MONT-BLANC MASSIF, FRANCE

AIGUILLE DES PÈLERINS

NORTH FACE, BEYOND THE GOOD AND THE EVIL

Of fleeting appearance, BEYOND is one of those rare climbs that only emerges for a few weeks of the year – the good years! – offering those who attempt it the pleasures of climbing this discontinuous streak of ice on a forbidding north face. Protection is few and far between, mixed or largely rocky sections, all your Alpine experience is needed to get to the top of this one. Nagging doubt in the face of an iced-up corner (not enough ice), uncertainty about the next pitch (will there be enough ice?) and the fatigue that sets in as you begin to glimpse the “col des Pèlerins” and the end of those fourteen pitches…
Once again you gamble with patchy snow and modern-day mixed climbing: you kid yourself others have gone this way so that you don’t keep thinking you’re opening up a new route. Pioneering this line, or just re-inventing it. The difference is written in guidebooks, not during the climb.

KEY INFORMATION