Note on the History of the Innominata Face of Mont Blanc De Courmayeur

1 34 HISTORY OF THE INNOMINATA FACE them difficult but solved the problem by the most exposed, airy and exhilarating ice-climb I ever did. I reckon sixteen essentially different ways to Mont Blanc. I wish I had done them all ! NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS FIG. 1. This was taken from the inner end of Col Eccles in 1921 during the ascent of Mont Blanc by Eccles' route. Pie Eccles is seen high on the right, and the top of the Aiguille Noite de Peteret just shows over the left flank of the Pie. FIG. 2. This was taken from the lnnominata face in 1919 during a halt at 13.30 on the crest of the branch rib. The skyline shows the Aiguille Blanche de Peteret on the extreme left (a snow cap), with Punta Gugliermina at the right end of what appears to be a level summit ridge but really descends steeply. On the right of the deep gap is the Aiguille Noire de Peteret with the middle section of the Fresney glacier below it. The snow-sprinkled rock mass in the right lower corner is Pie Eccles a bird's eye view. FIG. 3. This was taken at the same time as Fig. 2, with which it joins. Pie Eccles is again seen, in the left lower corner. To the right of it, in the middle of the view, is a n ear part of the branch rib, and above that is seen a bird's view of the Punta lnnominata with the Aiguille Joseph Croux further off to the left. The Fresney glacier is on the left, whilst the Brouil lard glacier fills the right half of the picture. Beyond its snout are dimly · seen the great terminal m oraines of the Miage glacier which there fill the floor of the V al V eni. FIG. 4· This was taken in 1919 from the highest rocks on the main Brouillard ridge at the top of the lnnominata face. The rock mass in the middle distance on.the left is the Eckpfeiter of the Peteret arete of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. The snow cone on the right is the summit of the Aiguille Blanche de Peteret. The dip· between these is the Col de Peteret, beyond which is seen the Brenva glacier in bird's eye view. This photograph of the Col de Peteret is of peculiar interest because it is perhaps the only one ever taken from this near point of view before the massive rockfall of November, 1920 (see A.J. 33. 433), by which the Col de Peteret and the ridge of the Eckpfeiler above it were greatly changed. NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF THE INNOMINATA FACE OF MONT BLANC DE COURMAYEUR By T. GR.t\HAM BROWN* HE paper mentioned in passing by Mr. Courtauld earlier in this number 1 was an attempt to reconstruct the history of the exploration of the climbing ways to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur from the Innominata Basin.2 It dealt only with the earliest phase of * The writer of this footnote is probably not the only reader of this Journal who has found that articles ' by the Editor ' in old volumes, and the necessity of turning to another page to find who he was, were alike aggravating: hence this breach of tradition. Editor. - 1 See p. 129. 2 A.J. 52. 254; A.J. 53.46, 144. • HISTORY OF THE INNOMINATA FACE 1 35 that history the phase which ended in I877, when James Eccles was the first to reach Mont Blanc from the Basin in question. After that pioneer ascent there remained three prime objectives for further efforts : the achievement of John Birkbeck's original project b#y way of the Brouillard arete from Col Emile Rey; the enlargement of Eccles' route by the inclusion of one or more sections of the lower Peteret ridge ; and the direct ascent of the Innominata face of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur. Mr. Courtauld's valuable narrative in the present number of the Journal suggests that this is perhaps an apt place to resume the history of the lnnominata Basin and to try to recover that of the Innominata face. For the sake of completeness, however, it may be convenient first to re capitulate the attempts made on the direct route during the earliest phase of the exploration of the Basin. In I 872, the Marchese Agostino Durazzo started direct from the Cantine de la Visaille and made the first ascent of the Punta Innominata on the lower Innominata ridge, whence the lateness of the hour forced him to turn back.3 In the following year, I873, Girdlestone and Utterson-Kelso started direct from Courmayeur, entered the Basin, avoided the Punta In • nominata by ascending the Brouillard glacier, reached the Col du Fresnay, and had attained a point between that col and Pie Eccles when the lateness of the hour again forced