Petzl Crew

New route in Nemjung south face (Nepal)

Petzl Crew — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:42:00 +0100

First ascent by Yannick Graziani and Christian Trommsdorff - Oct 11th to 16th,2009

The route

A route of around 2400m long, 45 pitches (+some simu climbing, maybe 25% of the route), ED+, mostly ice/mixed and snow, a few pitches with just rock. Many very delicate snow ridges/walls/flutes to climb or traverse, fantastic gullies and mixed climbing, many vertical sections. A very committing route, complicated abseils during the descent, and also we had to climb from a gully back onto the base of the first tower (which we avoided by a 60m abseil on the way up).

Bottom of the face 4750m, bivies at around 5300m, 5800m, 6200, 6500m. We reached the top of the south face at an altitude of about 7000m.

We climbed the entire route free.

Gear

2x60 twin ropes
4 ice screws (not enough!)
6 friends
a few nuts
10 pitons (we dropped 4)
a few slings

We couldn't climb on Manaslu because of lack of acclimatisation and too much snow... We had a long 12-day period of rest due to very bad weather, but in the end managed to put up what we believe is a new route on the south face of Nemjung.

The climb

A great 6-day climb of the south spur, maybe the most beautiful we have ever done, certainly the most continuously steep, sustained and constantly exposed, although no pitches were as hard as the hardest ones on Chomolonzo or Pumari Chhish. Always uncertainty about the key passages; on the last day there was a miraculous hole in the very corniced ridge to cross to the other side.

We reached the top of the south face on Oct 15th at 2:15pm, but not the top of Nemjung. Another bivy would have been necessary to follow the fairly flat and long ridge to the summit, but the lower wind window was closing in on us, and I felt too weak to keep going that day which would have meant a long descent in the dark, so we turned around. The previous day I had been hit on the helmet by big chunk of ice and I felt in a kind of chock state, although I didn't loose consciousness.

The descent

Later on the long way down I would have several moments of "absence", in particular when dropping Yannick's backpack (2 days after the climb he went up to a bergschrund and found the pack, but the camera had dropped out...so we have only my photos and lost his 2 hours of film!).

For acclimatising we were able to spend only 3 nights at 5200m, 5400m and 5600m on the ridges east and west of our basecamp, when then had a 12 days forced rest period.

No objective dangers in stable conditions except for an easy 1 minute traverse of a couloir below the big serac. We waited 3 full days after the massive snow dump and started early on Oct 11th, and came back down to BC at 22pm on Oct 16th. Note that on the 2nd day the cold weather helped - the gully behind the first tower has some mixed sections with very poor rock-, and on the third day the absence of strong wind probably prevented icicles falling off the 1st serac on the ridge.

A few more photos of the Nemjung south face first climb on Flickr.

Text and photos © Christian Trommsdorff

Progression - A new film by BigUPproductions

Petzl Crew — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:46:00 +0200

Behind every breakthrough in the progression of climbing, there's a true story of doubt and determination, perseverance in the face of failure.

From boulders, to big walls, to competition podiums, the climbers at the top of the game share a commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve their vision. Featuring Chris Sharma, Tommy Caldwell, Daniel Woods, Adam Ondra, Kevin Jorgeson, Patxi Usobiaga, Johanna Ernst, Alex Honnold, Paul Robinson, Matt Segal, and more, in a film by Josh Lowell, Cooper Roberts, and Brett Lowell.

DVD and HD Download available at BigUPproductions

Sean McColl on Dreamcatcher - 5.14d

Petzl Crew — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:59:00 +0200

History of the route

"Yup, it's true, I've just made the second ascent of the famous route "Dreamcatcher". For those of you that don't know what Dreamcatcher is, it's a route on the Cacodemon boulder in Squamish, BC. Chris Sharma made the first ascent of the route back in 2005 and gave it a grade of 5.14d (9a). Although many strong climbers over the past 4 years including Sonnie Trotter, Ethan Pringle and Paul Robinson have tried the route, none have been able to make the second ascent. Before today, the route was unrepeated. I am also the first Canadian to climb an established 5.14d. Another funny thing is that Chris Sharma made the first ascent on September 23, 2005. Thats EXCACTLY 4 years ago to the day… An old article from Climbing Magazine dates his send. So, maybe it’s just the time of year, maybe it’s the position of the moon but something about this days brings luck to that route.

Here’s a picture of me taken today by Simon Parton. This attempt was the one just before the send."

A day to remember…

"Today was a pretty random day of climbing. I have school every day during the week so getting out to Squamish is usually pretty hard to do during the week. Today, I planned a trip with one of my good friends Jamie Chong. I picked Jamie up from the SeaBus after school and headed straight to Squamish. We arrived around 4:30 and figured we had about 3 hours of usable light. We did a quick warm-up on easy boulders, went to some harder boulders then ran up to where Dreamcatcher lived.

My first attempt the day wasn’t very good. I had only gotten through the slab section and stuck the dyno once before. On my first attempt, I fell on the dyno because I had my foot way to high. I came straight to the ground and rested 5 minutes before my next try. My second try of the day was pretty good, I made it through the dyno, past the hard moves at the beginning of the rail all the way to the pin scars. There’s a hard move where you have to bump your left hand from a small pocket in the pin scar about 2 inches higher to a bad sidepull. While I was doing that move, I completely missed the hold and subsequently fell. I fell too far to jug back up the rope so I once again came to the ground. After resting about 30 minutes, I was getting nervous about the sunlight. The sun had dropped down behind the mountain and would be dark in about an hour. I figured if I fell again on the route, I wanted to rest another half an hour and give it a third burn. I decided that if I didn’t do on this attempt, my third burn would be more of a working session than a redpoint session."

The send

"When I got on the route for the third time of the day, I felt confident. The air was getting cooler and there were no distractions. It was just me, the route and Jamie. I walked up the slab pretty fast and started setting up for the dyno. I jumped and it felt relatively easy. I tried to move fast through the first hard section to save energy for the two harder parts at the end. I made it through the bouldery moves at the bottom pretty fast. There’s a pretty good rest about half way up the route right before the pin scars. I got there and I was feeling good. I rested until I felt recovered and kept going. I started up the pin scars and everything started to click. On the move that I fell on last time, my feet blew off… I quickly threw my left foot back into the pin scar and made the desperate move to the jug. This was the last jug before the final crux of the route. Chris fell 6+ times in the final crux of the route and I was getting to it for the first time. I rested each hand a couple of times and started to get psyched up. Before I left the rest, I took a couple really deep breaths and decided it was time. I made the hard move around the corner with my right hand and quickly brought my left hand to the pinch on the corner. I lunged right to the crux hold and felt pretty good. I made room for my other hand to come in, then matched feet then did the move. My feet blew off as I was re adjusting my fingers on the hold but I still felt good. I pasted my left foot on the corner of the wall and threw into the next gaston. Two more moves and I was done… I moved my left foot to a higher smear in the crack, matched hands and threw for the final jug. I hit the jug and a stream of endorphins hit my body. I rested back and forth a bit then did the last 4 moves and clipped the chains. As I clipped the chains, I let out a victory cry that could be heard all around. I had done it, the second ascent of Dreamcatcher."

Victory!

"As I lowered down off the route, I could barely believe it. I had redpointed my first 5.14d. Not only that but it was one of my longest projects to date. One year after Chris made the first ascent in 2005, I started working the route. It was more of a joke for me at the time because I thought that the route was too hard. I could still do every individual move except the moves in the pin scar and up at the top seemed too hard to do on redpoint. I had also never stuck the dyno. All of that work took me about 3-4 days. After that first year of trying it, I didn’t try it again until this year. Since getting back from Europe at the beginning of this month, I tried the route a total of 8 times. The first time I got on it again, it still felt so hard. The slab hurt my feet, the dyno was big and the last crux moves seemed unfathomable. The more I tried the route, the easier it became. My muscles started to remember the individual moves and it started to feel strong. The last time I was on the route was 3 days ago. I had made it through the slab, past the dyno all the way up to the pin scars. I only fell because the upper part of the pin scar was soaking wet. When I went to pull the hardest move in the pin scar, I fired right out of the wet hold. After that, I pulled past that part and worked the last crux about 5 times. Since I had done the last moves so many times over and over again, when I got there on redpoint, the moves seemed natural. Unlike Chris, I was very lucky in the fact that I never fell in the last crux on redpoint. The redpoint crux for me it turns out was the hard moves in the pin scars. Either way, the route was really hard for me. Whether or not I fell on the same moves as any other climber has very little relevance. In total, I probably spent over 8 days trying the route. Although my redpoint burn felt easier than any other time, I do agree that the route deserves the grade of 5.14d (9a). This route took me longer than any other route that I’ve done. I also feel that I’m the strongest I’ve ever been in route climbing after competing on the World Cup circuit in Europe this whole summer."

