Pilier Rouge du Brouillard – Bonatti Oggioni - Free Solo
After having guided some Mt Blancs I
felt like I had to do something for myself again. The red bible –
Batoux's 100 finest routes is always a good inspiration if you want
to amplify your „to do“ list.
Many people had told me about the great
rock routes on the red pilar of the Brouillard and looking at the
guidebook some weeks ago I saw that the Bonatti-Oggioni could be a
interesing solo goal.
To access the pillar from the Val Veny
you first have to go to the Monzino hut (2590m) and from there
continue from to the Eccles bivouac (3850m). The climbing itself is
about 400m long, mostly about V/V+ with one 6a pitch at the
beginning. From the top of the pillar another 600m of climbing on
poor rock along the Brouillard Ridge lead to the summit of the Mt
Blanc.
As I came back from guiding the Mt
Blanc on friday 12th I knew that it would be hard to find
someone to do something interesting the next days, since most of my
friends were guiding those days.
Anyway I felt a bit tired from the last
days so I went sportclimbing the day after descending to Chamonix –
but I knew the conditions in the mountains where very good and I
didn't want to miss a good oportunity to realize one of my little
projects.
 |
| The Pilier Rouge seen from the Eccles |
Friday morning I finally decided that I
wanted to climb the Bonatti Route so I packed my stuff, bought some
food (and a new pair of boots :-), and took the bus to Courmayeur and
from there to Val Veny. As the decision was quite spontanous, the
timing was not perfect and so I started to walk up to the Monzino hut
at about 18.10. I still felt quite tired from the last days and my
relatively heavy backpack didn't reduce that feeling of heavyness in
my legs. Anyway I reached the hut at about half past eight, early
enough to enjoy a great dinner.
As I hadn't had time to go to print the
topo I had all the route infos on my mobile phone... fortunately I
had remembered to bring the charging cable....but unfortunately I
forgot to turn the phone off before i went to bed.
When I got up at half past two I
realized that the battery of my phone was completely empty, as it had
been searching for a signal all night long and after 10 o'clock the
generator had been turned off.
I already thought I would have to to
drop my plan but unexpectedly I found an external battery charger in
the kitchen – like manna from heaven.
I started at a quarter past four. The
battery was amoust completely charged and my legs felt way fitter
than the day before.
The approach to the Eccles bivouac is
quite long but fortunately not so hard to find. Compared to last year
the conditions of the glacier were way better and so I reached the
bivouac after about 2,5 hours. The lower part of the Pilier Rouge was
still in the shadow and so I took a short break at the bivouac.
Then
I slowly started to descend towards the base of the route and climbed
the first short and easy pitch to a ledge where I took off my boots
and crampons and put on the climbing shoes. As I didn't want to free
solo climb the 6a pitch with a nearly 10kg backpack I tied one end of
my 60m kevlar to the backpack and the other to my harness. After
having climbed this first pitch I lifted up the backpack, put the
kevlar away and continued climbing.
The quality of the rock is excellent
and the route follows a logical line of cracks, chimneys and
dihedrals. After 2h15, at 10.45 I reached the top of the pillar.
 |
| the quartz crack |
 |
| the 6a pitch |
The Brouillard ridge is not very
difficult but still requires some concentration as the rock quality
is not the best. Due to the heat of the last days there was almost
any snow left on the ridge.
It was almost two o'clock when I
reached the summit of the Mt Blanc.
After another 3 hours of walking in the
scorching heat I reached the Aiguille du Midi at about five o'clock.
Happy and grateful for another great
and adventurous experience out in the mountains!
