Tim Neill Guiding

Final narrow ridge towards the summit of France

Early morning view over Col du Midi towards Verte and Droites from Dome du Gouter

The very welcoming and friendly Vittorio Emanuelle hut

South side of Mt Blanc Range from the Paradiso

For the first week of September the objective was to summit Mt Blanc with a team of six great guys from back home in Northern Ireland. With Dave Hollinger again we took the team through to Val Savarenche and all summited the Gran Paradiso with a couple of nights either side in the VE hut as our acclimation plan (with a cruisy ascent and summit picnic making the most of the thinner air).

Andy Nelson kindly joined us for our days on Mt Blanc and after putting aside some apprehensions the crew strolled up to the Tete Rousse hut and attempted some shut eye ready for the early start. With unbelievably perfect weather we all set off around 2 30 am and soon split up all finding our own team pace. Everyone did super well on the intimidating climb up to the Gouter in the pitch black and as the sun rose we were treated to a perfect alpine dawn with an amazing shadow of our summit being cast over the low cloud out west.

By digging deep the whole team summited and were treated with warm and calm (relatively) summit conditions….enough for another picnic!! A few other friends were there too, all enjoying an immense panorama.

After a pep talk about concentrating and suitably rested we all trundled down and eventually reached the hut again for a few beers, a great feed and a well earned sleep.

Six great friends, two other superb Mountain guides, a fantastic week of weather and mountain conditions all aligned to make the week one of the most rewarding of the summer for me, especially as I hadn’t guided Mt Blanc for 11 or so years!