SAMAYA x KILIAN MONI

 

 

The Pilier des Séracs on the north face of the Ailefroide is poorly documented and not even included in the most recent topos. That didn't stop Kilian Moni and Maxime Bertrand from tackling this mythical north face of the Ecrins. For Samaya, Kilian looks back on this outing, where the route was full of pitfalls.

 

"On July 16, 2023, we headed to the Pilier des Séracs on the north face of the Ailefroide, in the heart of the Ecrins. This route was opened in 1981. It's a rather challenging route because we have to climb along the round glacier, a group of hanging glaciers that sends out cold air and looks as if it could fall on our heads at any moment.

 

This 900-metre route from the summit of Pointe Fourastier is split in two. The first part is the Séracs pillar over 500 meters high, on the TD+ side and 5 sup over a dozen pitches in the pillar. We had a very rough route. We knew roughly where there might be a belay and where we could potentially pass. It was a bit of an adventure. According to the keeper, it's only been repeated twice in the last 15 years.

 

We set off from Madame Carl's meadow in the Ecrins, and climbed all the way up the glacier noir valley and the glacier noir. We set up a super-cozy bivouac on the glacier facing the route, which we were able to observe and decipher all evening.

 

We got up at 3 a.m. the next day. The cool thing was that it snowed a lot this year, which meant we could go straight to the rock from the glacier. We arrived at the first belay just as the sun was coming out. This face catches the morning sun for about thirty minutes, despite the fact that it's a north face.

 

Pebbles and icicles started falling in all directions. Fortunately, the steep pillar protected us: everything fell on top of us. It was still terrifying, and we hurried on to the second pitch.

 

Arriving at the third pitch in 5 sup, we imagined that it would be 5c and that it could unwind. With foresight, we took out our slippers and chalk, snug in the Samaya CHALK_002, adding a little color to the wall. I had a big scare on the long section. It's a very compact wall, with no cracks and no spits. In this 50-metre pitch, I only came across 2 pitons and was able to slide in 2 belayers, that's all. Now you're 15 meters above your belay, you have to send the next step, but you don't know where you're supposed to go. I went by instinct and ended up on an old rope with an old piton, which we used to set up a belay. In my opinion, all the pitches in 5 sup are worth 6b/6c.

 

In the end, we had to pull lengths on everything we'd thought we'd be able to do on a tight rope, because the progression was so committed and frightening.

 

On the other hand, we had rock that was far too beautiful, hyper-compact, in which you enjoy yourself with beautiful holds for which you know that if you pull, it will hold. That's how we progressed, finding pitons here and there, realizing that nobody was really venturing down this route.

 

We then climbed a beautiful dihedral that gave us a magnificent view of the entire glacial valley, before tackling two pitches in 5 sup about 30 meters long. What I remember: I climb, I climb, I find no protection, no cracks, I climb, I climb, I climb. According to the guidebook, we were supposed to find belays, but they weren't there. I kept on climbing, until at one point I had to take the plunge. Fortunately, the friends weren't far away, 5 meters below us, but we still had to go.

 

We lost quite a bit of time compared with what we'd said, almost two hours. But it didn't really matter, because we ended up getting to the top of the pillar. There was a much less steep section where you skirted a very thick glacier 30 metres high and 100 metres wide, set in a slope inclined at almost 40 degrees. You were climbing with this monstrous thing beside you and it was just crazy. You wondered what planet you were on!

 

Normally, the route would follow this ice cap and the seracs, in the snow. But we ended up with a concentration of falling rocks and ice. We decided to pull to the left in rotten rock where we found ourselves roped up solo for 450 meters. Nothing held in our hands, and it was no better for our feet, as we couldn't protect them. The rope was just psychological.

 

We managed to go to areas where the rock was a little better, so that we felt better psychologically. Little by little, we climbed to the top of the north face.

 

Then we pulled the last two lengths, and had to commit. We had 8 hours behind us, we were very tired and we just wanted to get out for good.

 

We finally made it to the top, too happy. We saw that the clock was ticking, so we quickly attacked the descent via an abseiling line we'd spotted. We didn't get a rope stuck or anything, it was just perfect.

 

On the way down, we were supposed to pick up a first glacier, then a second one, and skirt around some cliffs. We hadn't spotted this section, I'd been there four years ago so I remembered it and it seemed pretty obvious.

 

And in fact, not at all. I didn't recognize anything. We got lost, went round in circles and dropped too far to the left. We had to climb back up to get back on the normal track, which meant we lost almost 1h30 more. We were devastated. Luckily, the chamois were nearby to cheer us up.

 

We found the classic route again, but we couldn't see the tracks. As I recall, we had to pass through a couloir without pulling to the right. We could see the semblance of tracks going off to the right, but the couloir was good, so we decided to go down it. When I'd done it, it was full of snow and ice, but as it was summer, there was none of that left. There was nothing but rotten rock, which took us a very long time to de-escalate.

 

Arriving at the hut at 7pm, we learned that there was a summer path that bypassed this tricky section and saved us a good 1h30. We were so sorry we hadn't looked at the topo beforehand. We were thirsty and wilted, so we stopped to share a good beer and a bite to eat with the hut's janitor, Sophie, before resuming the 7-kilometer, 1400-meter climb back.

 

It's one of the three most beautiful north faces in the Écrins, which has never been climbed, and it's 900 meters high, with some magnificent pitches, beautiful dihedrals and cracks. Okay, the top part sucks a bit, it's pretty rotten, but as for everything else, it was really too classy!"