Hello everyone,

I looked through the archives and I understand that one can get a guide to help one attempt Mt. Blanc, if one has little experience with snow climbing and glacier rescue.

I'm wondering if any of the guide services offer a "mountaineering school" type service where they'd teach one the use of crampons, ice axe, crevasse rescue, and etc. I know that guide services in the Sierra Nevada in California, USA and the Cascades in the northwest of the USA do this sort of thing.

The class project would, of course, be a summit attempt...

As an experienced backpacker, strong hiker, and novice rock climber I'd love to try for Mont Blanc, but I'm not going up there without knowing a little bit about what I'm doing, even with a guide.

-- Michael Golden (michael.golden@amd.com), July 16, 1999

Answers

Check out the International School of Mountaineering (ISM) at http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/estate/pz25/

They're based in Leysin Switzerland and guide and instruct all over the Alps.

-- Joe Antol (joe@antol.com), July 25, 1999.