Petites Jorasses - Voie Bonatti - Mazeaud (face E)

This is an old (aid) classic by Bonatti and Mazeaud. Nowadays it has become a free climbing route. Very beautiful climbing on good and excellent rock.

It is not possible anymore to climb the upper part of the classic route (which had supposedly a mixed section in the old days). This means that the route ends at 2/3 of the face, some 200m/250m below the summit, at an easy angled area below the steep upper section op the wall. From here it is possible to reach the summit by various variations:

• find the variation drawn in the old Piola-topo at the left side of the top wall bypassing a part of the south ridge
• traverse to the South Ridge and climb it to the summit (most obvious route finding)
• there is at least one (partly) bolted route that climbs the upper wall (the first part of the descent) that you can join near the end of the Piola route ‘Gargantua’.

All options will take roughly 2 hours

Approach # 1h15

From the Gervasutti Bivouac descent to the glacier (multiple big crevasses) and go up to the face.

Route # 8-12h

The route starts a bit to right of the big corner. If you climb 15-20m you will find a good platform for changing shoes and leaving the glacier gear.

A good topo is hard to find. The most detailed topo is the one on the Danza Verticale website, however there’s no description of the upper part of the face in it. The topo in the Piola guidebook (if you’re able to find one) is not very clear and contains minor errors. The first five/six/seven pitches are very obvious. Thereafter the routefinding becomes difficult. At the end of the corner of the crux pitch there is a belay. You must continue leftwards to the second belay a few meters further and not go straight up if you want to follow the original line (going straight up is also possible and not completely illogical but there is at least one very loose section). After that, a good route finding instinct will benefit you greatly.

Descent

Two options:

• normal route (north-east ridge to Col des Petites Jorasses) (take all glacier gear with you)
• rappel using bolted belays: just before the South Ridge ends at the highest part of the face there are some belay anchors. Take the one with two bolts that is just on the east side of the ridge. A few steep (bolted) rappels take you to the easy angled slope. Find the next bolted rappel not too far from where the Bonatti route ended. Rappel further down the bolted belays that take you to the LEFT side of the Bonatti route when FACING DOWNWARDS. So you are not rappalling on the same route that you climbed. From the last anchor above the glacier a traversing rappel has to be made back to the first belay of the Bonatti (where you probably left your glacier gear). From here it is a short rappel to the glacier.

Very beautiful climb, not crowded, in a wild environment. Bivacco Gervasutti is very well equiped and worth a visit by itself.