Variety is the spice of life / An all-female ascent of the Gervasutti-Gagliardone on the Grandes Jorasses

When Anna Truntschnig, Anna Zechling and I searched for a goal for our girls trip to Chamonix last summer and someone mentioned the Gervasutti-Gagliardone on the remote east face of the Grandes Jorasses, we were all immediately psyched for it. Of course every aspiring or established alpinist or mountain lover has heard about the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, but what about the lesser-known climbs on the Italian side? In my search for inspiring lines I had heard about this mysterious face some years ago and it was high on my list of things I wanted to climb.

In 2006 Phillippe Batoux wrote for The Alpinist "the 750-meter east face of the Grandes Jorasses (4208m) can only be seen from the far end of the Val Ferret. This so-called “Lost Face” has three parts: a shield of slabs, with a couloir in the middle; a steep, 300-meter wall with many roofs; and a mixed section with loose rock that leads to the end of the Tronchey Arete. Giuseppe Gagliardone and Giusto “Il Fortissimo” Gervasutti made its first ascent in 1942 (during the war!), by what was surely the most difficult route opened in the Alps before 1950."

This route, opened by Giusto Gervasutti & Giuseppe Gagliardone over two days after they attempted it four times spread out over five years, is called Gervasutti-Gagliardone and was originally graded VI and A2, but recently the difficulties were re-assessed at 5c/6a with two sustained pitches of 6b and one pitch of A1. It was Gervasutti´s greatest climb and the hardest in the Western Alps at the time, and arguably not equalled in the Mont Blanc range until the 1960s, according to the BMC.

Since then much less has been heard from the climbs on the east face of the Grandes Jorasses. But this also results in more calm, remote, wild, and adventurous climbing. The perfect route to start off our holiday together. We were curious.

The only downside was: the period of good weather would end in 2,5 days and we still had to get from Innsbruck to Courmayeur, approach the Gervasutti bivouac and obviously climb the route and get off the mountain before the thunderstorm arrived.

So on 27 July 2023 we made the long approach through Val Ferret up to the comfy bivouac, looking forward to the two adventurous days that lay in store. After an early start the next day we reached the base of the wall just as day broke ,at 5:00 AM. The first part of the wall was in mixed conditions so we climbed in crampons until we reached the traverse that would lead us to the start of the main difficulties. The ledge was still covered in snow and due to high morning temperatures this section provided time-consuming and kind of scary wading in wet and unstable snow instead of the easy approach up firm snow that we had hoped to find.

From there, the wall steepened and we followed the obvious line through cracks and across tricky, balancy slabs until we reached the aid roof. Big flakes of unstable rock at the start required careful climbing and the thin, overhanging crack with rusty pitons called for creativity in placing gear. From the belay above the roof, the wild and exposed nature of Gervasutti´s masterpiece became even more apparent: our tracks along the Glacier de Fréboudze were barely visible from up here, behind the Hirondelles ridge the mountains in the French part of the Mont Blanc massif sprung into view, and apart from the occasional rockfall in the couloir below us, no sounds could be heard and we seemed to be all alone in this huge sea of rocks.

From here the route continued past a series of slabs and dihedrals that were partly plastered in snow and ice which consequently slowed us down. We reached the end of the route in the evening, tired from climbing in demanding conditions and feeling the effects of the altitude, and since we still had to climb the upper part of the Tronchey ridge we decided to bivy on a small snow ledge. After some digging, snow-melting and preparing our bivy, it took us not long to fall asleep in the two zipped-together sleeping bags that were just enough for the three of us. The next day we woke up to a stunning sunrise, and with an expected thunderstorm in the afternoon we hurried up the ridge through mixed terrain and deep snow to the summit of Pointe Walker.

After a brief moment of sharing our joy on the summit we descended the normal route on the West Face to find shelter and hopefully a warm cozy hut with beers and delicious food to celebrate our two days in the wild. Unfortunately the storm was faster than us and we reached the hut soaking wet. Worse still, although the winter shelter was open, the rest of the building was empty and col and without a warden due to the large amount of snow on the normal route. Since we had to wait for the storm to calm down we shared our last energy bars, some cups of tea and saved our celebration until we reached Courmayeur, where we could finally fill our empty stomachs with pizza before reactivating our stiff limbs in one of the nice SPAs in town.

It occurred to us some time later that, as far as we know, ours may have been the first all-female ascent of the route, but the fact that we did not even think about this is what this is about: sharing adventures with good friends, being psyched and confident to go for our goals and encourage each other, each of us playing her indispensable role in our team to not only reach the summit and return safely back to town, but also to be able to laugh, overcome hard pitches and dream of Spas and pizza together.

The fact that all the three of us were part of the Austrian Expedition Team, me in 2015-2017 and Anna Truntschnig & Anna Zechling in 2018-2020 with me as a member of the pair of trainers, underscores the aim of this program: to encourage individuals, nurture their talents, and connect the Austrian mountaineering community – and, ideally, help develop friendships that go far beyond the confines of the Expedition Team.

This year marks the start of the first Austrian all-female Expedition team, the Alpinkader Frauen from Naturfreunde Österreich. Applications are open now, allez les filles!

by Babsi Vigl

Links
Alpinkader: alpinkader.naturfreunde.at
Sponsors: Mountain Equipment,  The North Face, Julbo
Alpinist: alpinist.com/climbing-notes/grandes-jorasses-east-face/
The BMC: thebmc.co.uk/rare-british-repeat-on-grandes-jorasses-updated