Dent du Géant (4013m), attempt

After our acclimatization hike on Tuesday, Arne got us a rental car (a brand new electric Volvo! My first longer road trip in an all electric. I'm convinced) on Thursday and we made the long drive first to Chamonix and then to Courmayeur on the Italian side. The plan was to spend a night in the valley, then take the first cable car in the morning to climb the Dent du Géant on Friday and the Tour Ronde North face on Saturday. Even the best laid plans don't survive contact with the enemy and this should prove to be true for us as well.

Dramatic weather over Lac Léman.

Organizing gear in our hotel room.

Floating up.

We arrived late at the Shatush Mont Blanc hotel, conveniently located right at the base station of the Monte Bianco Skyway. Considering that we hadn't done any prior research and booked the hotel via cell phone on the drive there, I think we made a really lucky choice. Not expensive and perfectly adequate for our needs. Breakfast was only served after 8am, so we scrapped our original plan of taking the early 6:30am cable car and enjoyed sweet Italian brioche instead. One needs to have the right priorities!

The "giant's tooth", our objective, clearly visible as the highest point in this image.

On the glacier with Mt Blanc in the background.

Steep section crossing the Bergschrund.

Despite the delay, we made it up the mountain, deposited some of our gear at the Rifugio Torino, and roped up on the glacier ready to go by 9:30 in the morning. Still plenty of time for a fast rope team like us. Several mountain guides in the gondola and at the hut warned their clients and us of strong winds on the mountain. Gusts of 70km/h and more. It still seemed like too good a day to pass up and we proceeded in high spirits.

Arne in action.

Sören.

The abominable traffic jam. The responsible party isn't visible in this image. We spent most of the time on that very ledge at the bottom.

It took us a little over two hours of good progress over the glacier and steep mixed terrain to reach the rock climbing part of the mountain. This is where we expected to make up for lost time, considering how both Arne and I are fast and experienced on rock. Instead we got stopped completely. There was a traffic jam of rope teams blocking the route. It was a fucking ridiculous clown show of epic proportions. The Mt Blanc area is too famous and easily accessible for its own good. It attracts aspiring mountaineers from literally all over the world. Over the two days we spent in the area we talked to a Czech team (drove 12 hours from Prague and headed straight up the mountain, complaining about severe headaches...); a Polish guide (who knew Arne's former manager and Google-colleague-turned-mountain-guide Ilona, the world is a village as they say); Hong Kongese (jet lagged from Hong Kong...); Italians; French; Germans; Welsh; New Zealanders; ... you get the idea. A wild range of experience and ability. I witnessed a guide at the hut explain to his client which direction the climbing harness goes on (!). At the same time you have folks climbing some of the world's hardest routes and attempting new speed records.

Selfie before calling it quits. The yellow helmet behind us is one half of an Italian husband and wife climbing party that we had a good conversation with. They turned around with us. For him, it was the third time he had to bail from this very mountain.

Retracing our steps back down.

Falling is ill advised for most of the route. It is steep and mostly unprotected.

In our particular case we were extremely unlucky. We stood on the starting ledge of the route, wrapped in all our layers (in my case: Merino wool base layer; thick fleece jacket; down jacket; double layer Gore-Tex windbreaker) and were still shivering from the icy winds. Gusts were sufficiently strong to blow you off balance. And nothing moved. We could see and talk to a few parties directly in front of us, but none of them were directly responsible for the complete standstill. One party was in radio contact with another party higher up and they reported a group of four (!) women were completely in over their heads and blocked everything. Nothing we could do but wait. And freeze. And wait. And freeze. And wait some more. Reminded me of the notorious Everest traffic jams. After waiting for more than two and half hours (!!!) and still seeing no progress whatsoever, Arne and I decided to call it quits and turned around. At this point starting up would have been unwise and unsafe and would definitely have made us miss dinner at the hut.

Love this sticker at the hut. Breakfast at every hour starting midnight. The latest (!) breakfast is at 7am ;-P

Two power outlets for 160 people with phones at the hut.

Clouds boiling.

I was super pissed at this "Disneyland for mountaineers". It's hard enough to correctly judge conditions on the mountain; weather; your own ability and energy; manage a schedule and gear without also having to account for the reckless and shitty behavior of random strangers actively making things more dangerous for everybody. I was fucking mad when we got back to the crowded hut. Little did I know at this point that it would get even worse. But that's a post for another day...

In bed by 7pm.

We'll be back. Sooner than you think.