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NEWS: 8b Alpine Rock Free Ascent in Mont Blanc Massif for Lachat and Dugit

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 UKC News 25 Jun 2015
Cedric Lachat on the first free ascent of Ballade au Clair de Lune - 8b, 4 kbSwiss climber Cedric Lachat and Frenchman Fabien Dugit have made the first free ascent of Ballade au Clair de Lune (380m A4 / 8b) on the South Face of the Aiguille du Fou.

The route - originally an A4 aid climb by Jean Marc Boivin, Eric Bellin, and Martial Moioli from the early 80s - tackles the wall right of the famous American Route on the stunning granite South Face of the Aiguille du Fou, Mont Blanc Massif at a scary 8b free grade...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=69805

 adam 24 25 Jun 2015
In reply to UKC News:

Great effort! The route and pictures look stunning, I particularly like the contrast of people doing hard rock climbing against a snowy mountain back drop.

The article was a bit confusing - the title says they freed it, but the text says they aided the hard pitches. Also says they had no portaledge, but there's one in the photos...
1
 alexm198 25 Jun 2015
In reply to adam 24:

Where does it say the aided the hard pitches? It makes reference to the original aid grades of the hard pitches, but I can't see it saying they actually aided them.

Yeah, weird about the portaledge - presumably the ski descent to Chamonix allowed them to slog back up with one!

Either way, insane effort - I was on the Ciseaux last week and was intrigued to see ropes and rack hanging halfway up the Fou S face. Mystery solved!
 Luke90 25 Jun 2015
In reply to alexm198:

The article says they aided some of the hard pitches to have a look at them before they actually climbed them.
 Aigen 25 Jun 2015
In reply to UKC News:

Man what a confusing article.
1
 Jack Geldard 25 Jun 2015
In reply to Aigen:

Hi,

Apologies for anyone who is confused. It goes like this:

They aided the route first to have a look.

They thought they would have time to top-rope it before redpointing the 'free ascent'. They didn't.

They climbed it free.

Cheers,

Jack
In reply to Aigen:

Not really. Pretty obvious in my opinion.
 Michael Gordon 25 Jun 2015
In reply to UKC News:

Sounds like a brilliant ascent!
 Aigen 25 Jun 2015
In reply to Jack Geldard - UKC Chief Editor:
Thanks Jack.
Post edited at 22:46
 galpinos 26 Jun 2015
In reply to Michael Gordon:

And in jeans no less.
 Jack Geldard 26 Jun 2015
In reply to UKC News:

I have to say - this is a seriously impressive piece of climbing, the route is clearly very hard and scary.

Good effort!

Jack

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