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The Peutery Integral

04/10/2011 8:55 pm

Tim Blakemore

Tags: Aiguille Noire de Peutery , Peutery Integral

The Peutery Integral is a climbers climb. Not as famous as the Eigerwand or perhaps as hard, it is however on every alpinists wishlist. And the reality is that is where, for the most part it stays. There are good reasons for this.

One, it's committing beyond belief. You need best part of four or five days to get everything in. A day for the approach, at least three for the route itself and maybe a day in hand. Once you're on it you're not really going anywhere but to the top. At a push you could escape from the Col de Peutery but that in itself is seriously exposed to crevasse and serac danger. Two, it's a genuinely high altitude route. If you plan on bivouacing around the Aiguille's Noire or Blanche de Peutery then you'll be sleeping at, or around 4000 metres. It simply takes a while to have that sort of acclimatisation. Thirdly, you need a weather window of at least three days (see above). And then there are considerations like whether the route's in good condition, your partner's reliable, and are you really fit enough? The list goes on and there are many people with many more reasons who will tell you why they didn't get it done.

Sometimes the planets align however and it just worked out quite well for me this time. A quick chat with fellow guide Stu Macdonald. A quick text back to tell me that my requested 'day of rest' was a poor excuse and that the hut approach was an easy one and what more did I want? (all fair enough I thought) and it was all happening.

The route is composed of three logical sections. The first is an established classic in the Mont Blanc massif, the South Ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peutery. Graded TD and over 1100m this is a great route (I'd climbed it in 2009 with Tamsin) and consists of sustained rockclimbing with a few harder pitches of around French 5C as well as a bit of abseiling. Climbing it again was genuinely a pleasure (and I improved the line I took) but also way harder with the excess of three days food, crampons and technical axes. Both Stu and I were tired with the constant weight but moved fairly well and reached our planned bivouac (beneath the summit of the Noire) in about 12 hours. We also quite pleasingly overtook two young French lads who were on a one day ascent. Except they weren't and ended up shivering their socks off next to us all night. We bid them farewell the next morning however as they turned back down the East Ridge and we started the Integral proper.

The abseils off the Noire are notorious and they form the start of the Integral route and day two. Once committed to there really is no turning back (a number of them are free hanging) as the ground as far as I'm aware is not retraceable. For some reason I had heard there had been some re-equiping/bolting of this line but this turned out to be completely false. They are ok but need to be looked at carefully (like all mountain abseils I guess?). Stu and I did the odd bit of backing up but were quite lucky in that clearly someone had very recently (we thought within a week) done a good bit of adding to the already considerable tat. I still managed to get one wrong however and 'nearly' got to within a whisker of a good station but just couldn't quite stretch it (and leaning against tied off knots above a void is vomit inducing). So back up it was (prusics are invaluable) to build another station (goodbye faithful nuts etc). It took us three hours in all which given the prussicing etc wasn't too bad. It would be a fearful place to have anyone above you however. The route then takes a weaving line around the Dames Anglaises and over the Pointe Casati. We thought the climbing loose, little travelled and a bit serious. We also had a few hours of trying to fit guide book description to ground and the 'three ribs' we were certain we identified at least three times (over two days!). In a fit of frustration we took the rope off towards the end of the day and actually motored up to the notch at 3900m between Pointe Gugliermina and the Aiguille Blanche de Peutery. We actually decided to bivouac here (the video was shot here) as we were uncertain of how technical the next section was (to the summit of the Aiguille Blanche de Peutery).

The next morning we quite impressively managed to sleep in. This was quite a good thing as it immediately took the pressure off. There was no way we were going to get down to the valley that day so mentally it was just a case of settling in. We set off up to the summit and quickly realised that tactically it would have been good to push on and sleep next to the snow crest allowing a pre dawn start. You live and learn, often more so in the alps. We also realised that disapointingly the snow was in a poor state. Sadly it had been badly sun affected on many aspects and icy in others. Again it was just a case of settling in and taking your time. It was also a really good time to appreciate your partner who quite literally you depend upon. And so it went. Always dramatic, sometimes sensational, and a little harrowing in places, we hacked our way up the crests, ridges and slopes of the Aiguille Blanche de Peutery, the Grand Pilier d'Angle (reached after a fierce rock pitch) and Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. The feeling of security when pulling over the cornice of that final peak was a great moment for us but naturally we had a further 40 minutes of insecure ice to contend with before standing on the top of Mont Blanc.

It was a good moment betweeen Stu and I. A bit of Haribo, a moments reflection then off down the 'trois monts' route which we both know so well. Somehow we had a bit left in us and we pushed hard to beat the last of the sun's rays and reached the top of the Tacul as we donned headtorches. A final dramatic descent under seracs and over thinning bridges saw us at the Refuge de Cosmiques before 9pm.

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