Chamonix Summer Adventure Planning

[thatthang]

All,

I am hitting a wall on the planning for a last minute change to a trip I have in a few weeks and come here to humbly submit to the wisdom of the forum.

I am heading across the pond to climb the Matterhorn with a friend and due to his schedule I suddenly find myself with a few days to kill (September 8-11 to be exact). I immediately thought of Chamonix as my destination as I vowed to return there in the summer after being blown away on a ski trip a few years ago. Anyway, my first thought was to try to a snag a peak or aiguille. Grand Dru, Aiguilles de Blaitiere, Charmoz/ Grepon traverse, Aiguille Verte, and Noire De Peuterey, and even Mont Blanc came to mind. My delima is I'm alone and would need a guide for these technical missions. So question number one, is does anyone have any recs for summer guides for these types of climbs, that are affordable?

My second idea was to dial this back in and shoot for a pretty epic trek that I could do solo. I know the Haute Route is an option but I'm looking to get off the beaten path. A one or two night backpacking trip over some passes and along some ridges is what I'm thinking. Any recommendations here? Are there areas I can bivouac or do they really want to force you into the huts?

Well, that's about it. If anyone can help me that would be great. I did use the search feature and didn't really find any good summer Chamonix info.

Cheers!

[Jost Kobusch]

Hey Well I am not aware of your skills but you could try Mont Blanc solo- I did it in winter completely without any contact to people but in summer its crowded, so you have more safety. For this I would recoment the "Gouter route" starting from Les Houshes you can easily hike up and use a free bivouac place 2 hours away from the last station of the train (have a look on the map) if you are quick, you can make it to the Gouter hut and spend one or two nights there (optional you can put a tent in front of it, it is accepted but not really welcomed) from there you can start really early in the morning to go up to the summit of mont Blanc. Just ask people to join their rope team on the glacier or follow the tracks (there are many at this time of the year). If you want to take it easy you can use the bivouac du Vallot about 400m below the summit, but I warn you there is always some snow inside and the conditions are not that good…