FALSE ADVERTISEMENT.
SAVE YOUR MONEY.
This tour would be my third tour with MBA, the most expensive to date and truly the worst. I’ve done numerous other group tours with companies like GAdventures and RMI Expeditions. I am a very active and outdoorsy person but I would have been better off booking a private guide for the same amount of money. I must say this tour was the worst investment that I’ve ever made. I’ll go into the details below.
Months prior to the tour, I booked a “Guaranteed to Run” date in early September. A few months later I was contacted and advised I needed to change my dates for this tour because the original booking wasn’t full yet. They offered me two dates and I had to make it work with one. There was no compensation and I had to change my flights.
When I would attempt to ask questions to the tour guide directly through the booking, it would take longer than 48 hours to receive an answer (which conflicts with what MBA advertises).
Anyways… let’s get into the tour itself:
Since I had to fit the days that offered the most financial benefit to the company, my tour ended up being rescheduled to late September (when most things and cable cars close down). As a result, the itinerary had to be changed prior to our arrival. The chance to summit Tete Blanch was no longer possible, as laid out in the itinerary.
On Day 1, there’s instructions to be ready to meet the guide for a gear check at 6pm. We were greeted by an employee, who informed us the guide was not in town yet and that a gear check would be done in the morning.
On Day 2, everyone checked out of the hotel and paid 10Euros a person to leave their luggage in storage at the hotel. Then we showed up to the shop to meet the guide. The guide did not review anyone’s kit or make sure they had necessary items. This was a shock to me, as proper equipment is actually a safety hazard in mountaineering. So we set off in a car for a modified program. The guide took his own car and they grabbed a few cheap sandwiches for us to eat on the way to a very short and easy hike to the first hut. The guide was not interested in talking to anyone in the group and knew very limited English. The only things that stood out were:
- Him saying that his vacation begins soon because it is almost October.
- That he was notified the weather would not be favorable to summit Mont Blanc. This information would later be confirmed by another guide who reported calling him earlier in the week to inform the guide of the conditions. I remembered seeing Luigi on the phone during our very short hike.
On Day 3, we should have learned real mountaineering skills. Instead, we maybe hiked 3 miles in total, tried our crampons on for a brief glacier walk and the guide put everyone on a rope together. I found myself explaining things to the group that I had learned on previous mountaineering skills trips. In the limited English that our guide spoke to us, he advised us that no one would help get our crampons fitted right on Mont Blanc if we went up. No true mountaineering skills were taught… no basic safety with an ice axe discussed, no self arrest techniques even mentioned, etc. I found myself prompting the guide about rope spacing so the group could understand the importance of it.
On Day 4, we set out across glaciers and descended into Le Tour (still on the alternative itinerary). When we got to the bottom, the guide got in his vehicle and left while another driver picked us up and drove us to a bakery to get a to go lunch sandwich (around 5-6 euros/person) before dropping us back off at a hotel. Once at the hotel, we were dirty and sweaty after 3 days without showers and rooms were not available. We sat in the lobby for about 2 hours before they let us into a room. On this day, we were still advised Mont Blanc summit didn’t look likely but we would “try. ”
On Day 5, we got up, had hotel breakfast buffet, paid another 10Euros to store our luggage and loaded up into a van to head to Les Houches to begin the climb to Tete Rousse hut. When we arrived at the train to take us up, we were handed some cheap sandwiches and introduced to the two assisting guides (who spoke better English and maybe more to us in less than 24 hours than our lead guide the entire trip). I asked one about Gouter hut on the way up. He immediately said we would not make it there due to the weather. This shocked me to hear. If he knew we were not going up, why would they even pretend to “try” it? On the FAQs for this tour specifically, MBA states the following: “Sometimes the conditions on Mont Blanc are too dangerous to attempt a summit. If the weather or conditions on the mountain on the day of your summit attempt mean that your guides need to make this call, the group will move to a different mountain range nearby to tackle a substitute ascent. ”
They knew it wouldn’t be possible and said so all week… clearly they should have upheld this condition.
Later that night when told that we would not attempt a summit, I asked the guide if we would have a hotel room for us. He responded indifferently with very few words that he’d notify the agency in the morning. In fear that we’d be without a room, I used the bit of cell service I had to contact the agency directly and request accommodations/early check in.
On Day 6, we got up early to descend down (2 miles) from the Tete Rousse hut that we went to less than 12 hours before. We went down in cold rain and caught the train back down the mountain. Soaked and disappointed from not summitting literally anything on this tour, we followed our guides. They bought us an espresso and then the lead guide just left and one of the assisting guides drove us back to our hotel in Chamonix. We arrived around 10:30AM. After this, we never saw anyone from the company again. We asked if our room was ready and the hotel said we could pay a fee for an early check in. When we contacted the agency, they said the hotel was fully booked (which was not true based on the information we had). So we were expected to sit in cold, wet dirty clothes until 4pm (check in time). I’d like to make mention that lunch and dinner were supposed to have been included on this day. Instead, all we had was the bread and jam at the Tete Rousse hut and an espresso in Les Houches. So we had to spend more money just to be able to make the most of a terrible situation
The guides and agency could not have cared less about us on this trip or when they ended it early… We even contacted MBA on this day about what was happening and we were told to consult with the agency directly. The agency directly already did not care.
At one point, one of the guys in our group severely cut his hand. The guide saw it and never once asked about it or checked to see how bad the cut was.
The distances covered each day were 2-5 miles max. Honestly, this is a joke. I had better hikes and climbs in Chamonix on my own during days prior to this tour. It felt like all we did was sit around. MBA makes tackling a mountain like Mont Blanc look beginner friendly too, which is 100% wrong. They need to do a better job of not making this type of tour accessible or open to just anyone. When everyone is on a line together, everyone is responsible for one another. Naive, uneducated, underprepared and physically unable people become a liability and a safety hazard for everyone.
The Reality
MBA’s advertising promises expert guides, safety-first decisions, and itineraries adapted to conditions. What I experienced was the opposite: disorganization, indifference, and a complete lack of care for client experience or safety.
This was not a mountaineering expedition. It was a series of short hikes strung together by excuses, dismissive treatment, and empty promises. I left Chamonix with nothing close to what was advertised, and with the strong sense that MBA views its clients not as climbers to be guided, but as wallets to be emptied.
Final Verdict
I regret booking this tour. I regret trusting MBA. And I regret that I already placed a deposit for another trip with them. When raising concerns to MBA, they offered a 10% discount to book a new tour. Unless MBA fundamentally changes how it operates, I cannot warn others strongly enough: this company does not deliver on what it sells.
Even if Mont Blanc had been summitable, my review would be the same. The failure here was not the weather—it was MBA.
Pros:
- Good people in the group.
- Mountains
Cons:
- MBA rescheduled me to later in the season, when I knew a lot of things were shutting down.
- Expensive.
- We had to buy our own meals when they were promised.
- Minimal effort.
- The agency and guide spoke VERY limited English
- No skills were taught.
- The guide was ready for his vacation.
- Didn’t follow any sort of itinerary
- The guide wasn’t there on day 1, nor the final 2 days. He left and didn’t care.
- MBA is trying to tell me this was acceptable based on what the agency told them. I didn’t get 10% of what I paid for and MBA is offering 10% off my next tour to make up for this joke.
…I could continue this list but a lot has already been covered above.