Ueli Steck has made the fastest ascent to date of the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses, from base to summit, via the modern classic Colton-MacIntyre. The talented Swiss alpinist completed the 1,100m route in just two hours and 21 minutes.
Steck is no newcomer to fast solos, holding the speed record for the 1,800m 1938 Route on the North Face of the Eiger, a climb he has completed on many occasions. In February 2008 he lowered the record time to two hours and 47 minutes. The main difference between this and his record Grandes Jorasses ascent is that Steck climbed the Colton-MacIntyre completely on sight.
Climbed in 1976 by BMC's Deputy CEO Nick Colton and the late Alex MacIntyre, after previous attempts by noted British climbers such as Chris Bonington and Dougal Haston, the predominantly steep ice line up the left side of the Central Couloir evolved into a modern winter classic at ED3 VI/6 (90°), though recent grade consensus would seem to be ED2/3 WI 6 M6.
Steck spent a night in a tent below the Jorasses after inspecting the wall from the glacier during the afternoon. Next day he set off at 8am in a temperature of around -16°C, carrying only 50m of 5mm Dyneema (which he didn’t use), two ice screws, two rock pegs and four karabiners.
He found excellent ice conditions and chose to follow the central goulotte in the rock barrier separating the second and third icefields, rather than the original line that takes the thin gully to the left. This central line is the 90/95° runnel taken by the 1993 Patrick Gabarrou/Benoit Robert route, Alexis (ED3/4: VI/6 6b and A2: named after Alexis Long, one of Gabarrou’s regular climbing partners who was killed close to the Gervasutti Hut) and has become the popular choice amongst Colton-MacIntyre ascensionists, despite the first (crux) 60m pitch being difficult to protect and ending with a bad belay.
From the third icefield Steck returned to the original route, which slants up mixed ground on the right flank of the Walker Spur. Due to relatively dry conditions the Swiss felt this section to be the crux.
By the early years of this decade fast parties were completing the route with one bivouac but in 2004, and using the Alexis Variant, the climb was done by a roped party in just 11 hours. This time has been reduced to six hours and a solo ascent is reported to have taken around four hours. However, just bear in mind that on the first ascent over 30 years ago Colton and MacIntyre started their climb at 10.30pm and reached the summit at 6pm the following day, completing the route - admittedly in September - in a mere 19½ hours.
Steck so enjoyed the experience that he went back on the face a few days later with photographer and alpinist Jonathan Griffith, the pair rappelling the route from the summit for selective photo shoots along the way.
Steck has now climbed lines on all three Great North Faces of the Alps in impressively fast times. Apart from the Eiger and Jorasses, in the winter of 2006 he made a rare repeat, solo, of the legendary 1965 Bonatti Route (1,000m: ED2/3) on the North Face of the Matterhorn, taking just 25 hours for the ascent.
In the accompanying photograph of the Grandes Jorasses the big rock buttress falling from the highest point of the mountain on the left (Pointe Walker, 4,208m) is the Walker Spur. Next on the right is the Whymper Spur: the Central Couloir taken by the Colton-MacIntyre Route separates the two.
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