Impressively speedy and (more or less) on-sight ascents have recently taken place of two of the Mont Blanc Massif’s most famous hard routes; Divine Providence on the Grand Pilier d'Angle and Voie Petit on the Grand Capucin.
Oriol Baro and Manu Cordova from Spain made the fourth free ascent of Divine Providence. The partnership climbed the entire route to the summit of Mont Blanc on-sight and in a day, the first party to do so.
After a bivouac at the foot of the wall, Baro led the initial easier ground to the Red Shield. Cordova then took over and climbed the nine hard pitches on-sight, with Baro jumaring on one of the 8mm ropes, carrying a heavy sac.
They then moved together up the last 200m of easier rock and mixed ground to reach the top of the Grand Pilier at 9:00pm
There, they took a four-hour rest before continuing rapidly up the Peuterey Ridge. Spurred on by high winds and generally unfriendly weather, it took them only two hours to complete the ridge, and they finally reached the summit of Mont Blanc at 4:30am.
Divine Providence (900m on the pillar followed by another 600m to the summit of Mont Blanc) was first climbed over four days in 1994 at 6b and A3 by two of the foremost activists in the Massif, Patrick Gabarrou and Francois Marsigny.
An almost free ascent was made in July 1990 by Alain Ghersen and Thierry Renault, who climbed the overhanging A3 corner completely free at 7c but needed three points of aid higher up on a wet roof.
The following year the ‘wet roof’ was dry during an ascent made by British climbers, Andy Cave and Paul Jenkinson. The roof went relatively easily at 7a but Jenkinson was forced to use four rest points on the overhanging corner.
The long awaited first free ascent came on the 27th-28th July 2002 when the Swiss, Denis Burdet and Nicolas Zambetti, climbed the whole route on-sight, confirming the grade of 7c.
In 2003 Slovenians, Andrej Grmovsek and Marko Lukic made the second free ascent, also on-sight, but felt the technical difficulties had been somewhat overrated and perhaps no more than 7b. Well-known French alpinist and guide, Stéphane Benoist, with three young climbers, made the third on-sight in 2009 and also thought the grade more like 7b.
Cordova felt the crux to be a little harder, settling on 7b+ and confirming how difficult it is to make a true assessment of hard technical difficulties on a big serious route at high altitude in the Alps.
Elsewhere, the young Austrian David Lama, who recently made controversial news after his attempt to free the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, made a rapid on-sight ascent of Voie Petit on the East Face of the Grand Capucin (3,838m).
With Daniel Steurer he first climbed as far as pitch five, the crux, made one attempt, but fell from near the top. He lowered back to the stance to find that Steurer had started to suffer altitude sickness, forcing the pair to make a hasty descent.
Steurer recovered rapidly and before 6:00am the following day the two were back on the route. This time the ascent went according to plan, Lama climbing the crux without too much problem and then on-sighting the remaining pitches.
By mid afternoon they were on the summit.
The Voie Petit was put up over five days in 1997 by former World Cup Champion, Arnaud Petit, with help from Pascal Baudin, Stéphane Bodet and Jean-Paul Petit (Arnaud’s dad). Alex Huber made the first free ascent at 8b, suggesting it was one of the hardest ‘high mountain’ Alpine rock routes in the World. Dusan Janak and Vasek Satava made the second free ascent in 2007, and Ben Bransby and James McHaffie the third in 2009.
Lama and Steurer's free ascent was the fourth. In an amazing coincidence, as they were rappelling the route who should they meet but none other than Petit and Bodet, returning to the climb 13 years after their first ascent.
The photograph shows the Punta Gugliermina (rock tower on left), Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey, Mont Blanc de Courmayeur and Brenva Face of Mont Blanc. The Grand Pilier d'Angle rises right of centre. The Red Shield, climbed by Divine Providence, is the steep buttress at around half height.
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