Skiing Mont Blanc North Face from Chamonix

After watching the weather forecast all morning, Nate and I finally decided to go for Mont Blanc and left our apartment in Chamonix Sud at 1pm. We hiked up past the entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel to La Para and put our skis on at about 1,800m (6,000ft). We followed the path of the old tram up to Gare des Glaciers and traversed to the Glacier des Bossons. After a sketchy crossing of La Jonction on thin snow bridges we reached the Grand Mulets hut at 8pm after about 7,000ft of climbing. Thankfully it wasn't too later for dinner and we had some cream of mushroom soup and spaghetti carbonara with a few Alaskans before going to bed. We woke up at 3:30am and started up the climber's right variation to the Petit Plateau. This route is exposed to some seracs but the hut-keeper says he has only heard of two collapses in ten years. We quickly skinned across the Petit Plateau which is threatened by much more active seracs. We climbed a short step on the climber's left to gain the Grand Plateau and then headed climber's left (left of Le Corridor) to reach the Col de la Brenva. From here we climbed a short section of 50 degree ice on the ridge then made a slow high-altitude slog to the summit.
We skied ice off the summit back down our ascent route and then cut into the North Face where we found some soft snow. We stopped to make water and watched as clouds engulfed the summit. The snow quality deteriorated on the rest of the descent and by the bottom it was the worst isothermal mush I have ever skied. Finally, a couple hours of hiking back to Chamonix.
Music:
Chapelier Fou - Muance - Oracle
Chassol - Big Sun - Mario, Pt. II

[@dominiquedock]

Done this in …1983, as a training for the first descent on skis of the Gasherbrum II in July 1984. Nicely done you guys.

[@gobbidimerda1]

Respect

[@LaneAasen]

Amazing, such a perfect mountain!

[@patrickbrocart6969]

salut l'ami!je ne suis pas surpris de te lire..2000,j'avais enchainé les 3 monts en face nord en skis!!bonheur. bizz l’artiste

[@raphaelwellig5066]

Hello Lane I congratulate you on climbing Mont Blanc. Thank you for the interesting and informative film about Mont Blanc. I wish you great mountain tours. With alpine greetings Raphael Wellig

[@uptrack5235]

Those early morning shots - both the dark ones with the town lights below and the dawn shots were awesome!

[@buffplums]

Phew I thought this was going to be one of those really dangerous sports but you were in control all the way. Not suggesting it was a walk in the park but lethal in the wrong hands, you showed a sensible approach to what looked like an amazing experience and I bet that was some. Huge effort getting to the top. Take my hat off to you

[@olivierriviere7527]

Very nice. Thanks for helping the watchers dream. This reminds me of very nice souvenirs climbing in the area ..

[@MNNMism]

Thank you for the video to show how skiing off Mont Blanc looks like. I dreams of doing it. I would like to revisit Chamonix at least.

[@EthanPetersFilms]

Great video, love the simplicity. And the chassol! Keep it up

[@NoahRial-xb5fb]

Thank you for the video! I don't know if I have the ambition to get there myself, so it is terrific to have good films so I can travel there in my mind!

[@jimrockford3662]

Amazing. The wife and I rode the car up to Aguille du Midi winter 2019. That was nothing to what you two did over two days. Good on you.

[@SeekingSnow]

Nice adventure guys! And thanks for capturing it for me to watch. That looks pretty fun.

[@timbranton7950]

Chapeau gents. Good route and great video

[@rsuminsby]

Nice video. I skied a similar line on 2 May 22, but we got very view photos, so thanks for taking the time to document the descent! As you say on the video, extremely lucky on snow conditions!

[@benjamineliasamericus4073]

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@tomhausmann8993]

boys so cool!!! congrats

[@george-3412]

Nice video, been on the top in 2003, not with the ski though. It was heart-warming remembering some of the path.

[@marcwisdorf4092]

thumbs up, I'm 64 soon, but I would go! no mountaineering skills however might of snuck by on this one..Great video and tunes

[@dirtbagproductions6561]

Sweet video, sweet conditions!

[@tanimowo]

this channel is so underrated u toob did me a favor recommending u today

[@jf-be4zy]

Hey! No lift lines. Beautiful video. Thanks.

[@solipkim724]

Amazing, Amazing! So impressive. 너무 놀라서 말이 안나오네요. 정말 멋져요!

[@chrispony5000]

Very concise!

[@susannewilliams]

Nice one! Really solid.

[@morgantam1]

Good job!

[@georgeiftime6615]

Amazing 🙏🙏🙏

[@dominiclester3232]

Bravo!

[@chamonix4658]

Very nice, those cham sud apartments are so recognisable to me for some reason 😂

[@chamonixskiguide199]

Nice Video. Thanks...

[@asantucci]

Such an incredible lifetime achievement; well-done!

[@dirtbagseth]

I’ll bet that dinner and beer tasted great!

[@benjimun1]

jazz flute summit ! awesome

[@AlbaAdventures]

Impressive.

