Mont Blanc 2010 'FPV' - Tête-Rousse hut to Summit

Ascending Mont Blanc via the Gouter route. Video starts at the departure from the 1st (Tête-Rousse) hut at an altitude of about 3170m. We climb to the Goûter hut at 3835m. We sleep and wake up early to depart for the summit, and descend all the way back down. Video ends at the summit. Between the 'private hikes' right before and the guided climbs to 4000m Gran Paradiso in Italy and the 4800m Mont Blanc I got a nasty cold, which took away a lot of my energy and ability to adapt to the altitude. This made this adventure for me as much a challenge as it was absolutely stunning and amazing to complete :) I received some questions from people wondering if they would be physically fit enough for an adventure like this. But physical fitness is just one of the requirements for roping up and going high altitude. Consider physical fitness the boots, mental endurance the jacket, and a natural desire to work hard to experience the greatness of nature the pants. All three are equally necessary if you want it to be an awesome experience no matter what the elements throw at you or setbacks you get to deal with. Roped up on the steep slopes of Mont Blanc, it's not the right time to discover you don't have what it takes. A guided expedition + preparations will take like 2000+ euros out of your pocket, and by turning around you'll force the others on the rope to do the same thing. So how do you know you got what it takes? You don't. Indeed the Gouter route doesn't present much technical challenge. And even a regular smoking non-endurance-sports-person can successfully summit Mont Blanc via this route (if the elements cooperate). -While a regular marathon runner might fail if acclimatization isn't taken seriously enough. Speaking for myself, I did some hiking in the alps, with 3600m Monte Vioz in Italy being the initial high point in the early 2000s. True preparation started in 2008 when the dream had totally picked up again, and I successfully finished the Gokyo-Everest BC trail. This exceeded all expectations in beauty and power of nature. It's the closest I have come to paradise. I made acquaintance with high altitude and (dealing with) the effects it had on myself and others in the group. in 2010 I went back to Scotland to train on Ben Nevis via the CMD arete route, and afterwards it was back to the Alps for some hiking and eventually participating in the organized expedition to 4000m Gran Paradiso in Italy for acclimatization and getting experience with walking on the rope. the same day we descended from the hut on Gran Paradiso, we climbed to the first hut on Mont Blanc.