Sean McColl

More info on Sean McColl's blog

Reel Rock Tour trailer

Petzl Crew — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:16:00 +0200

Check out the recently launched REEL ROCK Film Tour Trailer.
Featuring Sender Films' new series for Nat Geo Adventure Channel, First Ascent.
And Big UP's newest release, PROGRESSION.

The 2009 Fall tour is kicking off with the grand premier in Boulder, Colorado.
Kevin Jorgeson, the whole Big UP crew, and 900 climbers will pack the Boulder Theater on September 10th; tickets will go fast!

For more info on the premier or to find a show near you, visit REELROCKTOUR.com

Infinity Lane - the movie

Petzl Crew — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:46:00 +0200

Check out the Petzl Millau Roctrip film, featuring the 90m Infinity Lane routes... 17 minutes of amazing climbing to get you psyched!
For more infos about the movie, photos, wallpapers... Please visit the Petzl website.

Infinity Lane - the film

Directed by Team Les Collets with music written & performed by Said Belhaj.

Starring: Florence Pinet, Martina Cufar, Lynn Hill, Nina Caprez, Chloé Minoret, Anouk Evene,
Chris Sharma, Dani Andrada, Mickaël Fuselier, Daniel Dulac, Steve McClure,
Tony Lamiche, Sean McColl, Enzo Oddo and Gerhard Hörhager.

Infinity Lanes - the pictures

Petzl Crew — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:33:00 +0200

Check out Sam Bié's photos of the Petzl Roctrip in Millau (Gorges de la Jonte).

All the photos are available on Facebook (you don't need to sign-up to see them).
If you're already on Facebook, Become a Fan to receive the latest news and see the newest videos before everybody else!

Watch the Petzl Roctrip photo gallery

Petzl Roctrip: Chris Sharma flashes Infinity Lane!

Petzl Crew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:18:00 +0200

Chris Sharma flashed the Men's Infinity Lane Saturday 27th, June, during the Petzl Roctrip in Millau (Aveyron - France).

This 100m route approaching the 8c has resist to the others competitors (Dani Andrada, Daniel Dulac, Tony Lamiche, Steve McClure, Sean McColl, Mickaël Fuselier...) but Chris spent all his energy in one attempt and flashed the route in a raw!

On the Women's Infinity Lane, Martina Cufar and Florence Pinet flashed the route as well. Chloé Minoret, Nina Caprez and Lynn Hill sent the route on 2nd or 3rd attempt.

Read all the stories on petzl.com

Roctrip day 1

Roctrip day 2

Snowboard with Xavier Delerue : Deeper

Petzl Crew — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:18:00 +0200

Deeper....
Deeper is definitely the word. Two weeks ago, Jeremy Jones showed up with his filmer Chris in Bruson Switzerland to film the last segment of their season. The goal of that mission was quite unclear, ride some steeps, use no heli, sleep in the mountains....

As I arrived on saturday morning with my daughter from the Pyrenees, I did not know what to expect from that trip. The weather was pretty unsure for the next few days and after discussing the whole situation, it seemed that all obvious options had to be done with at least one overnight in a refuge. No way we could get that first window on the next morning. Fair enough, we decide to go climbing in "La fully" that nice big boulder facing one of our projects: L'aiguille de la Mone. That face looked big but totally doable in terms of conditions. At 5 o'clock, as it's time to go home, we look up one more time and decide that there is no way to seat around and miss that short but good window. We're gonna go for it, and in the worse case we won't make the summit.... that's not the end of the world... At least, we're gonna start getting things going.

Three hours later, after a rich swiss diner, we leave our car all geared up. We're all excited with the mission... it's 10 o'clock and we have 9 hours ahead of us to get to the top of the run at 7 in the morning. I'm not going to mention that we got lost around the car for over an hour until we found the right trail, but we finally got to find it and get things going. It's amazing how time goes by quickly when you climb at night. Our rythm is great and after 6 hours of hiking, the sun starts to give the first colors far on the horizon. We finally reach the base of our face, it's just gorgeous.

Enormous galciers surround us and as we keep on hiking, and going over Bergshrungs and crevasses to reach the final big hanging snowfield, we get enchanted by this most incredible sun rise painting us with pretty much all the colors of a rainbow. We get to the top a little later than expected, around 8 o'clock. Jeremy gets to see what the Alps can offer in terms of steep riding at this time of the year. We are surrounded by the most incredible panorama. Bassin d'Argentiere, Triolet, Mont Dolent, Aiguille Verte.... And l'Aiguille de la Mone that's standing under our feet...
The ride is amazing. At that time of the year, snow conditions become way easier to read and to trust and really allow you to enjoy safely these kind of exposed runs. It feels great...

"we can feel really thankfull that the mountain didn't shut us down [...]"

Mission #1 is accomplished, the trip starts right away with an epic adventure. When we reach the car at 10 am and that the clouds start to cover the face, we can feel really thankfull that the mountain didn't shut us down. There's gonna be two days of bad weather, two days to rest from that big first one...and all that with a big smile on our faces.

Our next mission is gonna be on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. The Benedetti couloir on the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey. That line has been riden once in 1977 by Mr Benedetti him self, and has never been riden by any one since then. It's quite rare to have such an impresive and obvious steep line that hasn't been riden much in the Chamonix area. We are about to find out the reason why. The first day of access to the hut is already a mission in itself. From the punta Helbronner, above Courmayeur, we get to split for around two hours accross the glacier to reach la Combe Maudite and this big range of "small" couloirs below the famous Kufner ridge, one of them giving access to the our hut, the Bivouac de la Fourche.

At the bottom of the couloir, Jeremy, Fanfan and I get to cross the bergshrung and start hiking in the steep when we hear that woom noise. It takes us a few seconds to realize that Chris just disapeared into the crevasse. The reality of the high Alpine strikes us and brings us back to reality. Chris is safe, and shortly out of the hole, but we just got to be reminded that no rules have to be forgotten up there. Being happy and all motivated, we've started that climb without all the needed attention and right away we get this (luckily with no consequences) huge slap in our faces. It's just the begining. And it appears that this area is really wild and demanding, especially at this time of the year. It's incredible how strongly we've had had these signals that reminded us that there is no way relax up here until we would get our foot into the actual cable car. Between huge hanging seracs, slabs, bergshungs, falling stones, crevasses, corniches.... there's been messages all the way. We've had to be 100% focused on what we were doing as well as on the environnement surounding us.

"It takes us a few seconds to realize that Chris just disapeared into the crevasse"

We finaly get to that hut and it's definitely mystical. it's basicaly a little box hanging on a rock that is supposed to be able to "lodge" 12 people lying .... 8 people beeing already almost too much, but anyways we didn't get the chance to test that limit. At 3 o'clock when we got out of it for our first attempt, it's been really cool to start the day ( night) with a rappel in the dark with the board on the back, crampons ice axes... At the end of the rope we would land into this 45° icy couloir. Pretty interesting to ride that in the middle of the night. Slide sleep would be more of an appropriate word for the technique in that passage. After crossing the big Brenva Glacier and all the hanging glaciers, we quickly got to realize that less and less stars would shine upon us and that slowly the clouds were getting stuck on the Mont-Blanc above us. By the time the sun would rise, those few clouds became a snow storm.... retreat was the only option.

The next few days would be bad and going up in bad weather was not an option. Out there, the way back is pretty much a mission too. Between steep mixed climbing, decending an icy couloir and crossing these exposed glaciers... it's only a good five hours later that we get to the Torino hut, ready for our descent to the valley. After three days up there, that face is definitely a major goal for us. We've studied it under all possible angles, we know all the accesses, the timing the conditions, all we got to do is to get it right. In that period, Jeremy and I got to feel quite confortable about riding that face, all the mission around it became less and less mysterious for us and seemed totaly doable. After that bad weather, we got to face a really hot south weather getting us to postpone such a big project.

