Even if camping at the base of the Tête Rousse is still allowed by a ministerial decree camping around the Goûter refuge is banned but Amélie, one of the Guardiens complains about the continued prescence of campers “a real bivvie is in the middle of nature, not 20 meters from a refuge, they use our toilets and other services and leave an enormous amount of rubbish, particuarly gas cartidges which we have to store and pay to descend by helicopter, they hide rubbish everywhere around the refuge, even when we catch them red handed the miscreants claim the rubbish is not their’s! If they are able to carry a can of tuna up the mountain they must be able to bring it down!”

According to the Dauphine a working group is looking at these problems prior to the opening of the new refuge/hotel next summer

http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2011/08/31/mettre-fin-au-camping-sauvage-du-refuge-du-gouter

Camping near huts has always been banned in France. The extra restrictions I guess are to put people off doing the Gouter route which is dangerous at the moment. When we did the three peaks Mont Blanc route, (up the Gouter and down the Tacul) we slept in the Valot hut also banned except for emergencies, needless to say it was packed and also full of rubbish. The was a pile of sh1t directly outside the front door three foot high but thankfully frozen solid.

That’s a good point. One problem with the Gouter is that it can be fully booked month’s in advance. Hopefully the new super refuge that it being built will address this problem and maybe that is why they want to start actually applying the law, What time of year did you climb?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFVI6FAVWkM&feature=player_embedded

Hope they are providing a few more beds, but that could create problems.

I did it in Aug. we walked up to the Gouter all the way from Les Houches, had a cup of soup and an hours kip in someone else’s bed, when they kicked us out at around 8pm we carried on to the Valot and sort of slept about 4 hours there. Got up and was on the top before dawn, it was f cold. Some japs had built an igloo on the top, they got up when the sun come up and were freezing. We were down at the midi before 12. Happy days.