The Mont Blanc (literally “White Mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union.

The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe running from Austria and Slovenia  in the East through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, France and Monaco in the West.

4,810 m above sea level, Mont Blanc is a stunning place, where two famous towns, Courmayeur (Aosta Valley) and Chamonix (France), rest.

Although you don't actually need another reason to visit it, in a month or so you'll have be given one anyway: on the August 30th the Goûter Mountain Hut will open, a futuristic construction that will be officially celebrated on September 7-8.

The mind behind this marvel is Geneva architect Hervé Dessimoz, who created an eco-sustainable environment with local materials, using solar energy to warm up water coming from the snow and using local resources. The curved forms, shaped kind of like an egg, a rather giant egg, have been thought up to resist to the strong winds that carry the snow and, in this way, will gather the snow which will eventually form the water used. The mountain hut, made of steel and wood, has been built and financed by the French Government with the European Union funds and costed 6,5 million euros.

Ready to go? The bookings can only be made through online websites (one reserved to mountain guides and agencies, and the other one to alpinists)  and you can bet it's going to be hard to get a "room", since each year 20,000 people try to climb the Mont Blanc and between 2012 and 2013 the available beds will be a little over 100. 

Written by: Elisa della Barba