Tony Penning recently climbed three new rock routes during what has become an almost annual pilgrimage to the 'quiet corners' on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Range.

With Ali Taylor, Penning first inspected the lower North East Face of Mont Noir de Peuterey (2,928m), at the end of the long East Ridge of the Aiguille Noire, and came away with the unfinished Zig Zag (TD).

This entire section of wall below the Brenva Glacier had no previously recorded rock climbs, only a couple of ephemeral ice lines, such as the Supercouloir de Peuterey (350m: ED2: 90°) put up by the late local activist and guide, Hans Margherettaz.

Zig Zag turned out to be much worse than it looked, with the loosest rock Penning has encountered on all his new lines on this side of the range.

Although there were several good pitches, the route is disappointingly forced along large vegetated ramps. In the 560m of climbing, there was some very bold British 5b and a section of E3 5c, pulling hard on a giant detached flake with the only protection a cam in the side. The route was terminated approximately half way up the face.

Better was Sorgente Pepper, a 200m ED1 further left on the face, climbing the right wall of a giant Y-shaped chimney with several pitches of E3 and E4, and nut placements dug out on route. Sorgente, a pun on Sergeant, is the Italian word for a spring or source.

In between climbing these two lines, Penning and Taylor put up The Aging Gunslinger (TD) on the South East Face of the Eveque (3,258m), above La Vachey in the Val Ferret. This was a complex, three-day affair in wild terrain, the long approach up loose rock and precipitous grass slopes not recommended even to chamois, according to Penning.

In 2004, with Nic Mullin and Robin Wilmhurst-Smith, Penning had explored this approach to a small snowfield below the face and climbed an 11-pitch E2 5b on the right side of the headwall.

With Taylor, Penning again bivouacked below the face, before and after climbing the 560m new route, the meat of which involves climbing diagonally across the upper wall, right of the 2004 ascent. The psychological crux was a very poorly-protected, big undercling left into a groove, at a grade of around E3 5b.

This face is the scene of an enigma. In 1940, three soldiers and active mountaineers, part of a group of Italian military deployed in the valley during the Second World War, took time off to pioneer the desperate approach to the face, and then scrambled up immediately below it to reach the crest of the East Ridge on the right, which they followed to the summit of the Eveque.

Their total time from valley to summit was just seven hours: no one since has been able to understand how they did it.

Thanks to Tony Penning and Luca Signorella for help with this report.
 

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