Full South ridge of the Moine
The long South ridge of the Moine follows a clever line to reach a unique viewpoint over the Mont Blanc massif.
With Aude.
A short weekend in the Mont Blanc massif with a beautiful classic route: the complete south ridge of the Aiguille du Moine.
With heavily loaded packs, we go up to bivouac not far from the Couvercle hut, an ideal viewpoint over the famous north face of the Grandes Jorasses.
From the summit of the Aiguille du Moine, the panorama of the massif is complete, with the Drus, the Verte, the Droites, the Courtes, the Triolet, the Jorasses, Mont Blanc and the Aiguilles de Chamonix all in a row. But for now it is still far off, and it is in the dark that we tackle the first difficulties of the ridge.
We climb, we weave, and the altitude doesn't go up much! Despite the obviousness of the ridge, the route leaves the crest several times, which somewhat breaks the rhythm and the beauty of the line.
The manoeuvres follow one another; you need to be efficient and follow the logic of the first ascensionists so as not to get lost and keep to the timing.
After a beautiful T-shaped gendarme, the route crosses onto the west side before returning to the ridge via two pitches of corner/crack. Once again it is a shame to leave this airy crest, but the climbing there is beautiful.
It took us 7 hours to complete this long ridge route, with a few route-finding questions but without getting lost. Two rope teams behind us were not so lucky and fell well behind. Despite the relative technical ease of this kind of route, every mistake often means hours lost...
An ideal classic route to awaken the route-finding sense dormant deep inside a climber used to obvious lines.
Photo gallery...