them to retire.4 • The third attempt on the Innominata face was made in I874 by Garth Marshall with Johann Fischer and Ulrich Almer. They bivouacked on the lower part of the South arete of the Punta Innominata, and on the following day, August 3 I, they followed the route taken by Girdlestone and Utterson-Kelso, and continued it to Pie Eccles, then reached for the first time. (With slight variations, this approach was taken by almost all later parties on the face, by those which followed Eccles' route • on the Peteret arete, and by Seymour King and his few 'Successors on the ascent of the Aiguille .Blanche de Peteret from the Col de Peteret.) After traversing the crest of Col Eccles, which joins Pie Eccles to the face, Marshall and his guides reached the rock of the Innominata face for the first time in its history. The direct rib described by Mr. Cour tauld leads up, with three chief steps, to the skyline of the upper and more level part of the Brouillard or South arete of Mont Blanc de Cour mayeur, which the rib reaches at a point distant about one-third of the length of the aforesaid arete from the summit (or about 900 ft.). It may be regarded as certain that Marshall's party climbed the rib more or less over the first and past the second steps, and that it reached the base of the still unclimbed third step. As it was then too late in the day both to seek for a mode of circumvention arid thereafter to win the sum mit, the party retreated in its tracks. When nearing the bivouac after a difficult descent, the party was thrown into a crevasse by the collapse of a wide snowbridge. Almer escaped with his life, but Marsh~! and F ischer were killed. 5 3 See A.J. 52. z6s. 4 See A.J. 53· 51. 5 See A.J. 53. I 44· • HISTORY OF THE INNOMINATE FACE In 1875, Eccles examined the face whilst on his way to the small peak which now bears his name and has been mentioned above. What h.e saw did not encourage him. He was searching for a way up to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur, and he apparently failed to detect the possi bilities of the direct rib which had been attempted by Marshall. 6 In· • the event Eccles selected the way by the upper Peteret arete, on which he succeeded in I 877.7 The Innominata face was not again visited until about forty years after Marshall's attempt (the third in all), but the story of the rebirth of the ' problem ' during· these inactive years is not without interest. Eccles' success in 1877 must have seemed at the time to have settled the wider and primitive problem of the as~ent to Mont Blanc de Cour mayeur from the Innominata Basin, and as such it would serve to blind his contemporaries and immediate followers to other possible routes. Twenty years had passed since Marshall's attempt before the prob lem reappeared briefly but openly in Alpine literature. In his book, 8 Giissfeldt described the view of the face which he had from 'Pointe Jones ' on the Aiguille Blanche de Peteret during his ascent of the Peteret ridge over that summit in 1893 ; and he remarked that the most direct route to Mont Blanc from Val Veni would be up the Brouillard glacier, but that it had not as yet been found possible to climb the cliffs above that glacier. Giissfeldt himself does not appear to have formed any personal project about the Innominata face, and his passing reference seems to have fallen upon stony ground. It was not until 1899 that the direct ~scent of the Innominata face again became a definite personal project which eventually led, many years later, to an actual attempt. The Torino Hut on the Col du Geant w.as about to be opened in that year, and the Turin section of the Italian Alpine Club resolved te make the opening an occasion. Our late member, SignorE~ I. Mazzuchi 9 resolve~ to celebrate the occasion in his own way by ' re-opening ' the ascent of.the Aiguille Noire de Peteret; which had been shunned since the fatal accident to Signor Poggi in 1892. Mazzuchi was greatly impressed and attracted by the view of the Innominata face from that summit, and his expedition aroused interest at the celebrations. One of the latter was a walk across the Little Saint Bernard Pass, and when the party halted to admire the view of the South-east side of Mont Blanc, somebody said : ' An Italian must climb it,' and somebody else, indicating Signor Mazzuchi, said ' Here's our man.' This incident confirmed Mazzuchi's project, which came slowly to fruition, because the Tronchey atete of the Grandes Jorasses also claimed his attention and was his objective in many attempts.

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