owenel

Hi just wondering if someone has input about how these itineraries compare in terms of physical and technical demands. 1: climb breithorn, overnight d'ayas, climb castor, overnight sella, climb to margherita, overnight, climb to dufour spitze, climb down to train. 2: mont blanc three monts traverse. I'm a fairly novice climber and am wondering which of these I should go for (leaning toward monte rosa as none of the days is more than a 3000 ft elevation gain). I'm also wondering if a monch/jungfrau climb would be even more moderate. Thanks.

i've been corresponding with a guide in france who is suggesting we do mont blanc summit attempt from tete rousse instead of gouter due to unlikely availability of space in gouter. what i'm wondering is whether the shorter summit day would outweigh the drawbacks of camping near gouter. my understanding is that a summit day from tete rousse is 5700ft in elevation gain. i personally have never done more than 4000 ft in one day, so a little worried about trying it on what will also be my highest altitude climb. anyone have insights about this? i'm also considering bailing on the mont blanc climb this year and doing monch/jungfrau instead.

awesome replies. thanks! did either of you use diamox for any of these climbs? i've never been above 14k so i'm considering at least bringing some diamox whether i use it or not.

or the other way around? it seems that cotopaxi is more technical, but i'm having trouble ascertaining which is most physically demanding. mountainmadness.com rates cotopaxi as level 1 and the mexican volcanoes as level 2 in difficulty, for whatever that's worth. thanks for any input.

ok, great, thanks

The South Climb info page mentions one permit and two passes: South Climb Do I just need the volcano pass and wilderness permit or do I also need the northwest forest pass? The info on that page is a little ambiguous.

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful.

When climbing in the rockies you hear a lot of warnings about lightning danger, and the general advice is to get below treeline before mid-afternoon. I don't see the same warnings when reading about the cascades, or other mountain ranges like the andes or himalayas. So I assume this level of lightning danger above treeline is somewhat unique to the rockies, at least wrt the cascades. Is the main difference snow cover?

that raises another question... do i need a higher-than-average clearance vehicle to drive that final dirt road?

Anyone know about how long it will take to drive from The Mountain Shop to the trailhead? Also, how late can I start to arrive to lunch counter before dark? Thanks in advance.

What's the minimal gear needed for adams?

Is this pack too wide or otherwise unsuitable for mountaineering. Looking buy a decent pack for 1- to 3- day trips. Also looked at the Kelty Courser, but the Redwing seemed to have more features. TIA

Are there any important constraints to impose when choosing a backpack for 1- to 3- day mountaineering trips? I've been looking at the kelty redwing 50L, but I think it's more of a general purpose pack, so wanted to gather some input.

doing adams instead. lots of questions about adams, but will try to research it first.

ok, thanks. good point. i have taken a two-day mountaineering course, but it was in new hampshire, where there are no glaciers, so we did not cover crevasse rescue or glacier navigation. the course did cover cramponing, self arrest, rope work, building anchors, rappelling, and ice climbing.