In June 2023 I was in great shape for ski mountaineering and well acclimatised for Mont Blanc having just skied the South Face of the Dome du Gouter with Mikey Arnold followed quickly by success on the coveted Benedetti with Tof Henry. So when Guillaume Pierrel asked me if I was interested in the Peuterey, I immediately got very very excited. Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity, and despite being slightly sick, the answer had to be yes. The team of 3 would be completed by talented Jordi.
The line was first skied in the incredible snow season of 1977 by the talented partnership of Anselme Baud and Patrick Vallencant who climbed it first after a bivouac at Col de la Fourche. Since then repeats have been few and far between, still numbered in single figures, with more than one team needing external help due to complications on the exit.
Our Plan A was an enchainment of routes with a wing exit. It was a nearly overwhelming concept as it required so many things to fall into place to maintain the schedule, for the snow to stay cold and safe long enough, to be able to take off before cumulous forecast to build quickly. Our ‘Vanilla’ flavoured Plan B was to ski top down onsight from Mont Blanc du Courmayeur and make a wing exit from the upper Freney Glacier. It still had more than a good amount of embedded chili flakes to spice things up. Speed up Mont Blanc was critical for us to summit and start skiing as the first rays of sun hit the line at dawn.
I’ll admit I was a bit worried when I packed my bag – In addition to the usual stuff we had 60 m rad line, 2 cams each, several nuts, 2 knifeblade pitons, 2 axes, crampons and a wing. It felt more like an expedition pack with bivi gear, but every item was essential and I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to be super efficient moving on the mountain to conserve energy.
We left the Cosmiques hut at 0140 am and skied into the cold starry night with only our immediate path illuminated by headtorch and diamond dust on the snow winking back at us. The hut had been rammed and very warm so none of us caught a wink of sleep, but it was good to be moving and get the blood flowing as the frost tried its best to penetrate our clothing and nip and fingers and toes. We crossed Tacul & Maudit quickly, arriving at the summit of Mont Blanc in around 4 hours to enjoy a fireball sun rise from behind the Triolet, its welcome rays thawing our eyelashes and clothes which were covered in predawn rime.
The guys had arrived 5-10 mins in front of me and I knew they would be getting cold quickly. All of a sudden I was hit with a wave of nausea, my mouth went dry and I was unable to swallow the bite of energy bar I had in it. My mind was racing, is the bug I had earlier in the week making a comeback or did we just go too fast? Dropping into such a committing line was going to have a much higher work load on my body than the easy skin to the summit and I’d recently been on Mont Blanc twice and was well acclimatised. Maybe something I ate wasn’t agreeing with me…it was an impossible question to answer but I did know opportunities like this seldom happen in a lifetime and being optimistic I figured we would lose some altitude quickly and that might make all the difference. Hey ho lets go! The clock was ticking with an afternoon storm forecast so we quickly stripped skins, put on all our clothes and skied over to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur.
I was nervous about finding the entrance to the line. A few years ago the strong partnership of Mikko Heimonen and Jesper Peterssonn went wrong here and the time lost cost them their attempt. In the run up we spent a good amount of time studying the line in photos and now with the benefit of Fatmap I had a good useful visual map in my mind, having never been there before.
That research paid off and we hit the entrance straight off. Standing on that exposed arete looking down a line we’ve all being eyeing for years from Skyway was a truly unforgettable moment. The dawn light had changed from pink to an enticing gold, and the beautiful upper slope stretched downwards before curving elegantly left onto the hanging serac of the Poire. Here we would cut right into the unknown of Eccles Couloir which isn’t visible from the road. If it was dry we could loose a lot of time building anchors and making abseils. Beyond lay the obvious summit ridges of the Grand Pillier D’Angle and the Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey. Further afield and way below the Grands Jorasses. All the big names steeped in history and Alpine folk law. It was time to drop in and follow in the tracks of Baud, Vallencent, Tardivel, Lecluse, Wallace, Hachemi, Plake, Bruchez, Jornet. Strong emotions with a mix of excitement and nerves.