We still chose a two days period to get up there and ride some smaller lines in the Combe Maudite. As soon as we start accessing the goods, La Tour Ronde area becomes more or less our zone. Our first run is a quite open 300 meters face with the usual nice open Bergshrung at the bottom. At the top we get to climb our first pieces of blue glacier ice. It's good to be in more human sized runs, and definitely a great way to feel the atmosphere and get used to cruse around up there. Jeremy and I start to get well connected in the mountains and we get to have the time to rallye up the Gervasutti couloir on the west face of the Tour Ronde right after that. 450 meters of a nice long straight couloir. By the time we reach the summit, snow is falling, but the visibiliyty in the couloir is still great... and so is the ride. Our first run together on nice firm and soft corn snow, really enjoyable...

The next day aims us towards the North Face of the Tour Ronde. Jeremy is not really confident about it but once more, it seems to be adequate to start hiking and see on the way up if we reached our limit or if the conditions start to be critical. The middle part of the face is a steeper blue ice section needing ice screws and proper belayed climbing. Jeremy is really stocked to get to discover all these new alpine mixed climbing techniques, and when we get to the top to get the board on our feet, it seems more than comfortable to ride down that face. After a few hours the whole ascent has gone more than smoothly and it's great to be at the top of the run and know exactly what you're gonna get on your way down, definitely something we don't have when we hit these big faces with a heli

"The middle part of the face is a steeper blue ice section needing ice screws and proper belayed climbing"

At that time, the Italian couple we passed on the steeper section is still hanging on the ice bellow us in the middle of the face, and it seems that Chamonix on the week end makes these pics quite busy when you start to see all these roped up teams showing up from all different directions... After some discussions and being able to get infos from the film team that these guys are well protected on the belay, I get to ride and reach these two Italians, that finaly (after discussion and help) decided to turn back and not keep challenging that big snowfield leading to the top in the middle of the afternoon of one of the hottest days in the month. It was quite difficult to see how stuborn and most of all not at their place on that day these guys were. 5 hours to climb half of the face and wanting to continue at twelve oclock on the warmest day.... They were not happy that I made them turn back, but I'm glad I did...

Anyways, La tour Ronde is standing in our back now. It's been great to get that piece of run and climb behind us and the Benedetti couloir seems to be the next objective. These two days definitely got us more confortable and prepared to go and hit the big one. It's been definitely a great thing for both of us to process that way slowly but surely. It seems quite obvious to us that as soon as we step into our boards we have absolutely no problem to feel confortable in these steep runs even if the conditions are not perfect. The combination of a good front side edge with the two ice axes is definitely rock solid. It's been an option not to use a rope on the way down and straight line the piece of ice but that whole dealing with the italian made us want to go down and maybe not challenge the whole thing too much. That North face is quite impressive when you look at it from the front but it's still way easier to get down there surely than to hit some wicked film lines with big jumps high speed and tons of pow.... As stupid as it sounds it's a good thing to feel as it is pretty much super important to kow your possibilities when you get into the steeps.
Looking back towards these two days, it seems that it's been great to get these into the process to go back to la Blanche de Peuterey and that we're gonna benefit a lot from that time spent up there.

A few days later, that colderfront shows up, after a pooring thunderstorm. It seems to be the window that we've been looking for. We get to reappeat the whole process to get to the hut. The whole film crew is really well dialed up and fully independant to capture the run on the next early morning day. Same thing, an hour later this time because of the colder conditions. At 4 o'clock, the sky is cloud less and everything seems to be lined up to get to our goal.

When at 7 we start to climb the final steeper pitch of the face, we realize that the 50 km/h north wind that's blowing on the face and that's gonna intensify through out the day is unabling the snow to soften up. It's been snowing less than what we thought and that old snow won't defreeze today. Jeremy and I still see the descent possible. Snowboarding is a great tool in the steeps, especially with ice axes, but at that point, there's no way to split up the team. The out run is pretty much the sketchiest open glacier and we'll have to stay the three of us till we get to the dry valley floor. The vibe between us becomes strange at that point.

Everything looked great up to then but suddently that weird feeling comes when Fanfan starts to doubt big time on the evolution of the conditions. It's really hard to take decisions but after a while, we choose a more "easy" option and the col de Peutery becomes our B plan. Way less interesting, the snow is kind of brownish but it seems that within a small hour we should be able to reach the summit and get ready to ride. The way out of that zone is really exposed and as time goes by it seems that this easier option becomes the only reasonable option. Everything seems clean but on our way up I get hit on the arm by a flying stone and we all three get to barely avoid that slushy slide that's descending in our way. At that point, it's already 11 in the morning and it becomes clear that we should head down. Too many signs play against us and since we've given up our main objective, the motivation is definitely not the same any more.

The way down is by far the most radical open glacier run I've ever gone through. Until we get through these two really chunked up portions, we don't know if we're really gonna be able to make it through. After crossing this huge mined serac field, we get to ride... descend... roped up over all these whole and below these exposed slopes to reach the bottom of one of the most impressive glaciers in the whole area. Quite an adventure. When we get out of the ice, the first thing that comes to our mind is of course a little regret. Sooooo close.... It's hard to say no in the mountains especially when you get to feel the whole thing really possible and that no real obvious sign get you to turn back. It is still obvious that we could have done it, but it also appears clearly thatin a long term perspective you wanna have such a grandiose line in good conditions before you get to hit it and have the whole team fully ready to commit to it. You can always go for it and most of the time get away with it, but at the end of the day, Jeremy and I feel right...

We didn't force it. We tried hard, but not too hard. And as basic as it sounds, we got down in one piece, knowing that this pretty lady would still be there in the future and that we'd still be there as well to go and get aquinted with her.... Two hours later, as we called Anselme Baud to share a moment for an interview to hear about his long term steep skiing experience I get the news that one of my very good friends and one of the strongest female snowboarder in the world, Karine Ruby just died falling 20 meters into a crevasse after her two clients next to the Tour Ronde. It's just incredible, her, on that totally armless glacier roped up, disppearing like that so suddently when we get to go, at the same time, through the one of the worse places in the whole area. There's definitely a message there, but at the same time we just don't know what to think any more. So much beauty, so much crualty at the same time. That place is seriouly wild and even if we got to spend one of the best trips of our lives, it's just almost impossible to get confronted to such reality. It's summer time... time to let time help us digesting this horrible but really important lessons...

Xavier Delerue
http://www.xavierdelerue.com

Palmares :
2003, 2004, 2005 -> 1st Snowboarding World Cup (Cross)
2003, 2007 -> 1st Snowboarding World Championships (Cross)
2009 -> 1st Xtrem of Verbier

EQUIPMENT USED :

Discover all the mountaineering gear by Petzl Charlet, and all the techniques they used on our website :
http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/activities-techniques/mountaineering

Melloblocco - Impressions from the team

Petzl Crew — Mon, 18 May 2009 09:55:00 +0200

Here are some testimonies from the Petzl team, catched during the Melloblocco bouldering event in Italy (Val Di Mello).

Sean McCall - 21 years old [CANADA]
3 competition problems sent
" I'm on a four-month trip in Europe and I plan to participate in as many events as possible, (World Cups, Roc Trips, climbing festivals, etc.) I naturally chose to come here after the World Cup in Hall with my friends. It's my first time and Whoa ! There are so many boulders to climb!!! I'm staying around for a full week afterwards. I really like the after-climbing scene with the movies, parties and music."

Sean fighting his way up "Magic Bus" 8a+

Daniel Woods - 19 years old [USA]
2 competition problems sent
" This is my second time attending this event. After the World Cup In Hall last week, it's really cool to be here, taking part in this gathering with climbers of all levels. The competition aspect is managed in a mellow atmosphere with no pressure. It's a great opportunity to see old friends, meet new people and share the spirit of climbing. It’s the 'Woodstock of climbing!' "

Daniel Woods

Jorg Verhoeven - 23 years old [NEDERLANDS]
1 competition problem sent
" It's my first time in the valley. It's really beautiful here and there are so many things to climb. It's hard for me to stay concentrated on the boulders with all these big walls and high mountains around – I like the feeling. Even with a lot of people, being here is not just about climbing. I'm really motivated to come again later for more action."

Jorg Verhoeven

Enzo Oddo - 14 years old [FRANCE]
1 competition problem sent (but alas, no judge was present)
" It's really new for me to take part in a bouldering festival. I'm not a competition climber and most of all and I had never bouldered on granite before… I've been a few times to Fontainebleau where the climbing is maybe a little less reachy. I mostly climb limestone routes. It's a challenge for me to adapt to climbing on granite. I would love to come again next fall for more climbing. Melloblocco was a good experience for me to meet the other climbers of the team."

