Tom Livingstone, Rob Smith climb NW Face of Aiguille du Blaitiere

Rob Smith and I climbed the North-West face of the Aiguille du Blaitiere (3522m) from 27-29 January 2023. Rob nicely sums up our adventure: "I've been looking at it for two years from my kitchen window in Les Houches. For me the adventure was an amazing experience shared with a good friend. I will never forget climbing those steep corners in the setting January sun."

We started up the route Mini Blast, which climbs an icy couloir for a couple of pitches. We peered around the corner and into a much narrower couloir, very reminiscent of Alaska. Whilst the rock was a little crumbly at times, mostly we enjoyed getting good sticks in ice, then teetering onto small rocky edges with our crampons. We often said, "this pitch is insane!". A few long pitches led us to the north ridge. With a blanket of clouds covering the valley and the sun turning the granite a delicious pink, we headed back right to reach a small snow ledge and bivy.

On our second day we debated whether to leave the bivy equipment and gun for the summit, but nobody wants to be caught in the trap of needing to stop at the end of a big day, but without bivy kit, and therefore bailing; we decided to take our gear. Climbing brilliant placage ("look man, it still exists!") back right, we then threaded our way through a big hanging shield. A couple of times we climbed near corners or wide chimneys which would be logical to take in summer, but instead it made sense for us to use the thin cracks or steeper sections nearby. An overlap and then a very thin seam got our arms working! I found the seam pitch to be quite intense.

We made it through the rest of the headwall, up the snowfield, and tagged the summit just after sunset. The lights of Chamonix shimmered below, and we slumped back onto our first bivy at some point later that night. "Huh, we could've left the bivy equipment there after all!"

I imagined such an obvious couloir and face had already been climbed, but we found no evidence (either physically, in books, or online) between Mini Blast and the summit tower. However, Leo Billon recently sent me a topo which shows a line from Joe Brown and Don Whillans going up the same shield as our journey, so I wouldn't say ours is a new route, but I can easily imagine they climbed a different line to us (or we to them, rather).

Either way, I'd like to echo Rob's words: it was a great adventure with plenty of unknowns, good quality rock, ice and mixed climbing, and logical for the very fresh temperatures we experienced this January. Soaking in sunshine for a few hours is a rare treat in winter! We laughed a lot during the route and have resisted calling it "Big Dicks!".

NW Face. Rob Smith and Tom Livingstone. 27-29 January 2023. WI 4+, M6+