[@vipahman]

Sweet!

[@utk42]

Bravo 👏！！！

[@DRMET]

Impressive alpinism!

[@pieterveenders9793]

Cool that you went past the former cable cart station(s), I had no idea they still had the cable cabins in place there, interesting bit of history! You were probably one of few people at Grand Mulets? These days its hardly used anymore as a route to Mont Blanc's summit, everyone goes for either the normal route or the trois monts route. Congrats on your ascent btw!

[@LaneAasen]

Thank you! There were only a couple other parties at the Grand Mulets but it was a pretty small weather window

[@KushMax]

One day I’ll make it there.

[@kacper_mrowiec]

Sounds like my next goal 😸

[@PauloItaliano]

genial :)

[@Feve96]

nice music choice

[@adamseidel8901]

I can’t tell if he was kidding about the snow conditions. I guess it’s a matter of preference

[@guillaumeolgiati3331]

Nice video, thanks! One question, what date was your ascent? I want to do it this year as well but not sure when to go exactly :)

[@shellbolton2278]

Awesome video, do you think it is possible to traverse Glacier des Bossons and do the Grand Mulets route fully on foot to the summit and down again? I have booked in at the Grand Mulets hut.

[@LaneAasen]

Yes, it's common to do this route on foot except for the North Face part

[@natalieadam2]

Hell no, too many crevasses.

[@marcolecci2260]

Ciao Guys! Just a curiosity: why did you go for col de la brenva and not for les grandes bosses? I think is shorter from the vallot, or not? Anyway: beautiful climb and beautiful edit!

[@LaneAasen]

We heard from Luca at the Grand Mulets that there was a lot of exposed glacial ice on the Bosses making it more complicated than normal. There was also an afternoon storm in the forecast and we wanted the option to bail on skis if the weather turned. From the Brenva route it's easy to skip the last 1,000ft to the summit and ski down the lower N face if necessary. Fortunately the weather held just long enough for us to summit!

[@michelericci4263]

How you know that there are no crevasses below the snow while skiing in between some of them? anyway: The edit is S U P E R!

[@LaneAasen]

Thank you! There are definitely crevasses underneath the snow but in the spring there is a lot of snow covering them on the upper mountain. When we skied across the Glacier des Bossons we used a rope since there wasn't much snow at that elevation.

[@antoninovaccaro9216]

Well done. Tech question. You we're both using "heavy" boots (Hoji and Zero G). Was it worth it? I mean carryng that weight is worth for skiing? I'm planning this descent as well and using Hoji, but looking for somehing more agile and lightweight.

[@LaneAasen]

The boots were a bit heavy for this and I would have used lighter boots and skis if I could have but the Zero Gs were all I brought to the Alps. Lighter would have been nice!

[@user-qq1eu9xe7g]

Amazing ! Was this in May 2022?

[@LaneAasen]

This was April 20-21 2022

[@Ritchie1]

That’s some fruity hand placement on your poles

[@lucacapozzi6972]

C'è ancora una grossa lite tra Italia e Francia che dura da secoli dove affettivamente sia la cima se in Francia o in Italia ! Pare che la cima si trovi 4810 mt e non a 4807 !

[@LaneAasen]

Haha, seems like nobody can agree on the elevation either!

[@lucacapozzi6972]

@@LaneAasen 😅

[@Cadomania]

@@LaneAasen Elevation is changing since there's an ice cap on the mountain. Mont Blanc's "nationality" is only disputed by a few Italians, the rest of the world is ok with it being french... nobody calls it Monte Bianco..

[@dagmaraseta7]

What about the new cravace at 4500-4600? How is the way up and down there?

[@LaneAasen]

I think that's by the Grande Bosse. We went the other way from the Col de la Brenva like on the Trois Monts route so we didn't encounter that crevasse.

[@user-tz3fy9ud3o]

You didn't slept all night at all? Two days of ascent?

[@martinmoshin]

1:36 Who did them? Rabbit/Harre?

[@LaneAasen]

Possibly a marten but I'm not sure. Cool to see tracks so high though! Those are some impressive animals.

[@cpm4317]

👏👏 had a good night at 3500m? 😂 Your footage is great but looks far too "risk free".

[@LaneAasen]

Great night at the Grand Mulets! We were too busy running under the seracs to film the Petit Plateau section

[@francovaderno3532]

Very 'experienced' ski-alpinstes! I would like to find the same insurance for a save traversing crevasses! Can you tell us the name of this insurance💀?

[@guillaumemerakeb4037]

A little bit of luck, experience, rope and skis + following the route

[@johnmartin5240]

Pot luck insurance ltd.

[@cictorprivat2850]

Can I also get up there by lift or gondola? 😂

[@Cadomania]

You actually can go up to more or less 3500m by gondola if you take the 3 Monts route via Aiguille du midi.

[@99bx99]

Mont Blanc desperately needs a chair lift to the top.

[@michelericci4263]

no it does not. Stop building on the mountains!

[@annickstranieri5384]

la musique horrible