Gran Paradiso is one of the premiere mountaineering objectives in the Alps. It’s often used a training route in preparation for Mont Blanc. That being said, it’s a fairly easy objective requiring a simple hike to a hut and then basic glacier travel up to the peak at 13,300 feet. The total elevation gain is ~7000 feet.

Chamonix is the classic base for Gran Paradiso with most trips leaving from the valley. However I am sure that you could arrange to depart from Geneva, Courmayeur, or other nearby towns. The typical route takes two days to do, with the first being the ascent to the hut, and the second being the push to the summit and then the full descent back to the car. However an aggressive itinerary could knock it all out in one day leaving extremely early from the parking lot.

Preparation

Fitness and Guiding

I felt very prepared for this route in terms of fitness and experience. I regularly hike to elevations around 13,000 feet, keep up good fitness levels, have experience navigating snow, ice, and rock in crampons, and have modest technical climbing experience. All of that together should be more than enough for a Gran Paradiso attempt. That being said, as I was traveling alone and don’t have strong glacier travel experience I knew that I would need to hire a guide.

I spent quite a lot of time researching guides and companies. There are many companies that offer packages for Gran Paradiso, however it is very hard to judge what kind of experience you will have, the size of the group you will be with, and the skill and fitness level of those in the group. A better alternative is to book a guide directly. I wanted one-on-one guidance on the route to improve my glacier travel skills and gain as much knowledge as possible. Overall I would recommend booking guides this way for any kind of objective around Chamonix — the experience is always measurably better.

I got connected to Dave Thexton through High Mountain Guides. Dave was available for my dates and very responsive and helpful. I would highly recommend him if you’re ever looking for a guide in Chamonix. In general though, you can Google around for recommended guides, and if they aren’t available they are quick to recommend good colleagues that are.

Dave laid out that we would depart from Chamonix around 8:30 AM on the first day, drive to the parking lot in Gran Paradiso National Park in Italy, and hike up to Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele for the night. We would depart on an alpine start the next morning for the peak, returning to the hut around noon, and then returning to the car by 3:00 PM. We would be back in Chamonix by 6:00 PM or so.

Speaking with Dave, this seems to be the best hut/route compared to alternatives.

Gear

I was coming into this trip as a last-minute plan fresh off of a sailing trip in southern Italy so I would need to cobble together some gear. Luckily Chamonix has no shortage of places to rent gear from and I found most of what I needed for rent at Snell Sports in downtown. The rest I could borrow from Dave, or purchase. The overall packing list was:

• Ice axe
• Helmet
• Crampons
• Mountaineering boots
• Sun hoody
• Thin fleece
• Summer hiking trousers
• Cap
• Thin gloves
• Thick, warm, waterproof gloves
• Waterproof upper shell
• Waterproof lower shell
• Buff
• Down jacket
• Warm socks
• Head lamp
• Category 4 glacier glasses
• Sleeping bag liner
• Mountaineering pack
• Personal items

The hut would provide food, water, blankets, and pillows making the pack delightfully light. I ended up bringing a few snacks to eat on the mountain which I was very glad I had.

The Route

Ascent to the Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele

The week before our planned dates the Alps were covered with wet weather, meaning that Gran Paradiso would have limited visibility and strong snow fall. Dave suggested we move our plan back by 1 day to align with a break in the weather which proved to be a great call.

From the parking lot in Gran Paradiso National Park, the hike up to the hut is straight forward. The valley is beautiful, but there is no sight of Gran Paradiso or even glacial ice or snow. The path up is steep but very well laid and I had no issue wearing my running shoes — a choice I highly recommend over wearing mountaineering boots.

It’s about 2000 feet over 2 or so miles up to the hut and we made absolutely great time, getting to the hut in about 1.5 hours.

The Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele

The hut itself is an absolutely wild piece of built infrastructure nestled at the foot of Gran Paradiso, which is still hidden from view at the hut.

It sleeps 120 people and offers three meals a day. Breakfast and dinner are included in your board, which cost €95 for myself and my guide. We arrived around 1:00 PM and paid about €10 for a delicious pasta lunch and some beers. It’s wild to sit on the deck of such a strange looking structure, looking out at a stunning national park, and eat a warm pasta lunch. But I guess that’s just how they do it in the Alps.

After lunch we checked into our bunks and I explored around a bit. I wanted to get a good view of the hut in this barren landscape, and having hiked 2000 feet and then consumed a large lunch and some beer, I was looking to take a bit of a nap in the sun.

After returning from my nap, Dave and I took some time to practice glacier rescue technique. I’d never learned that properly, and it was very informative to get a better sense for how to make a snow anchor and build a pulley system to extract a partner.

Throughout the day more and more people arrived at the hut, and by evening it was jammed full. For the most part every group had more than two members and the environment was very social with folks playing cards, planning their routes, and making vigorous use of the bar. I took the time to get some reading in, explore the hut, and take in the views through its massive picture windows as night fell.

At 7:00 PM dinner was served at assigned seats. Staff members came through to take orders — soup or pasta for the first course, stew and steamed vegetables for the second course, and pudding, pineapple, or cheese for dessert. Beer and wine flowed copiously as well. Overall it was a surreal experience dining like this in such a remote location.

