On July 25, the Italian team of François Cazzanelli and Bepi Vidoni climbed Divine Providence for the day, and returned to Courmayeur, in less than 24 hours. Opened in 1986 by French climbers François Marsigny and Patrick Gabarrou, Divine Providence, at the Grand Pilier d’Angle, is considered the most difficult route to the summit of Mont Blanc. In early August, the French team of Victor Garcin and Antoine Bouqueret climbed from Val Veny to the summit in a whopping 13 hours.
In the film below that tells the whole story, François Marsigny and Patrick Gabarrou recount the genesis of the route and the adventure of the opening. Marsigny had insisted on not using bolts. On the evening of the second day, Patrick was ascending a jumar rope when the belay literally spurted and two pitons jumped. The team was only held up by a friend. Hence the name, according to Patrick. Afterwards, it was Thierry Renault who did the first free ascent, as he recounts in the film, with the highest perched 7c in the massif for a long time.