North Face of the Mönch and West Face of the Blaitière

John Harlin

WINTER ASCENT OF THE MÖNCH S NORTH FACE

The day after our unsuccessful attempt at the direttissima on the Eigerwand, Martin Epp introduced himself, for he was at Scheidegg as a ski instructor and guide. He is one of the foremost alpine climbers of Switzerland, having successfully climbed the Eiger in very fast time and having made many difficult ascents. He had only the following day free and took me outside to point out the towering north face of the Mönch. He felt the climb could be made in one day or at the most with one bivouac, despite the fact that the first ascent had taken four days. We decided to give it a try, and that evening made our approach to the hut high on the shoulder below the Mönch’s north face. With the hut to ourselves, we cooked our steaks on the wood stove which heated the cold January night. At nine o’clock we shot green flares from the balcony to let our friends know that all was well.

At four the next morning we left our perch in the winter dark and climbed the ridge above the hut to a point where Martin knew we must descend to the glacial bowl directly beneath the smooth sweeping face, a descent down very steep ice with ice-screw belays. This technical ice work by the light of our lamps was a weird ballet. It was one of those experiences in which your mind transcends to a perspective where you look down at yourself as a stranger. Psychological exaltation grew as Martin and I moved fast but with security and a sense of well-machined teamwork.

We crossed the bowl after this thousand-foot descent and started up the 4500-foot final wall. We climbed encountering this or that adventure without communicating by words but by a silent communion of the experienced mountaineer. We came to the overhanging rock section just at full daylight. We had underestimated the climbing here and it sapped our reserves. Despite this we still ascended rapidly and the steep slabs of ice and rock retreated below us. About noon, we stopped to eat our dried meat, having climbed more than two-thirds of the wall. I called my wife on the nearby Lauberhorn by radio. She and the others were incredulous at our speed. Still borne along by the psychological lift, we optimistically predicted the summit by three o’clock. On we climbed, finally reaching the summit ice ridge in the high, crystalline atmosphere. On the summit, I again made communication with my wife and we shot colored flares in the air in a fourth-of-July salute of victory. The flares were clearly visible in the clear blue sky from Scheidegg and nearby mountains.

We descended the ridge towards Concordia and literally ran in the deep powder snow along the glacier that leads to the Jungfrau Joch. The ascent had taken ten hours and was without incident. What now lingers in memory is the exaltation of climbing, of comradeship and of beauty.

THE WEST FACE OF THE BLAITIÈRE

The west face of the Blaitière is one of the large Chamonix granite faces, so characteristic of western exposure in the Mont Blanc massif. The western faces of the Blaitière and the Drus rival each other as the finest pure rock walls which look down at Chamonix. Several pitches on the hardest route on the Blaitière are considered by the guide books and climbers to be the highest standard of free climbing in the area. These are the famout Brown Crack and the two open-book chimneys above.

Being a bit competitive by nature, I had had two courses of action in mind for some time. One was to climb the Brown Crack in winter and the other was to put a new really direct route up the face.

In January of 1964 I went to the Brown route with Rick Horn, a Colorado climber working with me in Leysin. As we approached the face we discerned dots on the snowfield below the Brown Crack, descending to the glacier en rappel. It turned out to be a Geneva party which included a woman. Rick and I were a little taken aback by the sight of a female trying what we considered a rather taxing problem. However their slow pace had forced them to quit and so our spirits rose again.

The first few pitches were very alpine but went fast. Soon I came to grips with that passage which had become such a symbol of difficult free climbing, an overhanging jam-crack which at the crux juts out like a small roof. Unfortunately the Geneva people had placed some huge wooden wedges at the crux. With my hands cold from the ice in the crack, I did not have the will power to refrain from using them. Indeed the wedges either by rationalization or in fact seemed to be placed where it was necessary to jam a hand. In any case, the crack was not climbed in its classical absolutely free manner. We bivouacked one pitch higher.

The next morning the two open chimneys presented a fine problem. Ice clogged the only crack in the center as well as the few holds. But laboriously it went, and we enjoyed the last little overhang at the top of this long, 150-foot lead. When we were two short pitches higher, it was time for the one-o’clock radio weather report. Snow in a few hours was predicted ! And so, having climbed the pitches that interested us most, we descended en rappel.

* * *

In the early summer, the Blaitière West Direct seemed a good training project. I talked another American, Lee Herral, into going with me. The climb was surprisingly easy until we reached an obvious crux section, which involved a long double overhang and some difficult free work. An hour later as I was clipping my rope into a piton at a belay point, I slipped only stopping 60 feet lower. Much rationalization forced a retreat, for I was unhurt.

On June 22, with Pierre Mazeaud, that outstanding French climber, I again tackled the climb, and this time we forced our way to above all the major difficulties before bivouacking. Pierre encountered American hardware for the first time and was particularly impressed with the Leeper variety. We did not continue the route for it fed into the existing Brown route in the upper part of the face, but instead traversed the north side of the mountain in a very steep couloir without the benefit of ice equipment. The climb was successful and traced a new direct line to the left of the Brown route.

Summary of Statistics

Area: Mönch, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland and Blaitière, Mont Blanc Massif, France.

Ascents: North Face of the Mönch, January, 1964 (Martin Epp, John Harlin) — second winter ascent.

West Face Direct of the Blaitière, June 22 and 23 (John Harlin, Pierre Mazeaud) — first ascent of the direct route.