Enzo Oddo

Enzo Oddo on one "prized problem"

The Tifosi - 22 years old [ITALY]
Volonteer spotter for the women's problems
" I missed the soccer stadium exit on the highway in Milano, I don't know how, but I ended up here… It's nice to be able to speak directly to the players, without needing a special 'All Access' pass. Incredible, the game lasted for three days instead of 90 minutes. That's a long time… "

The Rooster - 18 months old [ITALY]
No competition problems sent
" The hens and I had a great time watching all the climbers shred their tips on the Magic Bus boulder. It's cool – we live in the shack right next to it and all this great action is happening just outside our door. Now that Melloblocco is over, our life is going to be pretty boring... We can't wait for next year!"

The Crimp - 5000000 years old [ITALY]
Part of a competition problem
" Even under torture we were unable to obtain an answer… We just guessed she enjoyed getting groped all day long..."

Photos - Lafouche

PETZL ROC TRIP 26-27-28 juin 2009

Petzl Crew — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:33:00 +0200

Pour la deuxième année consécutive le Petzl Roc Trip fera partie des Vibram Natural Games. L'événement multisports Outdoor rassemblera, autour de Millau, amateurs et sportifs professionnels de l'escalade, du parapente, du VTT de descente, du kayak freestyle et de la slackline.

Le quartier général des Vibram Natural Games se situera au Golf Café, où l'ensemble des participants et partenaires se retrouvera pour d'inoubliables soirées de démonstrations et de concerts. Le programme complet et les formulaires d’inscriptions sont disponibles sur www.naturalgames.fr

En attendant cela, profitons en pour présenter le secteur du Ravin des Echos. Celui-ci se situe directement au dessus du parking principal des gorges, au niveau de la deuxième épingle, route D996, deux km en amont du Rozier (présence borne de secours).

Le chemin d'accès remonte dans le ravin, en contournant par la gauche, le rocher de Pégase, puis en retraversant plus haut, vers la droite, pour rejoindre un petit col, d'où l'on a une vue d'ensemble de la Cathédrale et de la Petite Arête. Ne pas emprunter la trace directe, raide et ravinée... Le Roc Trip sera l'occasion de remettre en état ces chemins et d'en rénover le balisage. Temps de marche: Pégase 10 min, Petite Arête et Cathédrale 25 min.

Situé en bas du ravin et par conséquent au plus proche de la route, Pégase offre trois magnifiques longueurs en 5 qui finissent sur un véritable petit sommet.

Pour une première expérience de la grande voie, Zébulon (entièrement dans le 4c) s'impose. Sa voisine la Petite Arête se différentie par un pas de bloc plus dur en 6a (équipé A0) dans la première longueur. Une belle descente en rappel complétera l'ascension.

La voie des "4 Dalles" d'un niveau déjà bien soutenu (6C+, 7A+, 7A+, 7A+) parcourt la totalité de la grande face. Si votre niveau le permet c'est un bon challenge "à vue".
descente en rappel ou à pied par le canyon derrière...

Le dévers de "la Poire", annoncé par l'intense couleur orange, offrira l'échauffement nécessaire pour les voies ultimes, situées sur les deux grandes proues qui dominent le coté droit de la falaise.

Des nouveaux secteurs de tout niveau seront également ouverts pour l'occasion (à découvrir pendant le Roc Trip).

En continuant vers l'amont, par le sentier du pied de falaise, on rejoint en quelques minutes "le cirque des Vases" qui possède, sans aucun doute, les plus belles classiques des gorges. Pendant les Natural Games, une démonstration de "Highline" est prévue dans le cirque des Vases. Le Highline consiste à marcher en équilibre sur une sangle plate (slackline), tendue entre deux promontoires... Frissons et émotions sont garantis. www.slack.fr

Le topo complet des gorges de la Jonte est édité par le Club Alpin Français, section Causses et Cévennes. On le trouve dans les librairies, débits de tabac, et autres commerces locaux. Les revenus du topo sont la source de financement de l'équipement des voies et de la gestion des sites. Acheter le topo local, c'est participer au développement de l'escalade en milieu naturel.

Les gorges de la Jonte sont un site exceptionnel pour l'escalade, mais aussi pour la randonnée pédestre. Le circuit des "corniches du Méjean" offre un superbe panorama sur les vallées du Tarn et de la Jonte. Il permet d'observer les vautours fauves et, au printemps, une flore sauvage.

Bien évidement, il est important que chacun respecte l'environnement en ne laissant aucune trace de son passage. Remportez avec vous tous vos détritus et enterrez vos besoins, le camping sauvage et les feux sont interdits.

Camping, gîte et ravitaillement sur place
Offices de Tourisme: Le Rozier, Peyreleau, Meyrueis Millau.

Photos: Lafouche

10mila THE orienteering race

Petzl Crew — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:45:00 +0200

Pour la deuxième année consécutive, c'est avec honneur que Petzl s'associe comme partenaire principal de la 10mila, une des plus fameuses courses d'orientation au monde.

Depuis 1945, soixante quatre éditions de cette course ont été organisées aux quatre coins de Suède et c'est une région différente qui, chaque année, se fait un honneur d'accueillir l'évènement.

Cette année la région de Skane, dans le sud de la suède, a organisé la course.

Photo J.Rockefeller

Plus de 8000 participants et plus de 70 clubs s'affrontent depuis 10h00 ce matin entre les catégories juniors, mixte, femme. Puis la course de référence, actuellement en cours et dont le départ a été donné cette nuit à 21h30.

Photo J.Rockefeller

Chaque équipe est composée de dix orienteurs qui vont se relayer toute la nuit pour couvrir les 140km et trouver plus de 200 balises!

Nous attendons les premiers vers 7h30 demain matin.

Photo J.Rockefeller

Scottish Ice Trip - Day 7

Petzl Crew — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:35:00 +0100

The all white day...
It was a promising sight when I first peered out of the window this morning. Beyond the wet glass and besides a constant tapping of the rain, the mountains across the bay were covered in snow. Well, the temperature decided to drop at last. Our destination in the Glen Coe range was about two-hour walk away. But as I tried to catch as much as a glimpse of where we were heading, all I could actually see was a decently steep and long snow slope ahead of us, disappearing into white.

Andy was my climbing partner today for the Central Grooves, one of the best classic routes in Scotland. It snowed heavily all the time and accumulation at the base of the climb was half a metre. Wind has also joined the game, as it usually does on such an occasion, causing much spindrift, turning our three languages into an impolite mixture.

Just as Andy started, Erwan joined in, so that the other team on the Unicorn was more mobile. Pitch by pitch we were enjoying the route while Tony was following by a fixed rope to cover some sections, photo shooting. We wouldn't dare walking from the top because of the fresh snow, so we rapped off and then ploughed down from the base.

Descending through fog and snow all the way back, with moisture setting in as the snow turned into rain, I knew exactly what comes next: In the hotel, there's this little magic spa pool, with the power to change the mind of any man. Especially those who may become firmly convinced they've just had enough of Scottish conditions for a few presidential mandates. You sit in for a while and go walk straight up to Ben Nevis, first thing the next morning.

Life is good. And sometimes it finds the way to get even better.

Text by Aljaz Anderle
Photos by Tony Lamiche

Scottish Ice Trip - Day 5

Petzl Crew — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:49:00 +0100

As checked out the previous day, it is warm outside...and still raining.
The bravest of us are awake around 7.30am for the scottish cooked breakfast.

But most of us are skiping it for sleeping purposes...
9.00am back to our van again toward Kinlochleven, a small village about 8 miles away and its big indoor climbing place. Once there, we discover a very nice sport center, a few nice climbing walls but especially an indoor ice wall...
Sweet.

Everyone looks excited but not for so long. Remember that those guys are hungry for working out and only happy with sore arms.

This looks more like a children playground for them... so it's play time !

After 2 hours spent in this fridge, Tony find another hiden room, with some nice inverted boulders...
It's now the whole crew gathered here on what looks like a Trophee Fabtor... Another way to sore arms and swollen fingers ! After such an entertaining morning, we head back home for lunch.

