After seeing swifts ascents from Steve McClure last month and Ignacio Mulero earlier in April, Le Voyage (8b+) has seen a further three ascents in the space of two days, with Robbie Phillips, Sébastien Berthe, and Mathieu Miquel all making quick work of the route. 

Le Voyage is Robbie's third ascent at E10, in addition to his FA of What we do in the Shadows (E10 7a), and his and Alex Moore's third free ascent of Longhope Direct (E10 7a). Whilst this is Berthe's first E10 graded route, he has extensive trad experience, was the first person to free El Capitan's iconic route 'The Nose' in a ground up style, and has climbed multiple sport routes at 9a and above. 

Miquel, however, at just twenty three years old, has hardly any experience in trad climbing whatsoever, with Robbie saying that Le Voyage was 'one of his first trad routes', and that he spent 'only six days on the route'. According to Robbie, Miquel is yet to take a fall on trad gear.

Taking to instagram to share the news of the three ascents, Robbie said:

'I'm very happy to achieve my goal of the trip, now I can relax a bit, go sport climbing and get one last ounce of fitness for the Scottish trad season. Working as a team we got the footage of all three ascents, and I'll put this into a short film'.

'Until then, Bon Voyage!'

Robbie's sign off may hint at an alternative to the relaxing and sport climbing that he says will make up the rest of his time in Annot.

With half of the ten repeats of Le Voyage having come since James climbed Bon Voyage in February of this year, it appears that some of the world's top climbers have been drawn to Le Voyage both as a route in its own right, but also as a means of working the first section of Bon Voyage, and scoping out the rest of the route for future attempts.

The route, which could be amongst the hardest trad routes in the world, is yet to receive a repeat.

Having spoken to both Steve McClure and Ignacio Mulero about Bon Voyage, they agreed it could be a step up, with Steve, who looked at the route but decided to not give it an attempt, stating 'If it's not E12 (or more) I'll be very surprised!', and Ignacio, who put in multiple weeks on the route but left without an ascent, stating 'There is no grade proposal yet, but it will surely be one of the most difficult in this style!'