9 News found

On 15 February 2022 French alpinists Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines needed less than 10 hours to climb the difficult ‘Gousseault-Desmaison’ on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. First ascended by René Desmaison and Serge Gousseaut in 1971, this is a difficult, historic and rarely repeated line up the...

Between 5 and 8 February 2023 the French mountain guide Thibault Sibille carried out the first winter solo of the Rébuffat route (Michel Chevalier, Gaston Rébuffat 26/07/1944) on the NW face of Grand Pic de Belledonne (2977m) in the Dauphiné Alps.

On 30/02/2023 Italian alpinists François Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre, Stefano Stradelli made the first ascent of 'Sognando l’inimmaginabile' on the East Face of Mont Blanc du Créton (3406m, Petites Murailles, Italy). 600 meters high, the new mixed climb is graded WI 4+ M7.

French paraclimber Solenne Piret has led her first icefall at Ceillac in France. Despite being born without her right forearm, the 30-year-old continues to push her boundaries in all forms of climbing.

Between 28 and 29 January 2023 the French alpinists Julien Cruvellier, Nicolas Jean and Benjamin Védrines made the first ascent of 'De l'Or en Barre' a difficult mixed climb on the south face of the Barre des Écrins (4102 m). The mixed climb follows a treacherous couloir, infamous in summer...

In December 1938 a 'highly confidential' internal document from the National Council of the Italian Mountaineering Club (CAI) sent to all its sections indicated the criteria for purging members of the 'non-Aryan race'. As a result hundreds, guilty of simply being Jews, did not have their membership renewed. Today the...

35-year-old mountaineers Grigory Grigoryev and Alexander Zakolodny died on 21 January close to the city of Soledar in Ukraine. After dedicating their lives to climbing and mountaineering, they perished while in battle. Zakolodny was a successful Himalayan mountaineer and had earned the prestigious Snow Leopard award.

12,330 meters of altitude gain and a 138 km integral traverse, over a period of two days, solo, across the Queyras mountains from Vars to Villard. This, in short, is the ski mountaineering traverse carried out by French mountaineer Benjamin Védrines at the start of the new year.

Alex Txikon, with Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Gelu Sherpa, Maila Sherpa, Mantere Lama Sherpa, Gamje Babu Sherpa and Chepal Sherpa, summited Manaslu in winter and without supplementary oxygen. This is the first integral winter ascent of the 8th highest mountain in the world, i.e. during the astronomical winter.