Electric Avenue on Mont Blanc's Grand Gendarme des Cosmiques

For decades the magnificent Grand Gendarme that guards the Arête des Cosmiques on Aiguille du Midi high above Chamonix could only be climbed via one line, the world-famous Digital Crack. Put up by Alain Ghersen and Thierry Renault in 1990, for many years this was the highest 8a in Europe. In 2013 Nicolas Portard and Victor Estrangin established a second route up the granite monolith, Arête Cosmiques, but once again the difficulties settled in at 8a, meaning that the gendarme remained out of reach to all except the very best.

Now though access to the summit is significantly easier thanks to the Bulgarian climbers Emiliyan Kolevski and Victor Varoshkin who in August 2022 established the third route on the legendary tower, Electric Avenue. Their story is told in this riveting film, while those wishing to repeat the line should note that the difficulties check in at 7b with a technical boulder top out!