New 500-metre Alpine Climb Goes at M10 Trad
Leo Billon and Enzo Oddo spent two nights making the first ascent of this test-piece where they aided one pitch at A4 before freeing it at M10
French climbers Leo Billon and Enzo Oddo have made the first ascent of Les Barbares 3 on Pointes Supérieures de Pré de Bar in the Mont Blanc massif above Chamonix. They graded their 500-metre alpine route M10 – which makes it one of the most difficult lines of its kind in that grade range.
Billon and Oddo climbed every pitch free using only trad gear and did not even bring a bolt kit. They spent two nights on the wall before taking the route to the summit under snowy skies.
“I would say that this is a really different route from anything I have done so far, especially because of the M10 crux pitch,” Billon said on Planet Mountain. “We first climbed it using aid before being able to free climb it. This is a very difficult pitch, and we resorted to serious A4 aid while establishing it. Climbed free, it is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done in mixed climbing: not only is it far ahead of anything I have been able to do in terms of technical difficulty, but it also requires serious commitment, as we climbed on aid pro—essentially bad bird beaks—for the last 15 meters.”
This is the second hard new route that Billon has climbed in the range. Earlier in February, he and Amaury Fouillade made the first ascent of Les Barbares 2, a 500-metre M8/M8+ – read more about it here.
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