The crew is now split in small groups, some are chilling in the Jacuzzi, some are taking a nap, but the Petzl staff is on full creativity for the movie:
Guillaume set up a first screenplay, Erwan playing the role of his life, John (our housekeeper) also recruited for a major role and myself on the translations.

You're gonna have to be a bit patient to see what it is all about... cameras are still rolling!

Then after such a filled up day, its dinner time and briefing for tomorrow. Another big day on the Ben is coming. It will be the last day out there for Ueli and cameraman Bertrand. They planed to go on The Secret - a pretty famous route and they have to be efficient, both of them.
But no doubt on that. Good night and see you tomorrow for more (wet) action !

(Photos by Tony Lamiche)
(Text by Loic Tonnot)

Scottish Ice Trip - Day 3

Petzl Crew — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:50:00 +0100

For what seems forever will this thaw ever come to an end?
After waiting with excitement for the last couple of months for the guys to arrive, all seems to be falling apart... Wanting so much to show people how good Scottish winter climbing can be things are off to a slow wet start.

At the same time as the guys being here an international meet is being held up the road at the National Mountain Centre, Glenmore Lodge. Every night everyone is pinned to the latest weather forecast hoping by some miracle some cold weather is on the horizon... Yesterday didn't bring the weather we were expecting, so a day of bouldering was had instead down by the sea. (See the previous post)

Day3 : We decided to get as high possible and head west to Fort William and head up the 'BEN'...

Leaving Aviemore at 6.am : Things weren't looking good, the windscreen wipers were on full blast trying to clear the rain away...

Climbing in Scotland you always try and stay optimistic and just keep going higher and higher hoping rain turns to snow.

Unfortunately everyone else on the international meet had the same idea and the usual scrum of people headed up the track in the rain and mist.

God knows what these guys were thinking having probally spent the rest of the winter climbing under blue skies in Chamonix and the ice falls of Briançon... We arrived at the CIC hut already with wet knickers.

Huddling in the doorway we tried to hatch a plan, this we decided was just to carry on getting higher and higher.

"Where is Waldo? (About 10 people!...)"

Gearing up in the bottom of the corrie you couldnt see anything more than 10metres away, and as on any hill you are familiar with you just follow your nose, not beeing bothered to open your rucsac and dig out the map.

After a further 10mins a posie of people came into view all queing for the same route. We quickly looked around and fired the guys up any routes that looked climbable... God knows what everyone thought around us, all these french voices echoeing around in the mist.

We decided on the classic DARTH VADER which Martial and Yann soon got to grips with, the others doing some filming on GREMLINS and GARGOYLE WALL. We topped out and wandered back down into the corrie wondering what the rest of the trip holds in store.

Text - Andy Turner

Photos - Tony Lamiche

Scottish Ice Trip - Day 1&2

Petzl Crew — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:37:00 +0100

February 24th. 3.45am.

A bunch of Petzl team members are gathered at the headquarters to get to Geneva airport. An hour and half later, we meet up with the rest of the crew. Its now Ueli Steck, Martial Dumas, Yann Mimet, Mathieu Maynadier, Anthony Lamiche, Aljaz Anderle as well as Petzl Staff Erwan Le Lann, Loïc Tonnot and Cameraman Guillaume Broust. Bertrand Delapierre, another cameraman came from Chamonix to put his filming skills into what should be another interesting Petzl movie.

Final destination towards Inverness, Scotland. Why some of the best ice climbers in the world are meeting up in the middle of such an amazing winter, after having climbed the hardest and highest mountains worldwide, why are they suddenly heading to Scotland ?

The country of legendary tales, also known for its wet, stormy and unpredictable conditions. The mountains are big hills compared to our alps but everyones agree on one thing. Those "big hills" are like the weather, you never know what to expect.

Its a discovery trip for each one of us, it could be either ice or mixed climbing, as well as mountaineering or even bouldering ! For all those skilled guys gathered in scotland for 2 weeks, one word:

Escape!

Escape either from the daily mountain guiding routine as well as pure performance...

After a short flight from Geneva to Inverness in the Scotisch Highlands, we discover a pretty grey scenery, sometimes suddenly cut by sunrays piercing through the moving clouds, revealing the colors of the different lakes, fields and mountains.

From Inverness, we head to Aviemore, about 30km further south where we planned to stay for a couple days. After a few pints of Guiness and a good meal to fill our stomachs, we try to figure out the plans for the next day. Yet, as the weather is unpredictable, the plans are as well.

Good night everyone and see you tomorrow at 7.30.

Day 2

Eggs, Bacon, pancakes, potao eals, coffee, juice, muffins...

Everyone seems to eat like we are going to struggle up Everest. We meet up with Andy Turner, a local guy. Always good to have a local in such trips. Apparently the conditions are pretty stormy (how bizarre...) up there.

We finally switch our plans for an hour drive to the sea shore for some bouldering !

The sky is clearing up slowly, sun is shining, really shining.

Still a little windy though. Everyone is now on the beach spread out in 2 teams, Erwan, Ueli and Aljaz, the mountain guys are up for some route climbing.

Tony, Mathieu, Martial and Yann are on the other side, into what looks like a cave, with some nice boulder problems. The rock is yellow and sticky...

pretty nice start. After a few hours on the different boulders and small routes along the beach we finally all meet on a main boulder for a last fun session.

Back home for the now traditional Guiness briefing time, followed by a fancy meal. Its now 10.00pm and we expect to go to the Ben Nevis tomorrow... It should be a long busy day.

More news & pictures soon... Stay on.

Tout schuss!!

(Photos by Tony Lamiche - Text by Loic Tonnot)

Outdoorgames 2009 : "Action!"

Petzl Crew — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:11:00 +0100

This film festival began for his second winter edition in Chamonix.
It will last until the 21th of February, and gather all the best outdoor filming crews.
A quick resume of what this festival features...

The best teams in the best mountains...

The top athletes representing the extreme sports of skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, speed-flying and BASE-jumping will be in Chamonix in February 2009, to dispute the Nissan Outdoor Games film and photo competition. After four very successful summer editions, the event is taking place in the Mont-Blanc mountain range for the second time.

In a class of its own, this biggest European outdoor event combines the sporting performances of professional athletes with a creative and artistic aspect and blends it all into a festival of film and photography.

For seven days preceding the event, as a prelude to this fantastic alpine show, the winter games will host about sixty athletes, photographers and cameramen from Europe and North America to take part in the competition. Their challenge: shooting and editing 20 pictures and a short film, which according to the rules, must be no longer than 5 minutes including a sequence of BASE jumping, paragliding, mountaineering, skiing and snowboarding. Creativity-wise, anything goes… Elected by a jury, the best film will be judged on its photography, its screenplay and the performance of the riders. When it comes to pulling off the biggest moves, these high-level athletes should display the best combination of their disciplines with the Mont Blanc in the background.

The real interaction with the public will start on Friday the 20th of February. The "Outdoor Games' Village" in the centre of town will be the place to be for adults as well as kids. A climbing wall, concerts and giant-screens will be installed. Just next to this in the Petzl' booth, the public will have the opportunity to put on crampons and ice-tools and have a go at this fascinating discipline.

Last year, the Petzl Team made a film about Tony Lamiche, who wanted to make a photo with all the sport in a same picture.
Let's watch (or re-watch) the 08 Outdoorgames movie, by MédéO.

Outdoorgames 08 by MédéO - English Version

Outdoorgames 08 par MédéO - Version Française

Read also all the posts about the 08 Outdoorgames, by Tony Lamiche, Sam Beaugey and Liv Sansoz.
Follow the competition day by day on the official site of the Outdoorgames.

Audrey Gariépy: a mixed route on the Kwangde Lho, Nepal

Petzl Crew — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:57:00 +0100

In Mid-December, I flew to Nepal with Ines Papert (Germany), Jen Olson (Canada), Cory Richards (USA) and Chris Alstrin (USA). Our goal was to try to open a new route on the North Face of Kwangde Lho (6187m).

I was very excited about the trip because it would be my first time to try something big like that and to be in high altitude. I knew I’d learned a lot, especially doing it with these two great and experienced women.

After a couple days in Kathmandu, we flew to Lukla. The landing there has to be mention…..everyone that I’ve been there will know what I’m talking about! Being in this tiny little airplane flying toward a dead end in a narrow valley and the only thing to avoid the crash in the mountain is this 350 meters long air stripe. There’s no room for a second chance there! I’m not usually scared with airplane, but that time I really thought that was it!!!

