Mont Blanc 4810 m, 31 July 2023

We waked up early on the morning so as to be able to get the first ride at Telepherique Bellevue at 07:35. That was important because we had to get on the Alpinist train that goes to last station Nid D’Aigle. The Telepherique stop at Bellevue and there we got the first train at 07:55. The ticket for the Telepherique of Bellevue cost 22 Eur/person back and forth and is valid even for the train till Nid D’Aigle. Be careful! You will not be allowed to get on the train if you do not show a reservation at one of the refuges, Refuge de la Tete Rousse or Refuge de Goûter. Next station is Mont Lachat. We got of the train at Last Station Nid D’Aigle 2374m. We started the hike at around 08:10. The trail is easy to be follow and during the summer period there are many hikers goings up and down. After two hours of hiking, 3.2km, 795m elevation gain, we stopped for check-in at Refuge de la Tete Rousse 3168m as we had reserved there. The plan was to stay one night at Refuge de la Tete Rousse 3168m and next day to proceed to the summit and return to Refuge de Goûter. But as the weather forecast for 01 August 2023 was super windy, and with snow, we decided to give a shot the same day.
We left Refuge de la Tete Rousse 3168m at 11:00. Walking through Grand Couloir 50m was easy as the temperature this year are low and we did not see any massive stonefall. After this part the hike is mostly scrambling by help of ropes. We reached the Refuge de Goûter 3815m after 2 hours at 13:00, 2.5km elevation gain 650m. Here we put on the crampons to proceed for the summit.
We left Refuge de Goûter 3815m at 14:00 and after this point there was only clouds and snow. And we could not see anything. Close to the summit the wind speed was high smth like 40-50 km/h. After 3 hours of ascending we reached Mount Blanc summit at 17:05. We were lucky as the clouds were till 4700 m altitude so eventually at the summit we were above clouds and had a wonderful view around. We stayed only 10 minutes at the summit and started the descent. We were at the Refuge de Goûter 3815m after 1 h 30 min, at 18:50 and put off our crampons as it is easier to go through rocks without crampons. We reached Refuge de la Tete Rousse on 20:10 and here we stopped our hike for that day.

Garmin Fenix 7 Solar Data
Distance from Nid D’Aigle to Summit Mont Blanc 12.3 km
Elapsed time till summit 9h
Total Distance 19.1 km
Total time 12h 23 min
Elevation gain 2709 m
Average speed 1.6 km/h
Average moving speed 2.8 km/h