Siebe Vanhee makes first rope solo ascent of 'Voie Petit' on Grand Capucin

On the 24th and 25th of June 2025 Belgian climber Siebe Vanhee successfully made the first rope-solo ascent of Voie Petit on Grand Capucin (3838m) in the Mont Blanc massif in France.

The 450m multipitch was established in 1997 by Arnaud Petit and Stéphanie Bodet together with Pascal Gaudin and Jean-Paul Petit, and subsequently freed in 2005 by Alexander Huber. With difficulties checking in at around 8a+/8b, Voie Petit is considered to be one of the most challenging multi-pitch climbs at altitude in the Alps.

The 33-year-old had the following to say after his succesful ascent: "Climbing lead rope-solo has been a little side activity of mine in the last two years. I love the logistical and tactical challenge of managing rope systems, with the aim of climbing as freely and safely as possible, on my own.

I’ve always been a climber and person who loves to share experiences with others. I like to solve problems together on a wall and share energy to push each other towards personal successes. But in the last years I’ve been intrigued by climbing on my own and want to challenge myself to be intrinsically motivated, solve problems on my own and see where I’m at, independently on a wall. Decisions have to be made on your own, you are obliged to be connected to yourself, your motivation, discipline and fears. Lead rope-soloing hard multi-pitch climbs is just another way to get to know myself better and learn about myself, from climbing.

In the last years I have free climbed several hard multi-pitches rope-solo, including "Une Jolie Fleur dans un Peau de Vache (8b, 300m) "Take it or Leave it" (8a, 110m), "El Pilar del Cantábrico" (8a+, 500m), "Dame Cookie" (8a+, 160m). I have never consistently worked my LRS skills, but I felt ready for a bigger adventure.

Since spring 2024 I wanted a bigger LRS freeclimbing challenge. Voie Petit (450m) is one of the mythical hard multi-pitches in the Alps and has a reputation for being challenging, both because of the consistent hard climbing and the altitude of the route. Because I wanted adventure and also to push myself, I aimed to climb Voie Petit LRS in a day, ground-up. The ground up and adventure part is very important to me, so to be prepared for if I can’t send it on-sight or in a day, I brought a light sleeping bag, some extra food and a stove to melt snow on the ledge after pitch 7. You never know!

On Tuesday 24th of July I left my tent pitched at Combe Maudite, right below Grand Capucin. I took off with some great excitement, on my own. Very quickly I realised that this was going to be a very different challenge to the many limestone multi-pitches I had previously rope-soloed. The pitches meandered a lot, crossing many roofs, of all shapes and sizes. This is not a problem for the climbing itself, but it is for rappelling down, jugging back up and hauling my haul-bag. Often, I had to haul two to three times in one pitch, off a bolt and then on to the next, all of this to avoid the haul-bag from getting stuck.

I smoothly passed pitch 2, a 7b runout slab. The crux pitch, pitch 5 graded 8b/8a+ or 8a depending to who you talk to, was more complex than I had hoped. A 45-minute fight brought me halfway up the infamous roof at the end of the pitch, but ended in a big fall. On my second try of pitch 5, I passed the roof. I was so relieved, until I realised that the end of my rope had gotten stuck in a crack, 20m below. I had to drop, I was stuck and couldn’t go on. Now I returned to the base of pitch 5, hot, exhausted, my eyes burning from the sun and the rubber on my shoes melting. To top things off, I was already running out of chalk!

I’m not built to climb in the sun. But, who would have thought it could get this hot at 3500m in altitude? I took a nap, hanging in my harness, leaning my head on the haul-bag. By the time I woke up, the pitch was in the shade. It was almost 3pm and it looked unlikely I would make it to the top in one day, as I had planned. I prepped my LRS set-up and set off again, with all the draws in place but my totem cams on the harness. This time it went more smoothly, I loved the shade! Finding myself in a state of flow, I popped over the roof and sent the crux pitch!

A big struggle in pitch 6 and 7 followed, both of which took me a couple of attempts, but finally brought me up to the ledge at 7pm. I decided to call it a day and bivi. An amazing night with some over-excited-insomnia, looking at the stars and enjoying my first night alone on a wall.

The next morning, I felt better, but not great. I was disappointed to have gotten my ass kicked on almost every pitch the day before. Before getting on the wall, I had actually hoped to be able to on-sight most of the route, except for the crux pitch, which I knew would take some figuring out. So, on day 2, I changed my strategy and on pitch 10, the 7c+, I took it slow and figured out the moves first, before sending on my second try. Pitch 11, 7b+, also took me two attempts.

The ride to the summit from there was just magical, an exposed 6b arête followed by more high quality rock. At 11 am, on June 25th, I stood on the summit, proud of my little rope solo experience."

A film documenting Vanhee's adventure on Voie Petit will be released in spring 2026.