Aiguille d'Entrèves and the climb Cocktail entr'Eve et Salluard. By Enrico Bonino

The temperatures drop, the cable cars close, work becomes less frenzied and my desire to go climbing grows. It’s my life cycle! Autumn really is the most beautiful time of the year, for its colors and for the fact that you can savor the high mountains practically on your own. The first snowfall brings the scorching end of summer to a brusk halt and plasters with rock faces and glaciers with a delicate white mantle, in the truest sense of the term. Delicate because it’s soft, delicate because it’s white, delicate because it makes the mountain slightly less thorny, delicate because this blanket is still fragile. And one must fear and respect this fragility, because autumn is neither winter nor spring, and the crevasses sprinkled with snowflakes lie in ambush, ready to engulf us.

Having said that, September to December is the best season for those who like to scrape the rock with ice axes and crampons shivering in the cold, instead of enjoying rock shoes in the warmth. And Andrea is a climber who likes just this. He and I have some big mixed projects in the Alps, so we grab the opportunity that arises after his sailing competitions to stretch our legs a bit.

Where and how is always the big question and we often set off for one objective and end up doing something completely different. This time was no different: a repeat of Cheré on Triangle du Tacul was what we had in mind, but this transformed into a first ascent up Aiguille d'Entrèves.

I’d often noticed several logical lines as I walked along the base of this peak, up through the center of the face all the way to the summit. I knew that there were a number of historic climbs, but I’d never been attracted to it in summer; facing north, with a lot of dubious rock, dozens of parties vying for the crest above triggering rockfall down this face. The logical line I’d noticed was obviously to be climbed in its winter garb, armed with ice axes and crampons.

Andrea and I started climbing without knowing the difficulties or without a clear idea of where the routes Salluard and Rêve d'entreve went. We simply followed our instinct. He accepted the challenge and I, stoked, proceeded on the lead.

The climbing wasn’t extreme, but nevertheless difficult enough to test Andrea to his limit. When we’d climbed just over half the route we realized that the last two difficult pitches would require too much time and we’d risk missing the last cable car. He was climbing at his limit, I was making a first ascent, there was no way we could expect to be fast. But we had great fun and continued up the line of least resistance towards the west shoulder. The exit onto the ridge proved fairly uninteresting though and so when time was up we returned home, content with our beautiful day out in the mountains.

I was a little disappointed for not having reached the summit, and I also wished to add a direct finish to the route, via a series of beautiful cracks and corners that had caught my attention during the climb.

Two days later I returned to the scene of the "crime" with Ilaria and Marco to complete the route. Knowing the first section we climbed fast and I linked two pitches to save time. Heck, it's always a race against time to get the last cable car, too bad. We climbed quickly despite being three climbers: Marco is a safe-bet on this type of terrain and although Ilaria is new to mixed climbing, she proceeds admirably.

When we reach the junction I climb straight up, along the route I had in mind: 35m split by a perfect crack (yes ... a hand jam!) leads to the finishing chimney. The pitch is a cracker, we had great fun climbing it, a real gem. A few meters separated us from the summit, it was 13:15. We could just about do it in time. After a tough start we quickly reached the ridge and warmed our bones in the sun. All on our own we enjoyed the spectacle the mountains put on display. A short, highly satisfing route. Now it's your turn!

Thanks to the sponsors Climbing Technology, Millet, Scarpa and Baroli Sport

by Enrico Bonino