Could Gaston Rébuffat have imagined that one of his climbing routes would become a classic … of mixed mountaineering? Opened on the north face of Les Pèlerins, the Rébuffat-Terray has become a winter version, the Carrington-Rouse route. Right next to Beyond good and evil, the ‘Rébuffat des Pèlerins’ is a beautiful line of snow, ice and rock emblematic of modern mixed climbing.
It’s a misnomer to call this mixed route the ‘Rébuffat’. If the best-known climber in Marseille was the first to climb the dry rock of this route, with Lionel Terray, he must have been far from imagining that the same route would become a classic in winter.
In fact, this route is hardly ever climbed in summer (if you’ve climbed it in slippers, drop us a line!), but there can sometimes be a real queue in winter.
Chamonix wakes up. ©Ulysse Lefebvre
Departure by headlamp.