Jeff Mercier climbs new variation to Beyond Good and Evil on Aiguille des Pélerins, Mont Blanc

Jeff Mercier continues to forage for new terrain in the Mont Blanc massif at a relentless pace. Over 5 days last December the French mountain guide, climbing together with Lucien Boucansaud, Xavier Cailhol and Bastien Lardat, made the first ascent of what has called Les flammes de l’enfer up the North Face of Les Pélerins (3318m).

In practice this is a new 4-pitch variation to Beyond Good and Evil, the legendary ice and mixed climb first ascended by Andy Parkin and Mark Twight between 21 and 22 April 1992. Les Flammes climbs the first two pitches of Beyond and then at the top of the snowfield, where Beyond trends slightly left, Mercier continued directly up into the maze of steep granite. Two difficult mixed pitches, graded M6 and M7 respectively, led to another two outstanding rightwards trending pitches before being barred by loose rock. Not wishing to place bolts, Mercier descended 90m from this highpoint and then continued leftwards up a superb corner, graded M7 and described as being "difficult to imagine so pure". Mercier rejoined Beyond Good and Evil and continued up this to the summit.

Commenting after the ascent, the French Mountain Guide stated "Les Fiammes is an extremely logical, technical and natural line. While the grades are not extreme, every Meter is a real fight. What makes this line interesting is that it offers a full day of very technical climbing, easy to rappel from despite having no gear in situ, not even at the belays, except in pitch three where we left 3 pegs. The descent is carried out via rappel down Beyond."



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