As you may recall, Chamonix and Mont Blanc specifically, hold a special place in my heart. Last year, I posted a story on my old blog (which I’m still trying resurrect), which described how I sensed Emma’s physical home was on Mont Blanc. I expected my return to Chamonix to inhibit the same emotions I felt last year and eventually it did – but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s continue with our journey.
The team spent a rainy day traveling by train from Zermatt to Chamonix, France, which is the birthplace of mountaineering. It is a beautiful town, which is much less expensive than Zermatt and has plenty of climbing enthusiasts from all over the world. Many of the world’s premier alpinists call Chamonix home, and for good reason. It is nestled between many countless peaks offering technical challenges where are rarely found with this much infrastructure. The entire town is dedicated to essentially three things: Skiing (Chamonix was home to the first Winter Olympics), mountain biking and of course, climbing. While walking around downtown, it is not unusual to see climbers dressed in full mountain climbing regalia walking along side people window shopping.
Our first day was met with more rain. Zoe and Farmer had the brilliant idea of traveling via the telepheric up to the Aiguille du Midi (3842 m) 
which is home to the Mont Blanc observatory, tourist trap and restaurant. The “Midi” is part of an outcrop of rock that sits adjacent to Mont Blanc. I had the pleasure of climbing , a specific section of this rock called the Arete Cosmiques last year. Our guides’ idea was to go above the weather and climb this arete again. 
As we got above the clouds, it was evident that this was the perfect strategy, and the sun was shinning brightly at the Midi. We had a wonderful day of rock climbing while wearing crampons 
and culminating with an ascent on to the observation deck 
in front of all the tourists. Just like the Breithorn, there was plenty of exposure, but the climbing was less difficult as our bodies started to finally generate enough red blood cells for the thin air. We were almost acclimatized. Here’s a link to the photos on Flickr.
The next day, we decided to back off from the snow, and spend time working on our rock climbing skills. We headed up the valley to small rocky peak called Aiguille L’Index (8514 ft / 2595 m) 
, which was accessible via a chair lift via Les Pras (the town north of Chamonix). The group chose two different routes to the top of the peak, one via an easier 5.7 climb, and the other via a 5.8/5.9 path. The climb was about 7 pitches from bottom to top and took the better part of the morning. Our goal was to complete this climb before yet another storm system came in through the valley. It was a very fun day, and we all had a great time working on our skills.
. Photos from L’Index can be found on Flickr.
As the weather turned bad, the following day we decided to yet again try to find a climbing objective that was above the bad weather. Brooks, who had been out for 4 days due to illness, could finally join us again, so we picked a high altitude objective that was not difficult but would challenge us to use all of our acquired skills to date. The guides came up with the plan to climb Pointe Lachenal (11853 ft / 3613 m) which is an arête that is found on the southern slope of Mont Blanc du Tacul – aka the first of three summits of the Mont Blanc massif. We ascended to the Midi via the telepheric and began the long slog in white out through thigh high powder to reach the base of this objective. It was a tedious walk to Pointe Lachenal, and as we walked closer and closer to Mont Blanc I could feel my little girl Emma again. It was mesmerizing. The crunching sound of our crampons in the snow, covered up the shallow crying that was bellowing from deep inside me. Tears were freezing as they rolled down my cheeks. It was a wonderful, but sad feeling. Eerily, when we stopped to rest, Zoe mentioned to Farmer that she received a text that one of their friends just gave birth to a new baby. I’d like to think it coincided with the sensation I had of Emma a few minutes earlier. Along with those thoughts, it became clear that the following day, Peter Wall, the doctor who brought Emma into this world, was going to make a run at the summit of Mont Blanc. Events were starting align themselves again, in only a way Emma could arrange. I began having thoughts that I should attempt Mont Blanc again too, but I realized that this was Peter’s quest and Em wanted to say hi to him this time.
With those emotions swirling around my insides, we reached the base of Pointe Lachenal, and Armand, Brooks, and Zoe decided to turn around and head back to Chamonix. Peter, Farmer and I threw caution to the wind and decided to climb. We were still in a whiteout but we could see the climbing objective, so we thought why not climb? Well, after 3 pitches of moderate ice and rock, thunder started screaming across the sky.
After the fourth array of thunder we realized we needed to get the hell out of there in a hurry. We quickly lowered back down to the powder covered glacier, and began the long journey to the Midi. After 10 minutes, Zoe phoned Farmer to let him know that bad weather was causing the telepheric (aka our only way back to Chamonix) to close down very shortly. Uh oh. With that the three of us very briskly walked across the glacier to the Midi. At times, it felt like we were running at 12,500 feet. Our speedy work paid off, and arrived back at the Midi to catch the last run back to Chamonix accompanied by all the employees of the Midi. Whew. Photos from Pointe Lachenal can be found on Flickr.
The climb up Point Lachenal culminated our exclusive tour with only Zoe and Farmer. We had two additional guides scheduled to join us the following day, where our ratio would be one guide per climber, so we needed a plan to utilize these extra guides effectively. We agreed as a group, that each person had autonomy to climb with a guide as they saw fit. As I mentioned above, Peter chose to make a run at Mont Blanc, while the rest of us decided that the sunshine of Italy was calling us.
Our journey continues the next day in northwestern Italy, at Gran Paradiso, the tallest peak entirely encompassed within the country’s borders.
NOTE: Photos from Chamonix can be found on Flickr. These photos are from all the participants and retain all the rights entitled to each person. No photo may be reproduced without the permission of Climb For Kids or the original photographer.
