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Super fantastic day. I only had today completely free, so, even though the wind was predicted to be highest up high today and even though I had arrived in the country 12hrs before, I was headed up.

Goddamn it's a big up! You grunt and groan and work hard for a couple hours and gain 7000' and you still have almost another 6k' to go! Damn!

Things were going great to Aguille du Gouter. I ran the ridge over and then made a long stop to put on my Kahtoola KTS crampons and long tights and shell. Then put my head down and got to work grunting up the giant snowfields/glaciers. The wind just got worse and worse the higher I went, but the sun was blazing and whenever I got in a little wind shadow behind a ridge (very brief and rare) it was an absolutely gorgeous day. I would've been far more comfortable with my puffy on, but it wasn't necessary and I was just to lazy to ever get it out.

The wind was ripping so hard, though, that the knife ridges up high were legit sketch. There were a few spots that a light little axe would've been ace, and prudent. So I just spent more than a little time with all four points of contact working in concert. Probably funny looking, but I needed to be secure.

15,777' is high! Definitely feels harder than Colorado 14ers. There was actually one big crevasse navigation this year, too, where you had to step across the crevasse and then climb the vertical scarp on the other side. Fixed handline, but falling in that maw would've been ballgame.

Actually got a couple summit shots, which was cool (when I was last up here two years ago, conditions were so shit that I was the only one on the summit).

Still windy as on the drop, but things are always so much easier when headed downhill at altitude. Knees held up surprisingly great all the way down the Gouter ridge navigating all the crowds, and were good for a while heading back down Chemin des Rognes, but damn that descent just goes on and on and on and I would've been happy to have it over at Col de Mont Lachat (train tracks), but there's still about 3500' to go there! Knees were getting pretty protestive by the end, but never critical. SO happy about that!

From the start of the actual trail (where I left my bike), couple hundred meters of vert up from the church/Carrefour:

Forstiere cabin - :36

Col de Mont Lachat - :55

Cabana des Rognes - 1:39

Tete Rousse - 2:04

Gouter hut - 2:45

Dome du Gouter - 3:25

Vallot hut - 3:38

Summit - 4:13

Vallot hut - 4:29

Gouter hut - 4:50

Tete Rousse - 5:12

Cabana des Rognes - 5:26

Col de Mont Lachat - 5:52

Back at bike - 6:25

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Anton Krupicka

Mont Blanc via Gouter from Les Houches

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21 w Hailey

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