A Photo of me on the way up to the Aiguille de Midi…just a few years ago!

Just three weeks until Andrew, Dave, James and I head off to the Alps and Mont Blanc.

I should have climbed it 35 odd years ago with a friend, Mick Thornewill, but a fledgeling business took priority and I dropped out. I think Mick was a little annoyed, but I had to decide what was more important at the time and work won, as it did for many years to come. Mick summited Mont Blanc with his father, which is a feat I know he cherishes. Mick in later years went on to walk to the North and South Poles with his wife Fiona: an amazing accomplishment.

So here I am 35 years later doing the same as Mick’s father and climbing Mont Blanc with my son. The only difference is we’ll be taking a guide. Ben Bradford of Vertical Frontiers, a guide Ann Faulks has arranged and comes highly recommended. It’s still a bit of a gamble, climbing with someone you don’t know. I have done it a number of times now and only once has the experience turned sour due to a clash of personalities. Ann, though, has not yet disappointed.

We are taking the ‘normal route’ i.e. the Gouter Route from the French side. I wanted to do the route from the Italian side as it’s less frequented, therefore more to my liking, but at the time of year that I wanted to do it, the Refugios would be closed. So the Gouter Route it had to be.

We will, however, be climbing the Gran Paradiso, which is wholly on the Italian side as an acclimatisation peak. At just over 4,000 metres, it will hopefully prepare us for the slightly rarefied air of Mont Blanc at 4,810 metres.

Can’t remember whether or not I mentioned that I made an almighty cock-up with the Mont Blanc trip and a family holiday to Norway. I accidentally overlapped the two holidays by two days!!! Not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but to be honest, not the dumbest either! So instead of flying home from Geneva, I’m flying, via Copenhagen to Trondheim in Norway to catch up with the Hurtigruten ship there when it comes into port on the Monday. I did manage to redeem myself slightly by being able to join the cruise just two days in. I do, however, miss the train journey from Oslo to Bergen, which I was looking forward to, as it was this train journey 10 years ago that was cancelled because the ship broke down at Tromso in northern Norway and we were flown directly home, missing that section of the holiday!

Excited to be going back to the mountains again.