Flying over Chamonix valley, France
Adventure and inspiration

Mont Blanc 4,808m

At 4,808m Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps – and a prime target for ambitious hike-and-fly pilots with Alpine experience. One fine day in Autumn Tim Rochas and friends seized their moment.

8 June, 2026, by Tim Rochas

An autumn day with a nice weather window, a free weekend, and an idea that suddenly felt obvious: “Let’s try to hike-and-fly Mont Blanc?” It was one of those super calm autumn days, with absolutely no wind forecast up to 6,000m, with just a little instability layer from 3,800m to 4,900m.

We were five pilots, Loïs Goutagny, Pierre Bottero, Alexandre Martin, Thomas Andre and myself. None of us had ever summited before, but we are all quite comfortable in the mountains, even if we were not very well acclimatised. 

A few days later, after getting some advice, we met at dawn so we could be on time to catch the first cable car at 7.30am up from Chamonix at 1,035m in the valley floor to the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842m. We were still a bit sleepy, but already...

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