In the heart of the “infernally alive wall”

GREAT ADVENTURE ON THE SOUTH FACE OF THE GRANDES JORASSES (4206 m, MONT BLANC) FOR SERGIO DE LEO, MARCELLO SANGUINETI, MARCO APPINO AND MICHEL CORANOTTE, WHO, ON 22 MAY, 2010, OPENED PLEIN SUD (950 m, VI, WI4+/5 R, M6+) IN 10 HOURS, CARRYING ON STRAIGHT WHERE GIAN CARLO GRASSI, RENZO LUZI AND MAURO ROSSI TRAVERSED IN 1985 ON THE LEFT

«I was checking on that, I’ve been taking care of that for years. And in the end of April, I saw from La Thuile it was there: the goulotte had formed. At least, down below. As to the upper part, which was embedded, we had no other choice than to go and see ourselves». So, Sergio De Leo, 47 years old, from Aosta, let his fellows know to get ready: that dream cherished so long, that fabulous line on the remote south face of Pointe Walker on the Grandes Jorasses, could finally become real. The perfect moment would have been right between the 19^th and the 20^th of May, but when you are a beginner, forced to live your time as a jigsaw, magically making things stick together, you get used to handle compromises. So Sergio, together with his friends Marcello Sanguineti, Marco Appino and Michel Coranotte, had to postpone the party for a couple of days and leave from the Tronchey chalets, in Val Ferret, only at 2.30 p.m. on Friday the 21^st of May.
«Too late – explains Sanguineti, 42 years old, who earns his living doing research at the University of Genoa – to follow our first schedule: to reach the wall, suddenly climb its initial part, bivouac and then carry on along the middle couloir and the upper chimney. Anyway, the march towards the attack didn’t give us any trouble. With the glacier in perfect conditions, well covered and practicable without snowshoes, in nearly five hours we reached the bergschrund and we found it totally closed». So what were they going to do? Almost anything: take a look, notice a good waterfall along the first 100 meters of the goulotte and retrace their steps towards the place chosen for the bivouac, waiting for the cold.

Saturday, 22^nd of May, 2010: for the four musketeers of the Grandes Jorasses (three Italian and a French, actually not really newcomers for this kind of plays) the call is at 1.15 a.m. and 45 minutes later the “south face operation” becomes effective. Michel with Sergio and Marcello with Marco simulclimb (placing protections), except the last pitch, over the first part of the route (450 m, WI4+/5), reach and climb up the middle snowy couloir (250 m, 50°) and at 7 a.m. they finally are at the beginning of the great chimney that still is an unanswered question. Right, because what is up there is not visible, even from the couloir: to unveil the mystery you just have to plunge up there, to get into the heart of the mountain and to dive into that horrid and sublime cave ending 250 meters further up on the Tronchey Ridge, next to the brèche uphill its third tower, hence 200 meters away from the summit of the Grandes Jorasses.
So they move on in the scary chimney. «We found the first pitch with very little ice – Sanguineti says -: the layer was so thin that we couldn’t place a screw (we also had the very short ones). So we managed with a pair of friends and some slings». How about up there? What was expecting our heroes? They had to be patient: only after the “turn” of the second length, the mountain gave them the good news. «We got to a sort of little basin – De Leo keeps on explaining – and there we saw: that “thing” continued, we could go on along a totally logic line. It was very hard, of course, but the route was there». Again Sanguineti: «The third pitch in the chimney is the crux-one: the first ones in the rope party had to leave the sacks. Good ice at first, for 7-8 meters long, then nothing more: difficult mixed terrain (M6+) on really bad rock, where the spikes get in but it’s a problem to protect oneself, with a hard work of cleaning. Because there were some huge bouchons which in the Mont Blanc massif are extremely rare: they are more the kind of stuff you find in the Dauphiné Alps, in routes as La raie des fesses by Boivin on the north face of the Pic Sans Nom (technically much easier than the south face of the Grandes Jorasses)». Then, here comes the fourth pitch and the brèche is getting quite close: «We climbed until 50 (or maybe less) meters away from the ridge – De Leo says -: we only needed a little stretch to exit. But there was nothing we could do: we put all our efforts into that, but… well, we were left with a bad taste in our mouth. And we also took a great fright when a boulder went off from beneath Michel’s feet… wow! Marco and Marcello were below: helmet and glasses were gone, and so was a belay piton… we have been lucky! ».

«The fact is – explains Sanguineti – that up there the chimney actually ends and it could be said that it loses its right face. It falls a little bit and turns into a slab. From underneath it seems as it all gets to the ridge, but the goulotte actually ends a little bit lower. I don’t think it is possible to ever see some ice along those last meters. So, little after midday, we decided to abseil (all on pitons, nuts and a friend) to reach the bergschrund, which had opened a little, at 6.30 p.m.». As far as the descent is concerned, De Leo has no doubts: «We risked and we can thank our lucky stars! Actually, at some point, we could have stopped, wait and descend more quietly at night… In fact: I’d have loved to bivouac and climb the day after the upper part of the route by Grassi and fellows, for sure in good conditions. Just like that, to accomplish something… In short: I wanted to reach the summit. Right, we opened a wonderful line, logic and demanding in a place out of the world, but according to my opinion I cannot help thinking of that as an attempt, something to complete. We gave it a name, Plein Sud, because it deserves that – after all, it is 950 meters long, isn’t it? – and because we thought that Grassi, Luzi and Rossi, in the lower part, had climbed more on the left, as (wrongly) written in the guidebooks. Actually I myself had been checking long time on the goulottes climbed in 1985… In conclusion, only after the ascent we found out that we covered the Gianni Comino Memorial Route – from that point traversing for a long distance on the left – for 450 meters (and not 250, as we thought), that is until the snowy ridge at the beginning of the middle couloir».

Anyway, a great adventure: a trip on wall that has no little in common with the one from twenty-five years ago and that is not granted to be repeated too soon, even if it seems like someone quite skilled has already tried or at least has dreamed to do so. Sure, the uncertainties in that unbelievable place have almost been a spring, a source of energy and motivation to De Leo, Sanguineti (who thanks Trangoworld for the gear provided), Appino and Coranotte. Though, it still is a place where you can keep on waiting many years for «the magic moment that you must be able to interpret. It’s not just about difficulty, but it is also required to know the wall’s architecture and the possibilities it suggests», as Gian Carlo Grassi teaches.

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Cover Photo. In action along the horrid upper chimney of the south face of the Grandes Jorasses: the “infernally alive wall” (Guido Alberto Rivetti, 1926). Arch. M. Sanguineti

Photo 1. Close view from the Pra Sec Glacier of the wild and difficult south face of Pointe Walker on the Grandes Jorasses. In red, Plein Sud. The fuchsia arrow marks the middle traverse of the Gianni Comino Memorial Route, bending on the left where Plein Sud goes on straight towards the upper chimney. Arch. M. Sanguineti

Photo 2. Coranotte leads the climb along the final chimney. Arch. M. Sanguineti

Photo 3. Grandes Jorasses, south face: little men lost in a closed universe of ice and rock. Arch. M. Sanguineti

Photo 4. In action in the great chimney side by side with the big bouchons, quite uncommon in the Mont Blanc massif. Arch. M. Sanguineti

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