In the hyper-popular French Alps, Baptiste Obino and Martin De Truchis climbed a new 700m route near Grenoble.
The first challenge for the young climbers — they’re both 26 — was to find a suitably difficult unclimbed line. Obino saw it while ski touring last spring, he told Montagnes Magazine. He then waited until the following winter for the right conditions.
He showed his friend Martin De Truchis a photo of it and said, “If you tell me the name of the peak, you can climb the new line with me.”
“It’s the Roche d’Alvau,” de Truchis correctly replied. The two of them went for the 3,538m peak near their home in the Ecrins Alps last week.
The Roche d’Alvau. Google Maps
“The obvious lines on the main summits in Chamonix were climbed long ago, and opportunities for new routes and are starting to become scarce in Les Écrins,” Bapties Obino told ExplorersWeb. “However, I still have another 10 projects [in mind], so there is still something to do!”
Three days on the face
Obino and De Truchis climbed the route on-sight over three days. The pair skied four hours to the base of the face, pitched a tent, and climbed the first three pitches, fixing ropes the following day.
On the second day, they started with two crux pitches on ice stalactites and continued all day until they reached a snow ramp at the 14th pitch. Here, they set up their small tent for a second bivy night. Finally, on the third day, January 15, they left most of their gear in the tent and climbed the last three pitches.
The climbers called the route Ç’Alvau l’coup and rated it as ED+, 6a, P4+, WI6, M7+.
Obino believes that another team might be able to complete it in one very long day. In fact, Estebane Daligo and Thomas Joannes already tried the first repetition some days ago, but they had to retreat three pitches below the summit as night fell and a storm approached.
Baptiste Obino is making a name for himself among the younger generation of French alpinists. He spent New Year’s Eve opening a new route on the West Face of the Dru, near Mont Blanc. Earlier in 2024, he opened a winter route solo on La Meije, one of the most coveted peaks in the Ecrins massif. He followed this with another new route on the impressive south face of the Barre des Ecrins with Victor Garcin and Nicolas Jean.
