Anna Blackmore
Climbing Mont Blanc @ 50
Fundraising for Volunteering Matters
Story
Hello, welcome to the last few days of my page and merry Christmas and happy new year,
Climbing Mont Blanc for my 50th birthday was one of the hardest things I've ever done and asking people to sponsor me to raise money for befriending schemes for the elderly added extra 'interest' and challenge!!
I returned from my adventure, 50 years old, wiser (I hope) and with a much, much deeper, healthier respect for and awe of the mountains. It was a FAR tougher venture than I had had imagined and I was not very well prepared, particularly for the altitude.
We started from the Italian side, took 3 and a half hours to cross the Glacier du Geant and the next day climbed a route called 3M, Mont Blanc de Recul, Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc - 14 hours up and down. It is graded slightly higher than the most popular route from Chamonix and involved a bit of actual ice climbing (a bit of a shock to me!). There were three of us, a friend, Ane, her partner, Nikos Hadjis, a professional mountain climber, instructor and guide (tel. 00 30 693 8000 699, www.telemarkski.gr) and me. We made it to within 100 metres of the summit, but it would have taken another hour or more at the pace we were reduced to by then (it had become a HUGE effort for me, with the altitude, to step just 6 inches at a time, against a terrible wind and being blasted by something like a horizontal hail storm!!). The weather was getting worse, ominous clouds were gathering and Nikos decided that it was getting too dangerous to be out there. I had wanted to go on but suddenly it sunk in to me that, if anything went wrong, there would be NO RESCUE, we were a VERY VERY long way from civilisation and no helicopters could fly in that weather. There was absolutely no point in pushing for the summit at the possible cost of our lives (some 60 people a year die on Mont Blanc!). Nikos was so concerned about the weather conditions that he then really tried to rush us back down.... I was exhausted by the altitude, dehydration (my water had all frozen solid) and the long hard climb up. My legs behaved like over cooked macaroni, I kept falling and sometimes I could hardly walk at all, let alone go fast and I had to stop every few metres to lean on my ice axe and suck some deep breaths into my lungs. The descent was in some ways harder than the ascent and, of course, it is not all downhill.....
I can really say that I was pushed to the limits of my endurance and somewhat beyond. I have NEVER done anything that comes even close to this extremity. I tried fixing my mind on the summit but my world shrunk to the immediate goal of just putting one foot in front of the other and getting to the top of the next slope so I could rest a while. I was moving as if I were a 100 years old, not a mere 50! I feel humbled, but I have no regrets. I think have learned some lessons which I may expand upon shortly but, for now, need to ponder a while..... My cause is just and deserving and I hope you think my effort was sufficient for you to sponsor me for as much as you can and help raise money to improve the care and quality of life for old people. in our society growing old is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of all. Anna x
Climbing Mont Blanc for my 50th birthday was one of the hardest things I've ever done and asking people to sponsor me to raise money for befriending schemes for the elderly added extra 'interest' and challenge!!
I returned from my adventure, 50 years old, wiser (I hope) and with a much, much deeper, healthier respect for and awe of the mountains. It was a FAR tougher venture than I had had imagined and I was not very well prepared, particularly for the altitude.
We started from the Italian side, took 3 and a half hours to cross the Glacier du Geant and the next day climbed a route called 3M, Mont Blanc de Recul, Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc - 14 hours up and down. It is graded slightly higher than the most popular route from Chamonix and involved a bit of actual ice climbing (a bit of a shock to me!). There were three of us, a friend, Ane, her partner, Nikos Hadjis, a professional mountain climber, instructor and guide (tel. 00 30 693 8000 699, www.telemarkski.gr) and me. We made it to within 100 metres of the summit, but it would have taken another hour or more at the pace we were reduced to by then (it had become a HUGE effort for me, with the altitude, to step just 6 inches at a time, against a terrible wind and being blasted by something like a horizontal hail storm!!). The weather was getting worse, ominous clouds were gathering and Nikos decided that it was getting too dangerous to be out there. I had wanted to go on but suddenly it sunk in to me that, if anything went wrong, there would be NO RESCUE, we were a VERY VERY long way from civilisation and no helicopters could fly in that weather. There was absolutely no point in pushing for the summit at the possible cost of our lives (some 60 people a year die on Mont Blanc!). Nikos was so concerned about the weather conditions that he then really tried to rush us back down.... I was exhausted by the altitude, dehydration (my water had all frozen solid) and the long hard climb up. My legs behaved like over cooked macaroni, I kept falling and sometimes I could hardly walk at all, let alone go fast and I had to stop every few metres to lean on my ice axe and suck some deep breaths into my lungs. The descent was in some ways harder than the ascent and, of course, it is not all downhill.....
I can really say that I was pushed to the limits of my endurance and somewhat beyond. I have NEVER done anything that comes even close to this extremity. I tried fixing my mind on the summit but my world shrunk to the immediate goal of just putting one foot in front of the other and getting to the top of the next slope so I could rest a while. I was moving as if I were a 100 years old, not a mere 50! I feel humbled, but I have no regrets. I think have learned some lessons which I may expand upon shortly but, for now, need to ponder a while..... My cause is just and deserving and I hope you think my effort was sufficient for you to sponsor me for as much as you can and help raise money to improve the care and quality of life for old people. in our society growing old is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of all. Anna x