What's it like hiking Gran Paradiso
Day 1
• We start from Chamonix, a little town on the French side where the guide picks us up from our hotel we stayed the night before
• The guide drives us to the Italian side and through the Aosta valley
• The hike officially starts at 9am. We walk through a beautiful well- maintained trail through green forest and as we get higher, the landscape gradually changes to grassland
• We take several mini breaks all the way through the hike enjoying the beautiful panoramically scenic view
• It takes around 5 hours to reach the Chabod Hut (2,750 m.)
• For a many people the Chabod Hut is their destination and they will make their way back down the same day. For us this is where we will stay overnight to climatize
• During the stay you will get a crash course on some of the mountaineering equipment if you mention to the guide that you are not familiar with them. Learn how to use crampons, rope harness, helmet, and an axe
• The hut serve you dinner to load you up with calories for the summit day. Lots of meat and pasta
Day 2
• We get up at around 3AM and have a very small breakfast (toast and jam)
• By 4AM, with headlamps on, we head out
• We were told that the weather forecast was not on our side that day and we had to go fast because a storm was coming :/
• We walk on thick snow in the dark and in absolute silence
• As soon as we got to the Laveciau Glacier (3,200 m.) we attached the crampons to our shoes and everyone in the team got all roped up to the harness in case anyone accidentally steps on the crevasse
• It was getting really cold. My hands were just numb. The gloves didn’t help
• As we continued to hike up higher, the sun started to rise. This is where we lose one of our team members to altitude sickness. He was throwing up non-stop. We had to continue to the ridge to wait for a faster team who are coming down so he can go down with them
• Our guide basically had to drag him up until we reach the ridge
• And by the time we reached the ridge I was exhausted and out of breath! The elevation was getting to me too
• This is where we felt the affect of the snow storm. The visibility went down to zero, I could not even see the end of my numb hands but we kept going. I was walking with my eyes closed at that point.
• There were stuck on the final ridge literally 100 meters from the summit due to traffic of people walking up there to take a selfie with the Madonna statue
• We were getting too cold to stay there and so the guide told us that we should making out way down and we all agreed so we came down without actually stepping on the summit :( but it was just right there!
• It was not over, the descend was worse due to the soggy snow by that time making it really hard to walk
• plus my legs were shaking the whole way down
• We made our way down to another hut, Emanuel hut, to have a tea break then continue all the way down to the town
• It took us 4 hours to get down while it took our guide 2 hours. We arrived at the starting point at almost 6 pm
• I don't know if I can claim the 4,016 meters as I didn't actually touch the statue but yes very proud of this hike
• My legs were severely sore for the whole week after
Tips:
• We booked the hike through high-mountain-guides. The program includes mountain guide, the stay at Chabod hut and any gears you need
• We stayed at Chamonix Lodge the night before the hike. Very comfortable and clean
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