It felt so good to be away from the crazyness of Kathmandu and to be in the mountains. I was amazed with everything I saw. First of all, there no road there. Everybody is walking. The supply arrives in Lukla and people carry it by foot all the way to villages. There’s no engine to help with anything. The houses are built with men and women’s power only, breaking rocks with hammers. Everybody helps each other and it seems to work perfectly.

After a day of walking, we reached Namche Bazar, the biggest village of the Khumbu region. At only two hours walk from there, we could have a really good view of the North Face of Kwangde Lho. Unfortunatly, the conditions were not as great as we had expected. The whole season has been unsusually warm and dry and the face has been affected. The first impression gave us no hope to open a new route and gave us very limited possibilities to climb at all. After reflexions, we decided to go exploring around to try to find something else that would be in better shape.

After three days of walking in the middle of those giant mountains and going over the Chola Pass (5420m), we were back to plan A! The conditions were the same a bit everywhere so we realized we would just have to deal with it and make the best out of it!

So there we were the next day, walking with all our stuff with the precious help of the yaks and porters toward Thame where we set the base camp at 3800m. We agreed on a line on the right end side of the face that has been climb already, but seemed to be in good conditions. A couple days of rest gave us enough energy to be able to carry the gear to the base of the climb.

More than once we have been fooled by the size of the mountain and the effect of high altitude on us. On the way up, I told Ines that the route didn’t look so long and hard. That I was sure we could do the whole thing in a day if we would go light….without the camping gear. She thought the same thing than me! We changed our mind really quickly when we tried the first pitch in the afternoon! We went very light and without any pack just to go fix a rope on the first 60m. We took more than a hour to do it and what we thought would be only 60m long turned out to be 120m. We than realized that we would have to be careful with the mountain. Everything seems so much smaller and easier from a distance!

After two nights up there, we left all our gear at the base (5100m) and came back down in the comfort of base camp. We rested a few days and made up a plan.

When we felt ready to give it a try, Jen, Ines and I started the approach in late morning. We spent the night at our ABC and started to climb very early the next day. Our back packs were very heavy and the effect of the altitude made us progress a lot slower than what we are used to in this kind of climbing. The first 120m were on steep snice followed with a long traverse on steep snow. Than we had another 180m of steep and thin ‘ice’ climbing to a long snow slope. After a full day of effort, we were very lucky to find a perfect ledge to set up camp at 5600m.

The view was really amazing at night. The bottom of the valley was filled with clouds and we were above them. The sunset light directly on Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Ama Dablam and all the others….it was very spectacular.

I was surprised to be able to sleep a little bit, even the three of us in this really small tent and with my small sleeping bag. Maybe I was very tired! Anyway, the next morning we woke up in the dark and started to climb with our day pack only. We thought that we would be able to reach the summit and come back to this camp for the night. As we started, the summit seemed so close. Our energy was high and we were moving pretty fast across these snow slopes.

The last 80 meters before reaching the ridge to the South Face turned out to be the crux of the climb. The rock was very loose and there wasn’t so much ice or snow.

It was 2 pm when we finally reached the ridge. We thought that the South Face would be walking terrain but NO…..it wasn’t. It seemed to us that if we’d keep going, we would summit after sunset and then we’d have to rappel pretty much all night long. We realized that we should have carried the tent another day and sleep close to the ridge and keep going to the summit the next day. We have been fooled one more with the size of the mountain….hahhahahaa!! We decided that it was safer to turn around, so at almost 5900m we started our way down to the upper camp.

The next morning, when I change my socks in the day light, I saw that two of my toes were blue. I was so surprise to see that because I never felt it coming. I was so nervous since I didn’t know much about frostbite and I was scared that I would lose a part of my toes. Anyway, the only thing that we could do up there was to keep rappelling, crossed my fingers that everything would go fast enough so we could reach the base this day. So we did. We made it all the way to the base camp that day, very tired, happy about our effort and hungry!

On the way back down, I was so exausted that it was sure that I wouldn’t try another attempt on that face, but after a couple days of rest, I wish I could’ve given another try! My toes didn’t allow me to do so. The tips turned black and I couldn’t feel them at all. The only thing that I could do was to rest and wait 5 days before starting to walk back to Lukla.

As I mentioned before, there was a lot of new things for me in that trip. Being in high altitude, sleep on a mountain, climb with such heavy pack…… I’m happy with what we have done on the mountain even if we haven’t reached the summit. The conditions were hard and it was cold, but we gave the best of ourselves. We made a lot of mistakes on the planning and I learned a lot from it. The mountains are huge there and we should have carried the tent one more day to make it possible to summit. But when I look at my toes that are still black even after almost three weeks, I’m actually very happy that we turned around that day!

-- Audrey Gariépy

500 words

Petzl Crew — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:29:00 +0100

From The Alpine Briefs - issue 2

Detroit auto executives, after making crappy gas-guzzlers that break down on the way to the crags, flew to Washington in private jets to beg for bailout money. A stampeding herd of mouthbreathers kicked off the holiday season of giving by trampling to death a Wal-Mart employee.

Corrupt Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich may be shacking up in jail with Illinois’ previous corrupt governor. For Ponzi-scheme-scum and ex-Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff, apparently being a multi-millionaire wasn’t nearly enough. ‘Twas the season.

Blah, blah, blah.

Meanwhile, Patagonia climbers got rich with a two-week high-pressure system. Cerro Torre’s incomparable West Face saw more ascents than the bolt-ladder route on the other side. It was soloed, and summited naked. Norwegian badass Bjorn-Eivind Aartun grabbed American Cullen Kirk and the pair raced from the Niponino bivy to the summit in a mind-boggling 15 hours. It was Kirk’s first real ice climb. WroteAartun: “Imagine, it is comparable to having your sexual debut with Sophia Loren.”

The New York Times featured Fred Beckey himself, a man who debuted long before Loren and remains more active than she probably dreams of. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe they should find out.

Australian researchers revealed that headbanging is bad for you and encouraged “bands such as AC/DC to play songs like Moon River as a substitute for Highway to Hell.” How in the hell would anybody send anything? Four teams—two not even Polish—planned to attempt 8,000m peaks this winter, a thought that has many climbers considering Going to Brazil.

“We put the fest back in festival,” says accomplished climber and former Mr.USA runner-up Todd “the Bod” Offenbacher of his Lake Tahoe Adventure Film Festival. The fest included the Red Hot Go-Go Dancers and a break-dancing midget. Festival attendee Tommy Caldwell is now taking break-dancing lessons.

Dan Cappellini and Rolf Larson snagged a long-sought alpine route on the north face of Buck Mountain. Outside magazine profiled youngbuck Colin Haley and only used the word “extreme” once. When the magazine came out, Haley was outside with Rolando Garibotti linking-up Agujas Guillaumet, Mermoz, and Fitz Roy.

Fairbanks climber and Ph.D. candidate Jeff Benowitz presented his AAC-funded geology research at a major science conference. “In San Fran with 15,000 geeks…all these super smart folks just wanting to talk about themselves and what they have done lately. Minus the smart part, it’s not much different than a climbing gathering. But still, science has its Greg Collinses and Charlie Porters lurking in the shadows.”

Back in Patagonia, the sending spree continued with Bjorn-Eivind Aartun and Marius Olsen establishing a phenomenal ice route near the Poincenot serac. “It dropped a few tons to the side of us during the climb. It exploded on the glacier several hundred meters below. What a show!”

(The news says the real world is also crumbling.)

“Patagonia was generous, giving so much,” said Aartun. “The voodoo-like asado that our Argentinian climbing friends put up at the end was the best ever!”

— Kelly Cordes

Here under is an overwiev of what happend in Patagonia...

Bjørn and me climbed:
1. Exocet, Cerro Stanhardt, 800m. WI6, 5.10

2. Benitiers, El Mocho, 500m. 6c

3. First ascent of “Hvit Linje” under Poincenot 600m. WI5.

Then I went home 2 weeks before schedule (when the 2 week high pressure came) cause of a sick employee. Bjørn then climb the following routes together with different partners...

