as hard as today's walk. And the challenges that await us during the night on the 29th of July are scary to think about! We set clear goals in front of us and fight. Our motto is "bravery and stupidity" 😜😬 See you tomorrow! @ Aiguille du Midi

Groups "Alex - Arthur" and "Bogdan -   Vadim" are in the hut Cosmique. The weather is good, but there is no road up there. The snow reaches a depth of 60 centimeters. We will be  thinking twice.

 There are few people in the hut. In the morning, no one is going to go up...

Igor Borisov yesterday ascended Mont Blanc, showing persistence and perseverance in the hellish wind. From the hut  Cosmique and back again. One from their group.  He took a flag of the 7 Summits Club. But I was afraid to get it out a sack. The muzzle very much!

A group of climbers Mont Blanc-2017 Vitaly Yatsuta and Dmitry Ogurtsov climbed the Aiguille du Midi, on the South-West ridge ...

Almost died, but nothing happened. Well done!

 The Cosmiques Arete route, or Cosmiques Ridge (SSW ridge) is approximately 3A-3B according to our classification, AD in French, a crux – 4C.

A group of climbers Mont Blanc-2017 Vitaly Yatsuta and Dmitry Ogurtsov today was training on the glacier of Mer de Glace, walking in crampons and climbed the ice walls. Everything is OK! Tomorrow we plan to climb the Aiguille du MIDI ...

Meanwhile, A group of 3 climbers climbed the summit of Mont Blanc. Our first Alpine summit of the season!