Gripped Magazine
New Technical Alpine Mixed Climb on Famous Alps Peak
Over two days this month, Italian alpinists Matteo Della Bordella, Giacomo Mauri and Mirco Grasso made the first ascent of Mutante on the south face of the Petites Jorasses in the French Alps. They graded the 520-metre line at M8 6c AI4+.
Della Bordella, who’s established several new routes in the range, explained that he first spotted the line during the summer months. He described “an obvious line that looks like a couloir and then suddenly drops into an overhang,” which immediately struck him as a strong candidate for a winter ascent, particularly since, in warmer seasons, it would be little more than a dripping wet gully. He emphasized that while the climb was never extreme, it remained consistently demanding, featuring several ice sections and steep mixed pitches. In the end, he and his partners discovered what he described on Planet Mountain as “a really varied winter line,” a small gem among the many routes of the massif.
Grasso said it seemed almost unbelievable that such an obvious feature on Mont Blanc had never been climbed, noting that above 3,000 metres in winter, conditions can be highly unpredictable. High on the route, they racked their tools for a section of hands-on rock climbing. Mutante then entered the upper gully, where the terrain gradually eased and the difficulties relented.
They spent the first day approaching on skis and climbing the initial pitches, then stayed overnight at the Gervassutti bivy. On the second day, they took Mutante to the top before descending the same line. At the top of the first pitch, they discovered some existing bolts.
New Alpine Climb in Greece
Two weeks before the first ascent of Mutante, Stefanos Karantinakis and Spyros Kyriakou made the first ascent of Crème Brutalée, a 550-metre AI5 M4+ on the north face of Astraka in the Pindus Mountains, Greece.
Astraka is home to several winter routes, including Crème Caramelée and Demokratia Couloir, of which Crème Brutalée shares some terrain. Check out Karantinakis and Kyriakou’s photos from their new route below.
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