The Grand Pilier d'Angle (4,243 m) is a buttress on the southern side of Mont Blanc in the

Mont Blanc massif The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indepen ...

in the

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The first ascent from the valley was by

James Eccles James Eccles FGS (1838 – 6 June 1915) was an English mountaineer and geologist who is noted for making a number of first ascents in the Alps during the silver age of alpinism. Life Eccles was born in Blackburn in 1838, the eldest son of Edw ...

with guides Michel Payot and Alphonse Payot on 30 July 1877 during an ascent of the Peuterey ridge, although the summit had been visited on 20 August 1822 by F. Clissold with guides J. M. Couttet, M. Bossonney, D. Couttet, P. Favret and J. B. Simond on the descent from their first ascent of

Mont Blanc de Courmayeur Mont Blanc de Courmayeur (; it, Monte Bianco di Courmayeur) is a point () on the south-east ridge of Mont Blanc that forms the peak of the massive south-east face of the mountain. It is connected to the main summit via the ''Col Major'' (). De ...

. The first ascent of the pillar (the north-east face) itself was by

Walter Bonatti Walter Bonatti (; 22 June 1930 – 13 September 2011) was an Italian mountain climber, explorer and journalist. He was noted for many climbing achievements, including a solo climb of a new route on the south-west pillar of the Aiguille du Dru i ...

and Toni Gobbi on 3 August 1957. Bonatti said after the climb that "the mixed terrain of the face was without doubt the most sombre, the most savage and the most dangerous of any that I have ever encountered in the Alps." The first winter ascent of the ''Bonatti-Gobbi'' route was by A. Dworak, J. Kurczab, A. Mróz and T. Piotrowski between 5 and 9 March 1971. The first solo ascent of the route was by

Nicolas Jaeger Nicolas Jaeger (20 October 1946 – 27 April 1980) was a French physician and alpinist. Early life Jaeger was born on 20 October 1946 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, the son of photographer Janine Niépce. He made more than 100 solo ascen ...

on 3 August 1975. Other well-known routes on the face include the ''Cecchinel-Nominé'' (Walter Cecchinel and Georges Nominé, 17 September 1971; the '' Boivin- Vallençant'' of 1975 adds a direct finish to this route)"Jean Fréhel"
thebmc.org, retrieved 6 October 2010 and ''Divine Providence'' (

Patrick Gabarrou Patrick Gabarrou a.k.a. "Le Gab" (born 19 July 1951 in Évreux), is a French mountaineering, mountaineer and mountain guide who is credited with more than 300 first ascents, most of them in the Mont Blanc massif. He has been the president of the ...

and François Marsigny, 5–7 June 1984). The first solo ascent of this route was by

Jean-Christophe Lafaille Jean-Christophe Lafaille (31 March 1965 – 27 January 2006 resumed was a French mountaineer noted for a number of difficult ascents in the Alps and Himalaya, and for what has been described as "perhaps the finest self-rescue ever performed in ...

in 1990, who said, "This route is the most difficult and involving in the whole of the Mont Blanc massif."

References

External links

Grand Pilier d'Angle topo on SummitPost
{{Mont Blanc massif Alpine four-thousanders Mountains of Aosta Valley Mountains of the Alps Mont Blanc massif

See also

References

External links