The snow looked good from above for steep skiing, cold but not deep, so sluff management wouldn’t come into play. Down the right shoulder was the stuff of nightmares we had seen on our reconnaissance – a drooling sheet of black ice that made us very alert, staying skier’s left and always probing the snow below to ensure it was edge-able and well bonded. Taking our time we descended until it was time to traverse right to the Eccles Couloir.
The snow cover was now very thin so Guillaume tied on while Jordi belayed. I watched nervously as Guillaume teetered diagonally rightwards on the shoulder. It seemed like he would be able to make it on skis. My mouth was dry as dust, combination of the tension, dehydration and feeling sick. My glutes were on fire holding and edge and since this was going to take a while I clipped myself to a screw and got out my water bottle and took an ibuprofen. Suddenly the veneer of snow fell away from Guillaume’s skis and he started to pendulum, the rope serving its purpose and catching the fall. I reached for my crampons resigned that we would have to climb across this 50m section while to his credit Guillaume gave it another fruitless shot a little further below. I went last and took care hammering my tools into the brittle ice on this downward traverse, not liking the look of the large pendulum if I fell. My thoughts flicked forward to the unknown condition of the Eccles Couloir, if it was like this we were in for a very long day.
My train of thought was quickly broken as made the final move around the shoulder and saw the guys smiling and stood in knee deep powder. I looked down the couloir and the tension immediately disappeared. Guillaume was ready and started off down so he could film with the drone from the Col de Peuterey while Jordi and myself packed the ropes. The snow was perfect, I felt better as the ibuprofen kicked in and the descent was a dream. with Jordi and myself staying in close proximity. Out in front it looked as if the couloir went all the way and I had to remind myself there was a massive terminal cliff.
Regrouping on the upper Freney Glacier after skiing the Eccles without rappel was an incredible moment, the tension stress fading quickly while we enjoyed the view of the Freney Pillars and being in such a wild remote place in winter. The cloud was building fast below us in Italy and we had to be quick to get in the air before it socked in. The reason I’d not had this route in my sights before learning to fly was due to the difficulty and danger of getting down from here. Over Col Eccles the route passes serious glaciers on its 2500 m descent past the Monzino and the north side of Col de Peuterey is a casualty of climate change. As they say the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, but with a wing that all changed.
The slope angle to the west was perfect to take off but there was quite a bit of east wind. We skied across the bowl under the Freney Couloir hoping we could get an angle into the wind but there the back wind was even worse with katabatic air coming down off Mt Blanc. Finally we decided to go back into the middle of the bowl and try and outrun the back wind. The snow had a firm suncrust and the wind was blowing the wing around on the surface so I pinned the trailing edge down with some snow. Turned out I was overzealous with the amount of snow on the wing and on my first attempt to take off the wing failed to inflate. Second time thankfully worked a charm.
With me leading I made the turn left down the Freney glacier and saw the cumulous threatening from both sides. To the left the was a clearing between the Noire and Pic Gamba and we shot through into clear air and and a great flight down to the meadows at Zerotta. It was surreal standing there looking at all the summer flowers under my skis – only minutes before it had been a monochrome world of snow and ice in one of the remotest and wildest parts of the Mont Blanc massif. Did we just do what I think we did? It had been so intense, my brain hadn’t had the chance to catch up. Incredible, unforgettable.
Seeing us and all our kit, curiosity got the better of the owner of the restaurant and he came over and asked:
‘Where did you come from?’
“We skied the Arete de Peuterey on Monte Bianco” we replied in unison.
‘Well come in then, coffee is on the house!’
After all it was only 10 am and after pretty much being awake for 24 hours we all needed a sleep before grabbing a beer!
Once again a 🙏 to Guillaume Pierrel and Jordi for this wonderful day.
Pretty pumpy start fresh off the deck.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 