Rochers de Gagnières, Simon Chatelan and Nicolas Jaquet add mixed climb to Chablais Alps

The idea for this route came after seeing a photo taken by Nicolas Jaquet a few weeks ago. The photo was poor quality but the line seemed very interesting, much shorter than it actually turned out to be once we got to the base of the mountain.

Thanks to the powerful high-pressure system that dominated Europe, the approach which is usually very avalanche prone was safe. We departed from the village Mex at 7 in the morning and reached the base of the wall 2 hours later. The initial plan was to climb directly up to the start of the icefall. We had taken a drill and 10 bolts with us, mainly for the belays and the abseils, but we soon noticed that there was much more mixed climbing than expected. At least 200 meters, potentially difficult past slabs but also overhanging sections. From a distance it was difficult to find a line of weakness that would accept nuts and friends.

At this point we tried went for broke. From below we made out what appeared to be a series of ramps trending up the righthand side of the wall. We decided to to climb up these and then rappel down to get as close to the ice as possible. In the end though things turned out rather differently because much to our surprise the ramps enabled us to access the central part of the icefall.

We ascende from the right then past a 50m rock section which, climbing past mixed terrain, brought us to the right side of a good ledge. Here a short mixed section and a snowy ledge o led to the foot of a steep 50m icefall. Another ledge to the left brought us almost to the ice, while after a pleasant 10 corner and a last ledge we finally found ourselves in the middle of the drip.

From here onwards: pure joy. Nicolas climbed a small drip of dubious quality (1 bolt, the only one on the entire route) and then, voila, we were at the base of the huge 20-meter drip, fat and impressive. I climbed delicately up this beautiful drip but in the end it turned out to be really solid. Nicolas finished the route with one last good pitch on ice.

The time came to descend into the unknown. After two Abalakov abseils we equipped 4 more rappels on bolted belays (65m!) and returned to the starting point.

by Simon Chatelan