Itinerary

Day 1: Depart USA evening, fly to Geneva

Day 2: Arrive in Geneva and take shuttle to Chamonix. Spend night in Hotel de L’Arve, Chamonix.  Meet at 7pm in hotel lobby for group dinner.

Day 3: Meet at 7:30am for breakfast and orientation, followed by a check of our equipment.  Afterwards we go into downtown Chamonix and pick up any last minute items along with lunch to go, leaving town by 10:00am.  We then head up to Le Tour and ride two lifts to access the trail.  After about 2½ hrs of hiking we arrive at the Albert Premier Hut 2700m/8,858ft.   In the afternoon we go over our snow school skills.  Students learn fundamentals of moving safely/efficiently on snow and ice slopes. Lodging will be in the hut with evening review of mountain navigation.

Day 4: After  breakfast at the hut we continue our skills review of knots and glacier travel  on the La Tour Glacier.  Upon completion of skills review we attempt to summit Aiguille Du Tour  3544m/11,627ft returning to the Albert Premier Hut in the evening.

Day 5: Waking up, have breakfast and leave the hut shortly after.  We go over more climbing skills then, descend back into the Chamonix valley retracing our steeps and riding the lifts down to town.  We spend this night at Hotel de L’Arve in Chamonix.

Day 6: We go over our equipment we need in the morning for our summit climb on Mont Blanc.  We ride the Bellevue Telepherique from Les Houches, once at the top of the tram we board the tramway Mont Blanc to the Nid D’Aigle (2372m/7,800ft).  From there we follow a main path on scree which divides the Glacier de la Griaz from the Glacier de Tete Rousse. It takes approximately 2½ hours to reach the Tete Rousse Hut (3167m/10,400ft).  That evening we sleep at the Tete Rousse Hut.

Day 7:  Waking up, have breakfast and leave the hut around midnight. From the hut we find ourselves ascending the Grand Couloir which is approx. 500m.  The upper part of the Couloir can be melted out involving some moderate scrambling over rocks (similar to late season on the Disappointment Cleaver route on Rainier).  From the top of the Grand Couloir we make our way  to the Gouter Hut (3817m/12,500ft).  We relax in the Gouter Hut and enjoy some hot tea.  From the hut we travel on glaciated terrain along a beautiful broad ridge line towards the summit (4808m/15775ft).  We aim to be on the summit around 9:00am, where we take a break and enjoy the scenery.   We then retrace our route back to the hut and then stay at Gouter Hut (3817m/ 12,500ft) that evening.

Day 8: Descend back down the Grand Couloir and all the way back to the Mont Blanc Tramway retracing our steps back to the valley.  Dinner is in town that evening.  If the weather is bad on day 7 and we can not summit, we try to make a summit attempt on day 8, if weather permits, and descend the same day.  Spend night in Chamonix at Hotel de L’Arve.

Day 9: Shuttle back to Geneva and fly home, or Continue on to Zermatt for the Matterhorn Extension.

Matterhorn Extension Itinerary:

Day 9: Arriving from Chamonix

Day 10: Rockclimbing Riffelhorn

Day 11: Walking Zermatt - Hörnlihut and go up a few meters on the Matterhorn

Day 12: Rockclimbing Fluhalp and stay overnight in Fluhalp

Day 13: Climbing Rimpfischhorn

Day 14: Rest day

Day 15: Going up to Hörnlihut

Day 16: Climbing Matterhorn

Day 17: Back to Country of Origin

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