4. Supercanaleta, Fitz Roy. 1700m. ED-, WI4+, M6, 5.10 Med Ramiro Greco

5. Vela y Viento (Red Pillar), Mermoz, 600m. 7b Med Cullen Kirk

6. Ferrari, Cerro Torre, 1200m. ED+, WI6. Med Cullen Kirk during 15 hours from Niponino.

— Story by Marius Olsen, from The Alpine Briefs, issue 2

Expédition féminine au Pérou

Petzl Crew — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:39:00 +0100

Ildi Pellissier et Marie Berthelot sont parties au Pérou à l'été 2008, avec la Bourse du comité régional FFCAM Rhône-Alpes. Objectifs : La Esfinge (Sphinx) et la Cordillère Huayhuash.

Le récit d'Ildi

... Après avoir marché en cachette sur le chemin pendant des heures je retrouve Marie choquée au milieu de nos 50 kg de matos.
- Ils deviennent violents…ils m’ont ouvert tous les sacs... et puis j’ai cru qu’ils t'avaient attaquée là-haut... j’ai eu peur pour toi... ils sont armés...

C’en était trop. On était parti pour tenter l’Esfinge (la paroi du Sphynx), mais le plus dur étrangement en est l’approche! La route est bloquée depuis quelques semaines. Un gros problème lié à une centrale hydroélectrique qui prélève la majorité de l’eau du lac Paron situé a 15 km au-dessus du village. Les gens ici vivent de l’agriculture et manquent cruellement d'eau. Ils protestent donc légitimement avec leur seul moyen: fermer la route qui relie le village au lac. Plus de passage, ni en voiture, ni à pied...

On est arrivées au Pérou avec la motivation, l’envie de découvrir, de grimper dans les Andes. Après ces longs mois de préparatifs et d’attente nous y sommes enfin! Face aux sommets mythiques de la Cordillera Blanca, à Huaraz, le Chamonix des Andes.

L’acclimatation commence bien sur un site d’escalade situé à 4200 mètres. Perdu dans les collines de Cordillera Negra, Hatun Machay offre une expérience unique pour ses visiteurs. Des lignes Majeures (avec majuscules...), une roche volcanique dans un cadre qui nous fait penser au pays des trolls. Le coucher de soleil transforme le lieu chaque soir.

La lumière caresse des milliers de tours de toutes formes hallucinantes puis le paysage lunaire se laisse border par la nuit. Trois jours de grimpe avec une logistique plutôt confortable. Refuge à l'accueil très sympa et surtout un feu de cheminée qui réchauffe les mains gelées. Les matins le soleil tape fort, ambiance sud, mais l’après-midi on supporte les bonnets, et pas pour le style...

...Cette fois c’est nous qui faisions les baudets...

Pour la suite de notre acclimatation on a choisi une montagne facile, dans l’objectif de gagner encore en altitude. On part de Collon, petit village au nord de Huaraz, pour une marche de 3-4 heures avec un âne et son maître. Il fait encore nuit quand on repart du camp de base d’Ishinca (4350 m).

Cette fois c’est nous qui faisons les baudets. Les sacs sont écrasants. On ne s’en délivre qu'à 5200 m le camp 1, et on continue dans la foulée vers le sommet d’Ishinca.
La marche est facile, mais chaque mètre coûte cher. Bien contentes sur la cime de notre première montagne, 5530 mètres. Le lendemain départ vers trois heures, un autre sommet en projet, le Ranrapalca, départ depuis le même col.
Mais dans la montée je sens trop l’altitude et pas loin de 5800 m on fait demi-tour.

Notre périple aurait dû continuer avec l’Esfinge, (voir le début de l’histoire...) mais donc le verdict est sans appel pour l’instant et nous décidons de revenir dans deux semaines... Cet échec à Paron nous motive pour chercher un objectif sans problème local. C’est déjà assez compliqué de gérer l'aventure de chaque sommet, les imprévus, les inconnus, les distances. Négocier avec les taxis, les muletiers, sans l’aide d’une agence.

Donc après avoir feuilleté "the book" pour la N-ième fois on choisit l’Alpamayo. Elle a cette beauté particulière avec ses couloirs réguliers qui montent vers le sommet depuis une rimaye bien dessinée. Le tableau est beau, et donne envie de partir sur le champ.

Après un petit "quarto pollo" dans un resto local on prépare les affaires et on part tôt le lendemain pour Caraz. Le trek de Santa Cruz démarre à Cashapampa, on longe la vallée avec Eloi, le muletier et ses deux ânes qui nous donnent un coup de patte...
Sur 20 km de “ballade” on passe à côté de lacs bleus, on traverse des grandes plaines remplies de vaches et de chevaux en liberté. Les sommets sont partout.

Sept heures de marche pour gagner le camp de base (4300 mètres). Le lendemain en arrivant rapidement au camp moraine à 5000 mètres, on continue vers le camp 1 avec les sacs très ... (adjectif à deviner:)))

Après des sauts de crevasses dans tous les sens et des passages verticaux on arrive au col à 5500m. L’Alpamayo est là, comme une princesse avec sa robe plissée. L’image parfaite des bouquins est devant nos yeux, ça commence à devenir réel...
Une journée de repos avec des aventures gastronomiques (recette déposée!) nous transforment physiquement, le résultat est plutôt positif.

...L’Alpamayo est là, comme une princesse avec sa robe plissée...

Au réveil, grand beau. Le plus pur des ciels. La ligne attaque au plus bas de la rimaye et coupe la face en son milieu. On décide de monter en "corde tendue" si possible. Au premier relais deux heures et demie plus tard on fait quelques photos.

Puis un petit passage plus raide pour quitter le couloir principal et se retrouver dans un autre, plus étroit avec des couic-couic parfaits. En trois heures notre tactique porte ses fruits: le soleil nous aveugle, et tout d’un coup c’est le terminus, 5947 m, on est heureuses sur notre toit du monde. La vue est paradisiaque, les lacs turquoises au pied des sommets qui remplissent l'horizon. Il fait si beau, la vie est belle...

La descente passe vite, avec les nombreuses lunules en place on enchaîne les rappels. On plie les affaires, direction le camp moraine. C’est dur de quitter le plateau, le modèle est vraiment très photogénique, attends, encore une!!!
Le matin à 5000 m mission "poubelle"! On hallucine devant la quantité de saleté, deux sacs de 50L. bien remplis et puis on les porte jusqu’au village sur dos, car notre muletier ne vient pas (15 km ambiance western avec un sac devant un sac derrière. Qui a eu a la bonne idée de jouer les mères Theresa?!).

A Huaraz les affaires reprennent. On aurai une autorisation de passage pour le lac de Paron. Une personne de la mairie de Caraz me rassure par téléphone. Miracle? Génial! On y va...

Les plans sont prêts, départ dans trois jours, en attendant on se prépare pour une grande voie à Llacca vallée.... mais je me réveille avec une douleur dans le mollet gauche, que j’ai sentie juste après le sommet, mais j'espérais que ça passe. Pas gagné. La sentence tombe. Phlébite bien identifiée, je me sens dans un piège, mais je n’ai pas le choix. Je refuse l’hospitalisation, je connais le mode d’emploi, piqûres et pattes en l’air...

Marie trouve de nouveaux compagnons de cordée, trois espagnols, pour les jours qui viennent. Ils font une montagne nommé Churup (5495 m, D+). Malgré son aspect blanchâtre les conditions sont épicées.
Entre neige inconsistante et déroutant placage sur dalles rouge cette face cache bien son jeu. Reste à s’inventer des méthodes pour se hisser dans ces nouvelles matières si andines. Au final malgré ces quelques résistances Churup offre dans la bonne humeur castillane des sensations nouvelles et de beaux passages en mixte qu’elle fait en tête.

Quelques jours passent et mes résultats sont meilleurs, je recommence à marcher, puis grimper. Encore bien faible après le petit séjour canapé/lit, je regrimpe à Antacocha pour tester les pieds.
Puis je décide de retourner à Hatun Machay pour reprendre de la force pour l’Esfinge.
Pendant le week-end j’essaie faire le plus de voies possible jusqu'au 7c, je n’ai plus de peau...

...Entre neige inconsistante et déroutant placage sur dalles rouges, cette face cache bien son jeu...

En attendant, Marie retourne vers les montagnes. On se donne RDV dans trois jours. Elle s’engage dans la face raide de l'Oschapalca (5888 m, ED) avec les trois espagnols. Grande face dans un cirque au décor hivernal. 600 m d’escalade terriblement ludiques entre fissures, glace et neige.

Des longueurs sorties des rêves. Deux des espagnols trop fatigués abdiquent et retournent au camp de base. Elle finit au sommet dans la tempête, en tête depuis la tente. Jusqu'ici tout va bien...

