Piz Badile is one of the greatest North Face of the Alps. It is a sea of rock, 800 meters high above glaciers which have retreated a lot! It lies in the east end of the Alps, on the Swiss Italian Border. You can see Piz Bernina and Lake Como from the summit

The objective is the Cassin route (TD, 6a). Its first ascent was done in 1937 and ended tragically as one of the two parties who did it died of exhaustion while descending after having spent two nights in the face

With Louis, who guides me, we left Chamonix on Monday to get in time to the Furä hut (1900m) for a nice dinner and where we enjoy an awesome sunset .

On Tuesday, we leave the hut before dawn at 4 45am. No time to loose as the objective is to be the first in a route where it is difficult to bypass. And here we are! Starting a route composed of more than twenty 50m pitches with quite a lot of route findings in some places, steep, rising high above the glacier.

We are soon over the first bivvy of Cassin and then the second. Even today many climbing parties are spending more than a day in this route....

After a massive chimney, we finally reached the North ridge which we followed up to the summit. We summited at 11 40, 5h30 after the start of the rock climb, 1500 m above the hut! Stunning landscape. So great to be there, on the summit.

Soon though, we need to think of going down. In light of the good weather and of our good shape, Louis decides to go down along the North ridge. It's a new technical route in itself. Down climbs and numerous abseils! We say hello to many climbing parties who are still far away from the summit, some of them might have to bivvy on the summit.... We also see a few late parties in the Cassin route. After more than 3 hours, we finally get out of the difficulties. Soon we stop for a drink at the hut before getting back to the car, ready for the long drive to Chamonix.

An amazing mountaineering experience. Many thanks to Louis

Thierry, accompagné de Louis Laurent, guide de haute montagne.

Découvrir les stages "grande course".

The slideshow of Thierry.

L'Aiguille des Ciseaux (Scissor Peak 3479m) is easy to spot from the village of Chamonix. And indeed, when reaching the summit, it really looks like a pair of scissors, a proper rock blade and it is very airy when looking down to Chamonix.

Les Ciseaux (à droite), versant Mer de Glace

5 years ago, while I was coming down from the normal route of Aiguille du Moine, my guide, Denis, showed the Troussier Route on the Ciseaux (D,5a) and said that I would probably be able to do it one day. He also said that this route was to be done early in the season because of the bergschrund

And here we are. It's early July and Louis and I are hiking up to the Envers des Aiguilles hut at 2500m.

We left the hut at 5am. The crossing of the bergschrund will take time as Louis also set a fixed rope for the following climbing parties. After the scary crossing of the bergschrund, we started the rock climb, steep, beautiful, never too difficult. We reached the summit slightly before 11am, 4 hours after the bergschrund.

Awesome views. From a distant peak, a friend of Louis took, by chance, a picture of him arriving on the summit.

Then we started to go down, multiple abseils. Lower down, we saw an other guide and his client who left the hut at the same time as we did. And then, it's the bergschrund again....

Small stop at the hut before the ladders leading to the Mer de Glace

An amazing climb, the third I have done from this hut after Republique/Grand Charmoz and Roc Grepon

  

  


  



  

  





More pictures.

Thierry, with Louis Laurent, hight mountain guide.

Hight montain guide just for you.

  More english version in blog.

The Aiguilles Rouges are facing the Mont Blanc Massif and are an amazing area for rock climbing! Its also a good place to go when the weather looks potentially unsettled as it is easy to get

This set is about two days of climbing, guided by Louis

Fontes de Jouvence is a beautiful route on the North face of Aiguille Pourrie (2511m, TD-, 5c), very Alpine and far from the crowds!

Arrête Rouge (D, 5b) and Asia (D+, 5c avec un pas de 6a) are two classics in the Grande Floria.

Texte en Français.

De Thierry Levenq.

The Ecandies ridge belongs to the 100 best climbs described by the famous French guide Gaston Rebuffat. It's an amazing rock ridge graded D with two steps of V+. It's not very high, 2783m, but the scenery is amazing!

We had an early start as we were walking at 6am, just before sunrise. While we were driving from Chamonix to Champeix we saw many participants of the Ultratrail race who were still running, in the dark, having started more than 24hours before!

Beautiful approach in the Val d'Arpette which is also the route taken, on the way down, by those doing the Haute Route. We started to climb slightly after 8 and, as we got higher up, we discovered the amazing landscape of the Trient glacier on one side and the Oberland in the distance on the other side.

Very nice climb, quite airy as we progressed around many gendarmes. Soon, we climbed the crux of the route, a beautiful razor edge step. And then we arrived at the surprise of the day : the Angel jump. No other choice than to get over the void to continue on the ridge! In the end it was more impressive than difficult.

At 11am, we are down on the Val d'Arpette. We saw no one else on the route but now there are two parties approaching the razor edge step, well behind us.

Guided by Louis, it was an excellent introduction to the week of climbing which will follow.

Lire en français

Texte et photos de Thierry Levenq.