Close to the Monzino Hut on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, Josune Bereziartu and husband Rikar Otegui have reportedly made the first free ascent of La Leggenda on the South East Face of the Aiguille Croux
In 1992 Manlio Motto, Michel Piola and Romain Vogler equipped the first five pitches of this new line between the classic 1935 Hurzeler-Ottoz Route and the 1967 Bertone-Zappelli South East Pillar Direct. Motto and Piola returned in 1994 to complete the job, adding a further five pitches to create La Leggenda.
After cutting through the middle of the Hurzeler-Ottoz ramp, it climbs the full height of the 320m face left of another Piola route, Demi Portion, and probably features the best rock of any route on the Croux. Maximum difficulties were 7a+ but one pitch was not completed entirely free.
Otegui on-sighted this pitch and a little later Bereziartu flashed it. Due to the boulder-problem nature of the crux, the climbers are unsure of the grade; either 7c or 8a. Remaining pitches were confirmed as having maximum difficulties of 7a+, and the route as a whole relies on a mix of trad and bolt protection.
The Spanish Basque female, Bereziartu, was the first women to redpoint 9a and has also climbed V15. The equally talented Otegui has on-sighted 8b+.
There's no shortage of talent either when it comes to Ben Bransby and James McHaffie. These two have recently made the third free ascent of Voie Petit on the East Face of the Grand Capucin, with McHaffie leading the crux 8b pitch.
The pair spent a total of four days on the route, forced down in the middle by bad weather. During their first session on the face the pair was joined by Adam Long.
McHaffie flashed every pitch (sometimes seconding Bransby) except for the crux. On his first attempt he fell from the final move, but got the redpoint on his next attempt.
The Voie Petit was put up over five days in 1997 by former World Cup Champion, Arnaud Petit, with help from Pascal Baudin, Stéphane Bodet and Jean-Paul Petit (Arnaud’s dad).
Sustained climbing up a tenuous line on the right side of the East Face leads to the spectacular hanging pillar right of the Classic Bonatti-Ghigo. Petit sparsely bolted the line and eventually climbed every move free with a crux of 8a+ but wasn’t able to link it all together without rests etc.
In July 2005 along came Alex Huber, who made many attempts before finally achieving the one-day redpoint. He climbed the route in 14 pitches and felt the overall grade to be 8b.
The crux is the fifth pitch, a long corner leading to a roof. But the sixth is 7c+, the seventh 7b, the 10th 8a, and the 12th 7b, making the Voie Petit one of the hardest ‘high mountain’ Alpine rock routes in the World.
Talented Czech big wall free climbers, Dusan Janak and Vasek Satava made the second free ascent in 2007.
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