Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Eamon Costello sent us his detailed account of climbing Mt Blanc with a guiding company this summer. Eamon’s report makes great reading for anyone thinking of climbing the peak - and closely matches my own experience in 2003 (although a storm took us off the peak 400m from summit).

Twenty past one my alarm goes off. Bolt upright in bed. There is a tremendous rustling as people jump out of bed, root about in their packs and pull on clothes furiously. There is not much talking. I chat briefly to one of my friends he says he didn’t sleep one wink, his breathing felt funny and he had mild headaches. Out from the sleeping annex into the howling wind and into the main eating hall of the Goûter for breakfast of the damned. Confusion. Guide berates me for taking someone else’s tea. I can’t understand what he’s saying. Refuge staff have filled my thermos with litre of sweet tea. Leave our helmets and camelbacks in the Goûter but put headlamps on. I have my overtrousers on for the first time. Also my outer-shell jacket. Guide says just inner gloves for now. Big mistake.

I remember reaching the Gouter Hut on the way down, my gloves being solid block of ice and my poles being frozen up so I couldn’t close them for the rock section. Great memories!

Read Eamon’s full account here.

Must also send a shout out to two other guys I knew who successfully summited last week.

(Image Credit: Eamon Costello)