MONT BLANC

FRANCE ITALY / 4810m

If you have the fitness to put in a few strenuous hill days and are experienced in climbing or winter hill walking, it might be time to turn your attention to western Europe’s highest peak. Mont Blanc is mostly untechnical and though high enough to make the climb challenging, isn’t so high as to be far out of reach of fit British hillwalkers. Almost every guiding company which operates in the Alps offers trips to the top and with easy access from the UK, it’s a no-brainer in terms of big peaks to tick off easily.

But there are more reasons than plain pragmatism to climb Mont Blanc. The Alps are tremendous and arriving in Chamonix is as close as you can get, as an adult, to arriving in Disneyland as

a kid. On either side of the deep clefted valley, mountains sheer upwards. They are really high. That sounds redundant of course, but the impression that you get, while standing in the streets below, especially if most of your walking has been in the UK, is one of giants. At night, the shining lights of the mountain huts can easily be mistaken for stars. And while Mont Blanc is relatively straightforward, the peaks around it are not. Toothy rocks jut up all over the range, intimidating and magnificent. Standing among them, you feel you’re in a very different kind of landscape to that experienced in the UK. And then there’s the satisfaction of scratching one of the world’s best known peaks down in your mountain CV.