New mixed climb added to Mont Noire de Peuterey by Richard Tiraboschi, Giuseppe Vidoni

The NE face of Mont Noire de Peuterey can be seen clearly from Val Ferret, and this year in particular the two lines of Supercouloir and the Past da Pesto route were really obvious.

One day while paragliding I flew in close to take a closer look, and it was then that I noticed this couloir. After finding out more about the various lines of the wall, I realised that the couloir seemed to have never been climbed before.

On 2 February Richard Tiraboschi and I went up to give it a go, without knowing exactly what we would find, whether ice or just unconsolidated snow. When we arrived below the couloir the first pitch looked promising with good ice, but then the winds at altitude played a bad joke on us, the spindrift was simply too much, at times far too strong. The decision was obvious: we had to retreat.

Three days later the weather was still good and with the winds had died down, so we decided to give it another go. This time everything was perfect: pitches of ice and compact snow led into the steep snow couloir, while the upper section provided pleasant mixed climbing through the gully to reach the ridge at half-height. From here we began the abseil descent off pegs and spikes. Couloir Noire is 400m high and provides difficulties estimated at AI4 and M5.

by Giuseppe Vidoni