Four friends / Leaders / Rovers from Carrickmacross set out to climb the highest mountain in France, Italy and Western Europe,

that’s (Mont-Blanc 4810m) by the way, on the 30 of August.

This is their story!!

The trip started when the lads (Sham, Daire, David) and Froggy (thanks for the lift man) picked me up at about nine o’clock for the trip to the airport. After the heavy breakfast in the airport, number two for some of us, we boarded the flight.

When we arrived in Geneva myself and Sham waited for the gear while David and Daire rented a yoke to get us to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc!!! We got it loaded it up and off we went.

We made it to Chamonix, without the driver (a..Daire..hem) ever cutting the car out trying to speed off to impress the hot French girl in the toll booth.

The first job was to hire boots, ice axes, crampons and transponders so we took our first trip of the week to Snell (the outdoor / equipment rental shop).

After the big Italian feed, myself and David went shopping for food for the next few days on the mountain, while Sham and Daire went to get the car before it was locked in the car park for the night!

After getting the gear, the food, and finding the car again, it was time to start looking for the hostel. After a couple of laps of the town we decided we’d pull in and look at a map. After a few minutes of the two pilots “discussing” where we were David pointed out that the hostel was right in front of us.

We got settled in, sorted our gear, got showers and got our early night… at 11:30!!!

Day two started at some ridiculously early hour, so ridiculous in fact that the kitchen wasn’t open and we had to unpack again and eat our breakfasts in a beer garden out of mess tins with our sporks. Making lunch was more of the same: routin’ trying to spread butter with penknives and sandwich bags everywhere.

We packed the car up for the trip to the cable car and off we went.

At the bottom of the cable car the car park was going to cost us a small fortune so we unloaded what we needed and Daire left the car back to the hostel. When he came back walking we set of for the ticket office. It was about now that someone realised he left his ice axe in the seat of the car!!

When David got back we got the cable car to the top of Aiguille du Midi (3800m ish)

We roped up and did the last few checks and off we went down the middle of that fairly steepish ridge. What were we thinking!!

When we reached the safety of the flatter ground we took a few deep breaths and headed out on to the glacier to find our home for the night, Refugio Torino in Italy. Daire took the first fall when the far side of a crevasse gave way. We have him home alive with us Scouts, your not getting rid of him that easy!

I was the next one to go when the side of a snow bridge I was on gave way. I caught the far side with my axe so I climbed out fairly easy.

When we reached the Italian side of the valley they told us that the Refuge was a short, €5 per person cable car down the far side!

What they didn’t tell us was that in fact the Refuge was half way between the two cable car stations, 247 or so steps back up! With gear we were carrying and the thin air at that altitude it seemed like a lot more.

After another early start we looked out the window and realised we couldn’t see too far. The forecast for the day was changeable so we decided we would wait it out for a while.

At around twelve o’clock the cable car man said he would send us across so we decided we would do that instead of risking the bad weather and maybe getting lost on the glacier in the fog. We forgot that getting the cable car across to the French side meant going back down that steep ridge to get to Refuge de Cosmique. We got to Cosmique and got rid of some gear before we headed for a short walk before dinner.

A few games of “Switch (Only speaking Irish)” we got the food.

Dinner in Cosmique was much nicer than in Torino: Bacon, Cabbage and Spuds, with soup and cheese for starters and buns with cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.

We were sitting at a table with some Spanish mountaineers who were going for Mont Blanc that night. We asked them what the highest mountain in Spain was and was it tough to climb. Apparently it’s in Tenerife and there’s a cable car nearly to the top. I’m calling that one Liam!

After a few more card games we headed for the leabas.

We rose about 7am and had our breakfast. We geared up paid our bill and left Cosmique. We walked around a bit and had a look at a few crazy lads paragliding before heading back up the ridge for the cable car back to Chamonix. Daire and Sham went back to the hostel for the car while myself and David waited with the gear. We couldn’t wait to get showers and head into town for a big feed. We had to get lunches and batteries etc. for the next two days climb of Mont Blanc.

When Daire made it back to us he told us the hostel was closed until half four, which was two hours away so that meant we couldn’t have showers or sort our gear out. We were back to living in the beer garden. We had baby wipe and lynx showers and changed into shorts to go for food.

Just as we’re nearly ready the hostel man came and let us in. We got proper showers and the gear unpacked. We headed off for the town. We went for our second trip to Snell where we bought the other things we needed for the next two days.

We should have waited until we looked at the weather before we spent money.

The weather report was not good for the coming few days and even worse at altitude. We talked about our options over dinner… and dessert… and coffee! We eventually reached the decision that it wasn’t worth the risk and we unfortunately had to call it off. We were all disappointed and we talked about changing our flights and looked into what would be the cheapest thing to do now. We went for a few drinks and went home to bed.

We got up after our lie in and headed into town in search of an internet café to change flights, top up phones and look into things to do in Chamonix, and of course for the heavy breakfast. We found everything we needed in Mojos. We spent the day looking around Chamonix and of course Snell… again!

In the afternoon we decided we would go for a swim, so we went and bought shorts for the pool and got our towels etc. We were greeted in the pool with a sign saying “NO SHORTS, BATHING SUIT HIRE AVAILABLE” this is where Daire decided he was tired and went back to the hostel for a lie down! Us other three decided to head in anyway! There’s a story going around of someone dropping the soap in the shower, but its all lies so I’m not going to mention it! But it was the soap dispenser I knocked of the wall, just to clear that one up!

We packed up, looked around more shops… and Snell, then we had a big Italian dinner and a couple of beverages that evening, before heading soberly and quietly, without getting lost on the railway, back to the hostel.