The atmosphere was also somewhat intimidating, at least to me. Very little English was being spoken, and everyone seemed to be very seriously considering their gear, their route, their schedule. I wasn’t worried about the ascent myself, but it did feel like everyone else had a better sense for what was coming.

After charging some electronics and confirming our morning schedule (4:00 AM for breakfast, on the trail by 5:00 AM), we were in bed by 9:30 PM.

Ascent to Gran Paradiso

The multiple alarms that I set turned out to be completely unnecessary as the two German gentlemen in our bunk room decided that 3:00 AM and a loud conversation was the appropriate plan for themselves. Then by 3:15 AM it sounded like everyone in the hut was clunking around in boots getting ready to depart. Did they know something we didn’t? Wasn’t breakfast served at 4:15 AM?

Dave and I tossed in our beds until 4:00 AM or so and then went to breakfast which was a simple offering of bread and jam, cereal, and a coffee… thing that mysteriously was labeled as “not gluten free”. I took some for fear of not having caffein otherwise, but the gluten label really kept me cautious.

The first few miles of the trail goes across a boulder field which is as enjoyable to cross in the pitch dark as you can imagine. Then it banks right and heads up a gully. Dave, having a clear strategy for the day in his head, made the choice to advance up high on the left hand side of the gully explaining that the bottom is the most common route and becomes a choke point. The lights of the hut disappeared into the distance and the procession of head lamps continued in front of us. But as we went, we slowly passed one group, and then another. And then some more. We were making good time.

The top of the gully was decorated with large boulders that had been covered in rain over night which had then frozen making for a terrible icy scramble. But we made it over those and onto the first patch of snow. By now we were really cruising passing more and more groups. Up the first patch of snow we went, then across more rocks, then onto the second patch of snow. It was time to pop on crampons and break out the ice axes, as this next patch was far steeper.

We made our way up this steep stretch of snow using basic snow travel technique (ice axe always in the up-hill hand), crampons as flat as possible for maximum weight distribution. At the top of this second patch of snow we had a brief point to stop before continuing onto true glacial ice.

We cruised up the next steep faces of the glacier as I went into the pain cave. My hands were numb, the wind had picked up, my legs were cold in my summer hiking pants, and the elevation was starting to get to me. I was in a bad place and not feeling great. At the top of the next stretch I asked Dave if we could take a breather and he happily obliged after indicating that we had passed most of the groups at this point. Somehow we had gone from the middle of the pack to the front. No wonder I felt beat, we had been moving at a really rapid pace.

As we took a brief rest, I noticed that the sun was starting to bask the surrounding peaks in light, and the view was just absolutely stunning. You could see Mont Blanc in the distance, standing clear above a bank of clouds. Everywhere you looked there were jagged peaks covered in snow and many in clouds. Some how, Gran Paradiso was sitting in a perfect clearing of sun.

It was at this moment that my hands decided to go through their Screaming Barfies transition that those of us with Raynauds get to experience when our bodies decide to supply blood to your fingers. It’s pain that makes you want to puke, but it also means that warmth is coming — so emotionally it’s a mixed bag. Either way, spirits were looking up and we took off up the final few faces of the glacier where we passed the remaining groups ahead of us.

We then found ourselves effectively alone (albeit with a long line still behind us) on the flat part of the glacier below the final push to the summit. Dave indicated that you could see the summit, the sun was just cresting the rock faces around us, and at this moment things were feeling great.

The peak of Gran Paradiso features a white statue of the Virgin Mary (of course) and a plaque detailing the peak. Someone, at the peak, after freezing and suffering up the face of this mountain, there was absolutely no wind. The air was clear and still. The sun was shining. It was an absolute paradise. We cheered our success, and relished in the wonder that we had somehow made it up here so quickly. I enjoyed an Emotional Support Pastry I had hauled from Chamonix, and we welcomed a few more groups to the summit.

At the point the club was getting a bit crowded and we decided to begin our ascent. There’s a one-way route over the summit block which meant we headed off the opposite side we ascended. There’s a series of bolted metal hooks or “pig tails” that you thread your rope through to aid in safety as you traverse a few sketchy thin rocky outcroppings.

As we continued down, we passed group after group plodding up the face and I realized what a good choice I had made hiring a guide directly. Otherwise, there was a good chance I would have been tied into one of these groups crawling up the face and half freezing to death.

Dave and I made our way down relatively quickly and uneventfully. The valley was in glowing in full light, and we could see the summit closing in with clouds behind us. Thank goodness we had gotten up there as fast we did!

We were back at the hut by 11:00 AM, hours ahead of schedule. We went straight to the bar for a proper espresso (none of this gluten coffee stuff please), some hot chocolate, and a pastry. We sat on the porch of the hut chatting about the day and feeling great about how things had gone.

By noon we set off for the valley and were back at the car by 1:00 PM. All told, we were at least 3 hours ahead of schedule. I felt very fortunate to have had such a great guide in Dave, such luck with the weather, and such hard-earned fitness. That an ascent like this was possible made me feel like the various mountaineering objectives I’ve done in my life were coming together into a cohesive skillset I could use to access new terrain.

Up next, ideally with Dave in the lead, is Mont Blanc!