UKH

Planning on going to mont blanc....do some classic rock routes.

Choice I have is late may or early sept. Cant get away between.

Which is the better bet. Was thinking bergshrunds may be more of a problem by sept?

Depends. Could you give an example of routes you’re looking at?

Hi misha,

Grand capucin, pointe adolphe rey, gervasuti pillar.....

Chamonix aguilles....cordier pillar.....

I remember last year people having probs with grand capucin bergshrund.

Might have been you?😀

I guess bit more daylight in end of may compared to sept....

Sept...day light hours about same, anything that is going to fall probably will have done after mid summer heat.

Aug crowds gone leaving decent info on routes/rock fall/problems from the summer season.

Best choice would be sept imho, higher longer routes will still have to much snow on ledges in may, good thing about sept you usually  get a few weeks of stable weather and it is quiet, well it certainly used to be, but like anything, if it cools down and snows early with the onset of autumn it could be end of season.

For those routes the schrunds could certainly be an issue by the end of the summer and rock fall could still be an issue in September. You’d need to ask at the OHM but some routes would probably still be doable. You can always ab into the Midi South Face as well.

End of May could be problematic for routes off the Midi as the lift could be closed, depending on your exact dates. Still a fair amount of snow around but the south facing stuff should clear quickly as the sun will be pretty strong. May be consider snow shoes for approaches if there are no tracks!

Also you could consider the rock routes on the Cham side of the Peigne and the Blatiere, which don’t have glacial approaches. There’s a new guide book out for them.

There’s plenty of non glacial granite in Switzerland as well, for example the Salbit. 

Thanks everyone.

Good advice. Much appreciated.

Which guidebook?

https://www.auvieuxcampeur.fr/mont-blanc-granite-t2-aiguilles-de-chamonix.h...

Ok - thanks for the info.