We climbed Gran Paradiso as our preparation for the ascent of Mont Blanc. Day one, we went up halfway to the hut, where we stayed the night. We were in a 5 person dorm, which really wasn't half bad.

The next day, we got up early and began heading up the mountain around 5:30 AM. We used headlamps for the first half hour or so. About a quarter of the way up the route, we put on crampons to ascend an icy/snowy patch. We kept them on all the way to the top. At the top, though, we were climbing on rocks with a rather serious dropoff ... (more)