Nicolas Preitner & Jon Murua Pinocchio, Mont Blanc du Tacul
4,248m ED M6+
Winter ascend of this delicate and sustained mixed climbing route.
Date: 2.2.2020
8h10 Chamonix
9h30 Start climbing
11h15 R4
14h30 summit
15h30 start skiing down
16h40 Montenvers
18h30 Chamonix
Transcript:
They say that Pinocchio is one of the most beautiful mixed climbing routes in the Alps, when it's in good conditions.
Having good conditions is very rare though. It is generally dry making it hard and delicate.
That wouldn't stop us.
We heard that it was climbed a month ago and we were very motivated to give it a go.
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This route, like many others in Mont Blanc de Tacul has the advantage of being easy to access and if things go wrong, it is also easy to bail by rappelling the same route.
That reduces the engagement and also the weight to carry as the backpack can be left at the bottom of the route with the skis.
Pinocchio is hard. It is hard and sustained. It is classified as a extremely hard route and in fact it's one of the hardest routes I've climbed.
It is delicate, steep and not easy to protect either. It is sustained on the M6 with many overhanging moves making it also a bit physical. What a combo!
The second pitch set the scene already with a very tricky overhanging move with nothing to hold on to. Well done Nicolas for leading that!
I can tell that this pitch would had been much easier with some ice.
The third pitch goes through a very serious roof which we climb using the slab on the left.
Yes, we climb slab with crampons. That was delicate and physical!
The following pitches felt a bit easier; probably because we were already very focused and full of adrenaline.
However, these pitches were the hardest to protect. There was a tiny little layer of ice, making it pleasant to climb, but it wasn't thick enough to place ice screws. That same ice was hiding the crack where we would otherwise place some micro cams.
We climbed smoothly up until the last pitch. It happens that the last pitch is the crux. Long and sustained M6+.
There are 2 options here. The right hand side through the steep snow or the dry and delicate overhanging goulotte on the left.
I tried going through the snow initially.
I tried.
I tried but I didn't feel like engaging with that amount of inconsistent snow.
This snow requires a significant effort to clean and it feels very insecure.
Plan B.
The overhanging and delicate goulotte on the left.
There was not much ice, neither many options to place protection.
I climbed slowly, very focused, taking rests where I could.
One roof after another.
Making stein pulls at 4K metres and holding on milimetric edges.
Scraping the ice and hammering the ice axes to break as little ice as possible.
I must admit this is not easy in overhanging terrain and specially in these thin cracks where this is not much space to swing.
We climbed the whole route in about 5 hours.
That is an average of 30 minutes per pitch.
That is extremely fast!
It's also quite unusual for me to finish that early and have the chance to descend la valle blanche with sunlight.
The rappels were straight forward on the route itself and we managed to get to the bottom safely.
It was fascinating to see how steep and delicate this route is while abseiling.
Gear used:
Helmet: Petzl Sirocco
Ropes: Mammut Genesis Dry 2x60m
Ice axes: Petzl Ergo
Crampons: Petzl Dart
Boots: La Sportiva G5
Harness: Mammut Zephyr Alpine
Gloves: Simond Cascade, Black Diamond Soloist
Belay plate: Petzl Reverso
Backpack: Mammut trion light 38l
Camera: GoPro Session 5
Music Credit:
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