UKH

Rebuffat's 100 Finest Routes on Mont Blanc is no longer 100 as three apparently have fallen down. I know about the Bonatti Pillar but what are the other two? Help please!

Well the original start to the Old Brenva fell down and so in the latest book it describes the Gussfeld start. The Sarre roof is no longer an aid route and its original line is probably completely lost in the web of free lines. I remember Ken tried to persuade Mme Rebuffat to allow him to replace the Bonatti pillar with something that hadn't fallen down, but she would have none of it!

Has there not been a significant rockfall  / collapse on the Trident in the last year or so .

Thanks Jon, I came across an article on an American website (Climbing?) that was about the routes lost to climbers because of climate change. And this was noted, 23 radically changed or only possible outside the summer months, a d 3 apparently gone completely. However the article didn't say what. Obviously we know the Bonatti Pillar is no more but what else has gone? I'm in the process of writing about how global warming is affecting climbers as such. There has also been a massive rock fall on the Eiger I believe, not sure if this accounted for any climb.

Yes the Lépiney route on Trident du Tacul fell down in 2018.

I think the article was probably referring to this study done last year: https://www.ledauphine.com/montagne/2019/03/27/mont-blanc-les-100-plus-bell...

But I can't find it online anywhere. Their figures are 26 radically changed, 34 moderately changed and 3 gone for good.

You are correct there James, but I was not allowed access without a subscription. I'll get that translated. Thanks for the link.

The paper was based on the 1973 list. The three disappeared routes are:

2 - Bossons ice climbing. I think this may have been replaced by the mer de glace (though again, how long will that last...)

37 - Lépiney route

92 - Bonatti pillar on Dru

They've graded the routes on how they've changed... e.g. the exisitence of the snow in the Whymper couloir is now very much a seasonal occurence and it completely melts out in summer, recession of the glacier below the midi rock routes etc.

Link below:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15230430.2019.1612216

Oh, and if you want to get really nerdy, there's a massive report (all in french unfortunately) detailing the expected effects of climate change on the mont blanc massif over the coming century. 

http://www.espace-mont-blanc.com/asset/rapportclimat.pdf

E.g. see page 35 for expected changes in the extent of the mer de glace by 2099 (under a middle ground emission scenario)

I think Route Major on the Brenva face of Mt Blanc, as described in the book, is no longer climbed either due to a major landslide on the SW face of the Brenva spur several years ago making the lower part unclimbable. 

I think a few have melted as well.

The source for this is a paper in Arctic & Alpine Research last year, available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15230430.2019.1612216. It was also reprinted in the 2019 Alpine Journal. Five of Rebuffat's 100 were excluded and 3 of the other 95 were considered no longer climbable, but the paper only names two of them (Dru and Lepiney). From something in the paper it looks as if the third was an ice climb. Was the Pain de Sucre N face in Rebuffat's 100, and does it still exist?

Rob F

Fairly sure I read an article based on this research in the French Alpine Club's magazine a year or two ago. But it would be amongst a lot of papers, books etc that we haven't moved yet so can't check.

Ken rebuffed by Mme Rebuffat!

Mick

Just imagine it... Absolument fabuleux!

Yes, that is the revant document. There is a map/diagram that clearly notates all 100 Rebuffat climbs, and breaks them down into 4 categories with 1 as no change (only 2 routes) & 4 as routes that are no longer possible (3 climbs). The whole article deserves a wider readership as it does detail how so many popular climbs have changed either by becoming harder or more dangerous to climb, or can only be attempted outside the summer season. The Rebuffat on the Midi has lost 35 metres of snow from the base so a once steady 6a is now 6c+  to start!

 So so different to when I first  went  to the Alps in the 60's.

Would love to have been a fly on that wall (though would probably have been swatted by Mme Rebuffat!)

Was vastly intimidated by Mme Terray; mind you, 'ole Lionel probably was too. Sticking a photo of the Eiger NF beside the marital bed - an early example of a vision board? 

By contrast, Mme Franco was a real darling. Such warmth...

Apparently, when Terray died, Gaston Rebuffat asked Mme Terray if he could be one of the pall bearers. To her vast credit, she agreed.

It's such a pity that there was a post-Annapurna rift between Terry and Rebuffat, once good friends. When someone dies, you're abruptly brought to your senses; you realise what a complete waste of time rifts and grudges are. My guess is that Mme Terray saw this all too clearly and acted accordingly. A very impressive woman.

Mick

I put a summary of the original French article in Montagnes No. 469 Octobre 2019 on the Alpine Club site last October, in the Chamonix Conditions section.

http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/news/chamonix-condtions?start=12

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