Digital Crack - Aiguille du Midi, Grand Gendarme Arête des Cosmiques
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Marco Sappa, Mountain Guide
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Planetmountain
Digital Crack is a unique climb in a unique setting, located on the huge granite gendarme above the famous Arête des Cosmiques. The monolith, with its typical Mont Blanc orange granite, currently hosts two bolted alpine sport climbs.
The first and most famous is Digital Crack, freed in 1990 by Thierry Renault and Alain Ghersen. At the time of the first ascent the route was graded 8a+ and was for years the highest 8a in Europe. After short 6c+ intro, the climbing becomes vertical and extremely technical
The second route, Arête Cosmiques, offers a completely different style of climbing and was established in 2013 by Nicolas Portard and Victor Estrangin. As the name suggests, this climbing the righthand arête past some interesting and powerful sequences. Once again, the route is graded 8a.
From Chamonix take the Aiguille du Midi cable car to the summit.
AccessFrom the terrace at the end of the 'Arête des Cosmiques' descend the ladder, continue along the ridge for 15m to reach an abseil station. A 40m abseil leads to the lower section of the ridge which, after 50m, leads to the base of the obvious gendarme.
ItineraryDigital Crack is a two pitch outing:
P1 6c 10m
P2 8a 30m. It is possible to combine the two in a single 40m pitch.
Both pitches can be climbed toprope with an 80m rope.
Gear15 quickdraws for the pitches. For the approach: ice axe, crampons, gear for an abseil, mid size cams for the return.
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