The unmistakable profile of Mont Blanc
The one who has met Oscar Gogorza you will know that there is nothing holding you back from taking a car or a plane, traveling halfway around the world, and discovering and climbing the most spectacular peaks and difficult on the planet. This impulse led him to unite his career, journalism, with his great passion, managing to reach an intermediate point between vocation and devotion. The editor of the magazine Base Camp It helps us regain faith in a peak that has only left misfortunes (unfortunately) in the newspaper archives in recent months. Turn for him to recover his role as a guide to a mountain that he has already climbed. on 8 occasions.
Before starting with the particular class of him, it should be clarified that, although the Mont Blanc It has several ways to trample it, the previous route is always similar: reach the French town of Chamonix and there take the spectacular Aiguille du Midi cable car to spend the night in the controversial (because of its high price and its improvable food) mountain refuge ** Cosmiques **, at about 3600 meters high. The next day he plays early, have breakfast, pray that the damn altitude sickness doesn't affect you, and leave to reach the summit to return the same day. Short-lived reward but usually produces indescribable joy among those who achieve it.
Mont Blanc turns gold at sunset
The first thing that Oscar clarifies is that, by far, Mont Blanc is not the most complicated peak to climb on the Old Continent. “Higher does not mean harder and this is something that the uninitiated public has a hard time understanding. On the normal Mont Blanc routes you don't climb, you just walk" . Of course, when you choose to climb "it is difficult because it requires technique and knowledge," he says. In addition, he warns that "we must not forget that Mont Blanc is a high mountain, where a sudden change in weather can turn the place into a mousetrap . Without being difficult, you do have to have serious knowledge of cramponing, self-arrest, glacier circulation, etc.”
For the uninitiated, there is always an increasingly common alternative: hire a guide for the occasion, which can cost between €500 and €2,000, depending on the services, although most usually include some material and, of course, the experience of the professionals themselves.
This is causing it to become a very popular tourist attraction: "It is becoming more and more common for 'amateurs' to hire guides because it is an excellent way to take pressure off and delegate the necessary logistics to face mountains of this type" Oscar nuances. But this is not the only reason for his 'overbooking' since the same thing happens to "all the mountains that are the roof of..."
Once it is clear that it is not for amateurs who go it alone, the question is clear: How much training and preparation time is required? "Everything depends on the state of form, physical aptitude and, above all, experience in the mountains" Oscar replies. “The logical thing is to go to Mont Blanc when one has already trodden several Pyrenean 'three thousand' in winter and knows the technique of glacial progression” he specifies.
"Mountaineering was born on Mont Blanc, it is an iconic mountain steeped in history"
The avalanche that occurred just a month ago, which claimed the lives of 9 climbers from an international rope, put Mont Blanc back on the news pages. However, this accident is not an isolated event since, according to the Chamonix Gendarmerie, about 40 people die each year. Faced with these figures, Oscar Gogorza clarifies: “ There are two types of dangers: objective and subjective . The objective dangers are there and we cannot (almost) control them: avalanches, rock falls, hidden crevasses, ice sheets... And the subjective ones are those that refer to our errors: judgment, clothing, material, of inexperience, of lack of technical expertise”. And he adds: “ Many accidents are the consequence of poor subjective hazard management . For example, if I go out knowing that there is a risk of storms and I am struck by lightning, then it is my mistake. The same if I don't put on my crampons and slip on a sheet of ice”.
Advice that can be applied to any mountain or crag. In the end, the subjective decision is what exposes each climber to risk. However, in the case of Monte Bianco (as it is known in Italy), dangers can be avoided by taking advantage of summer, on paper, the best time to tread it.
But do not spread panic. To conclude, he tells us why it is such a special peak. “Mount Blanc was born in mountaineering, it is an iconic mountain steeped in history. It is a must for any mountain lover ”, Although he clarifies that“ one should not be obsessed with it, nor hang a medal for having stepped on its top ”.