Domes de Miage traverse – in a day

The Domes de Miage is one of my favourite Chamonix peaks, tucked away from the main Chamonix valley and offering some long routes with some truly stunning surroundings.

An elegant snow arete is the classic photo of the area, one side dropping to the valley floor of Les Contamines and the other to the wild feeling glacier de Tre La tete. Difficult enough without feeling overly exposed it’s a superb low grade classic alpine traverse.

Despite its relative low altitude the approach length is long and even over two days it’s a big undertaking. We guide the peak on skis each spring normally making a two or three day trip out of the mountain when combined with nearby Mont Tondu. It had been a few years since I’ve been up there in summer, and on that last occasion we went to the Aiguille Berangere rather than make a full traverse of the mountain.

A week after our last outing on the Grand Paradiso it was time for another long day in the mountains with Chamonix resident Ollie. The traverse of the Domes de Miage was going to be a much bigger day despite the lower altitude. More technical, longer in distance and an extra 1000m to climb.

We wanted to make a full traverse of the peak in a large loop, always an atheistic way of climbing a mountain. The weather was due to be very hot later in the day with any refreeze of the snow looking short lived. There are a few different options for making the traverse but when looking at the weather forecast and condition reports it seemed logical to start with the steeper and more technical section in the cold dawn and put up with any soft snow later in the day on the non-technical west side.

This would also mean we would hopefully limit any potential objective danger (snow, rock and ice fall below the Durier refuge) to the well frozen morning.

We would again be travelling very lightweight, although with all the gear it’s still a fairly weighty pack. Two litres of water, food for eight hours, first aid, shelter, spare gloves, helmet, crevasse rescue kit, rope, axe, crampons etc etc.

The alarm went off early and we were on the road by 3.45am. After the short drive from Chamonix we were leaving the car by 4.15 and walking up the wide tracks leading to the Chalets de Miage. Easy terrain and conversation made the ground pass quickly and we were jogging the flats too. The Chalets came and went soon enough and we were underneath the Domes heading more steeply uphill on single track towards the Plan Glacier refuge.

This steady pace got us to the hut in around two hours through some really stunning scenery. I’d never been up this side of the valley and it was exciting to be somewhere new. The track became much more technical after the refuge with some scrambling and snow fields. These were well tracked and soft and so we crossed without crampons, although with an axe in hand.

We then geared up with harness and the rope for the short glacier crossing to arrive at the ridge leading to the Durier refuge. As mentioned previously this area has some objective danger and there were certainly a lot of stones that had fallen from above now sitting on the glacier. It was a quick crossing though and everything was totally silent.

We now were scrambling and climbing up loose rocks directly underneath the refuge. After a few hundred meters the snow was back and we donned crampons. It was now slow going with collapsing snow steps and sugery snow in places. Very energy sapping and a bit of a grind, we slowed down a lot. It was a relief to arrive into the sunlight at the ridge, around 3hrs 45 minutes after leaving the car.

With that now behind us it was time for the fun mountaineering to begin. More new ground for me as we made the traverse from the Col De Miage (Durier refuge) towards the col des Domes which is where the normal route from the Consctis refuge joins the ridge.

Lots of mixed scrambling on some exposed terrain following a fairly good track that looked like it had been made by people going in the other direction, making the “Royal Traverse” of Mont Blanc. There wasn’t too much breaking trail thankfully and although we weren’t moving super fast we made good time by being efficient with barely any stops for food or drink. Something helped by having running style rucksacks with easy pocket access for food and water.

The weather was amazingly mild and at times we were too warm in just a baselayer and thin windproof. The clouds did build up though and for a while we wondered if it was going to stay cloudy all day. Time was ticking on (and the accumulating height gain) but we were finally at the col des Domes and the junction of the normal traverse 5hrs and 45minutes after starting.

Thirty minutes after that we were on the final summit and it was time for some descent at last. We jogged and then down climbed to the base of the Aiguille Berangere which was climbed in a few minutes. Now it really was time to descend and a few minutes later we could take the rope and crampons off and enjoy some rapid glissading and running down the lower non-glaciated snow fields.

What followed was a long, long descent. Something that makes the Domes de Miage quite demanding on a normal two day schedule. A 2531m descent from the summit to the valley.

We went a fairly direct way to avoid a detour to the Conscrits refuge and picked up the trail not long before the Refuge de tre la tete. (one nice thing about this loop is the amount of huts you could use to split the trip up into more days).

On down the trail we went on now quite tired legs and sore feet. The talk turned to ultra races and the need for pushing on when tired. A not so subtle way of motivating ourselves for the push back to the car!

By the time we got to the car park (after some more emotional bonus uphill whilst traversing back to our starting point) it was 2pm. A little under ten hours of pretty constant movement and effort. The GPS said 29.6km of travel, 3142m of elevation gain, 4672 kcal and a recovery time of 120 hours. We drove past every closed bakery looking for sustenance before giving up and going home for showers and rest.

It was another great day out with Ollie on a uber classic mountain route. We had the whole climb to ourselves only passing a few teams lower down on the descent paths. And Ollie once again demonstrating what can be done with a low level of mountaineering experience, a (very) high level of fitness, determination and trust (in the guide).

I should add that this isn’t a normal way of alpine climbing and I would hate for people to get into difficulties trying ascents in this faster style. All the stars lined up for this one including prior acclimatisation, proven fitness, conditions and experience.

And having said that I can also say I’m looking forward to guiding some more endurance athletes on some fast and light days this summer.