Rassemblement International d’Alpinistes, Chamonix, July 7 to 26. Every two years the Fédération Française de la Montagne invites participants from some 25 countries to be their guests for three weeks of climbing in Chamonix. The meeting is centered on the Ecole Nationale de Ski et d’Alpinisme (ENSA), which is where all the mountain guides and ski instructors in France are trained. This year, together with Rick Sylvester, I represented the American Alpine Club at this very interesting meet. The ENSA provides not only the accommodations in Chamonix and all the food for huts and bivouacs, but also free use of the cable cars; this really speeds one’s return from a climb to the next excellent meal. The Rassemblement attracts leading climbers from all over the world, and it is particularly interesting to have this chance to meet them. However, the chief purpose is to enable one to climb in the Mont Blanc range; and as the weather was very good a lot was done. I think it is fair to say that the best climbs made in the Chamonix area last summer were made by participants at the Rassemblement. For example, the Austrian Reinhold Messner, just back from the Andes, first appeared at the dinner table having just soloed the north face of the Droites that morning while making the fourth ascent. Reputed to be the hardest ice climb in the area, the best previous time was three days – his time was eight hours. Then teaming up with Erich Lackner he climbed the Central Pillar of Frêney, and then went to look at the new line on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. Not liking that too much, they returned and made a new two-day route on the Droites. And all this in two weeks! Meanwhile the Poles put up a fierce new six-bivouac route on the Grand Pilier d’Angle on Mont Blanc – where the only previous route is one of Walter Bonatti’s hardest climbs. The Yugoslav team made the second ascent of Harlin and Frost’s Hidden Pillar of Frêney, then followed Messner’s crampon nicks up the Droites, making the fifth ascent, in two days of climbing. The rest of us weren’t standing around either, as routes such as the Walker Spur of the Grandes Jorasses, Bonatti Pillar of the Petit Dru, north face of the Triolet, Pear and Route Major on Mont Blanc and so on were climbed with monotonous regularity. Many of the former great routes are now commonplace, so that the ambitious young European alpinists are either climbing for speed, or solo, or doing a great number of “grandes courses” within a short time. I would definitely recommend anyone to attend this meet, though what the hard men will be doing by 1971 I hate to think.

Christopher A.G. Jones