Le départ se prépare, les sacs sont prêts avec les provisions, j’attends Marie, mais la nouvelle arrive en ville, un relais a cassé. Les secours vont à sa rencontre. Sûrement une jambe cassée, mais le reste ça va...

Je me fais des films jusqu'à ce qu’elle arrive enfin à l'hôpital, deux jours après sa chute. Une attelle grand luxe fabriquée avec pieux à neige et thermarest cache sa jambe...

On se regarde, puis elle m'explique: l’ascension, les nombreuses longueurs qu’elle a fait tout le long en tête, cette face magnifique, le sommet puis les rappels dans une neige difficile vers la fin, et le retour en rampant.
Diagnostic, hospitalisation, assurance. En attendant que le rapatriement s'organise pour une opération en France, elle reste à Huaraz trois jours. Le moral est au beau fixe la tête encore dans les faces. Beaucoup de péruviens si attachants viennent la voir. On était entourées des vrais amis.

Alors comment continuer? Avec un grimpeur américain on décide d’essayer de monter à Paron, on a juste le temps qu’il faut pour le faire. Une journée avec les papiers, les bureaux, les tampons sur la lettre, mais tout tombe à l’eau.

Un porteur, notre dernier espoir, nous explique que la signature ne vaut rien, le responsable n’est plus crédible devant les villageois, il les a trahis. Partir dans la nuit dans une autre vallée (qui demande des efforts énormes, car il faut monter sur le sommet et redescendre de l’autre côté de l’Esfinge) est aussi dangereux, car les gens du contrôle sont partout, l'agressivité augmente chaque jour. Cette année, ce n’est pas possible. - fin des négociations.

Je réalise que c’est la fin, la colère et la tristesse se mélangent et j’ai besoin d'un bon moment pour me convaincre d'abdiquer. L’Esfinge reste ici et je reviendrai un jour.

Je retourne voir Marie, on prépare ses affaires. Je me sens vide, tant de soucis pendant ce voyage fait un nuage noir au dessus de nos aventures réussies. Je la regarde en train de trier ses affaires d’escalade, elle laisse plein de chose pour les grimpeurs locaux. Des médicaments pour les pompiers. Et des sourires pour ces gens exceptionnels. On se quitte, elle part pour Lima le matin.

Je me réfugie à Hatun Machay pour ces trois jours et je réalise la chance de voir tout ça, et surtout de partager avec une communauté locale exceptionnelle. Le dernier jour on part des falaises au crépuscule, et par une petite fenêtre dans un rocher miraculeusement on voit la Cordillera Huayhuash qui fait contraste avec le rocher rouge... J’ai décodé le message... : revenir absolument.

Merci pour les amis qui ont donné de leur temps, leur énergie pour nous aider à préparer ce voyage,
et aussi grand merci : au CAF comité régional Rhône Alpes pour leur bourse, à Luc Favet le président et le section escalade de CAF Modane Thabor, à Petzl et à North Face. Je remercie beaucoup l’agence Andean Kingdom d’Andres et Luciana à Huaraz pour leur accueil, et leur foi dans l’avenir d'Hatun Machay.

Ueli Steck : New record on the Matterhorn

Petzl Crew — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:26:00 +0100

Ueli Steck finds himself in perfect physical conditions. For the past few weeks, the weather in the Alps has been beautiful and the conditions on the great Northfaces in the Alps have been great . After Ueli Steck's speed record on the Grandes Jorasses over the Colton-Macintyre route, it was very likely, that he was also going to try to establish a new speed record on the Matterhorn. Although in 2006 Ueli set up a new record on the difficult Bonatti route in 25 hours, this time he would try to break the record on the classic Schmid route on the Matterhorn Northface. The first ascent on the Matterhorn Northface was done by Franz and Toni Schmid in 1936. Ueli Steck has never climbed this route before. Therefore, Ueli faced the same challenges as during his speed ascent on the Grandes Jorasses.

He reached the Hörnli hut in the early afternoon of January 12, 2009. Ueli Steck takes his time to concentrate himself on the Matterhorn Northface. The conditions are perfect. The lower part of the wall is covered with corn snow, in the upper part bare ice. The ramp – the actual crux in the route – is continually covered with ice. Perfect conditions for a speed ascent.

Nevertheless Ueli Steck has some doubts. Will this speed ascent succeed as well? Did he have enough time to recover from the speed record on the Grandes Jorasses only 2 weeks ago? He tries to get off the pressure and just climb. On January 13, 2009, the day of his try, he enjoys a nice breakfast with a good cup of coffee.

Just before 8 am he leaves towards the foot of the face. The sun is rising from the east slowly over the great summits of the Alps in the Valais. The magnificent light and the winter landscape are breathtaking. He sits in the snow and controls his gear. He checks that the crampons fit perfectly on his shoes.

Also this time he starts with his two Suunto watches. He wants to be very sure, that the time is correct at the end. His position: 3350 m above sea level. The climbing distance between Ueli Steck and the summit is about 1100 meters. Old traces allow him a quick ascent in the wall. He finds immediately his rhythm. His has to watch out that he doesn't miss the ramp. He checks if he sees any pitons or hooks. "Is this the crossing to the ramp?” There are quickdraws and hooks stuck in the rock. This must be the right route. Some of the passages are quite exposed, the ice conditions are great. Ueli Steck consistently checks the way up. Is it still going to go without being secured? It is a continuous process while climbing. Also the cold is not too bad. Minus 7 degrees. The thin ice is holding perfectly, but his ice tools hit again and again on the hard rock.

He finds himself in the upper part of the route. He climbs the alternative route of Michal Pitelka of 1983. This route does not follow - such as the original one - to the Zmuttgrat (Zmutt ridge), but moves toward the Hörnligrat (Hörnli ridge). All over he finds good belaying stations. A sign that many alpinists have climbed over here. The route in these passages is very challenging. Much more than in the actual crux, which he already passed. Ueli Steck still doesn't use the rope. He always finds good structures, which give his ice gear enough hold in the rock. The channel goes in the height over the so called shoulder on the Hörnligrat (Hörnli ridge). The brothers Schmid got off the route in 1936 on the same height on the right hand side over the Zmuttgrat.

Ueli Steck climbs on. Fast. The ice turns again to corn snow and he can move really fast. At the Saint Bernhard (Heiliger Bernhard), he stops both his watches.

1 hour and 56 minutes and a few seconds.

“I am completely exhausted. And I am happy that it's over,” says Ueli Steck after his speed ascent.

In the past three years, he has occupied himself with these speed ascents. He started with the Eiger Northface on the Heckmair route. 2007 with rope belaying. 2008 without rope belaying and withouth having any traces to follow. Then the Grandes Jorasses at the end of 2008. On sight, what means that he never climbed this route ever before and again without rope belaying and with the additional alternative of Alexis. Two impressive pitches in the vertical with slightly overhanging ice. And to complete the last one of the three big Northfaces in the Alps: the Matterhorn.

During all three speed ascents Ueli Steck used the rope only as a possibility for returning safely in case he had to back off. He had the chance to study many times the Eiger's North face. The North faces of the Grandes Jorasses and the Matterhorn he climbed without having explored them before.

For Ueli Steck this is a very important fact. That he is able to climb fast in unknown territory. He is fully aware that these speed ascents are nothing new. But for him personally they remain very particular and personal impressions and very high athletic performances. A success that will remain for a lifetime.

The fact to be able to climb a wall without additional means gives him a lot. Speed ascents also mean a big risk. They are not only the result of fitness but also of strategy, technique and high risk. Ueli Steck has sometimes trusted only on his crampons. This is extremely efficient and fast, is going well, until your foot slips away. With the necessary concentration and focus on the goal, this does not happen. But the more often you do these things the greater is the chance that the concentration may not be so high…

For Ueli Steck it's clear: these speed records are a chapter in his career as alpinist. His main goal is to move on. If possible, quickly. And if necessary without rope belays.

Ø      13.2.2008 Eiger Northface, Route Heckmair: 2 hours 47 min
Ø      28.12.2008 Grandes Jorasses Northface, Route Macintyre : 2 hours 21 min
Ø      13.01.2009 Matterhorn Northface, Route Schmid : 1 hour 56 min

Pictures about the Matterhorn speed ascent are available directly from Robert Boesch: www.robertboesch.ch
More about Ueli on his personnal website : www.uelisteck.ch