Dôme du Goûter
'Dome of the Goûter' — a rounded snow dome, paired with the Aiguille du Goûter below it. The 'Goûter' element is debated: the popular etymology connects it to French goûter ('to taste / afternoon snack'), as it was supposedly the lunch stop of the first ascensionists, but the more scholarly reading is that it derives from an older Savoyard oronym of pre-Romance origin.
Broad snow dome on the standard Goûter route to Mont Blanc, just above the Vallot Hut. Easy snow ascent from the Aiguille du Goûter hut.
The Dôme is a broad snow shoulder rather than a peak in its own right, but it sits squarely on the historic line to Mont Blanc. Paccard and Balmat crossed it on the first ascent in 1786, and the modern voie normale from Saint-Gervais (the Goûter route) still goes over it. The notorious Grand Couloir traverse below the Aiguille du Goûter, where stonefall has killed dozens of climbers, is the price of admission. The first Refuge du Goûter was built on the shoulder in 1854; its successors have crept higher up the ridge ever since.
Summit · huts that serve as bases for routes on this peak
- Refuge du Goûter3,835 m