Courmayeur · Italy
The Aiguille Blanche
Of all the four-thousanders in the Alps, this is the one that costs most to reach. The Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey, 4,112 metres, presents no easy side: from whichever direction one comes, serious ground must be climbed and then descended again, because there is no ordinary route and no comfortable descent. It stands in the middle of the Peuterey ridge, wedged between the Aiguille Noire and Mont Blanc, and those who climb it do not as a rule stop there: it forms part of a longer undertaking. The first ascent was in 1885, with Emile Rey of Courmayeur among the guides. For many climbers it remains the four-thousander missing from the list, not because it is the highest or the most celebrated, but because it is the one not accomplished by accident.
Go deeper
What makes a summit hard?
Almost never the height. What counts is the approach, the steepness, the quality of the rock, the ice, and above all how hard it is to return. A summit with an easy descent forgives a lot of mistakes; one without forgives none.
Can you see it from the valley?
Partly, from Val Veny, as a pale summit behind the dark point of the Aiguille Noire. The contrast between the two is what named them both: one white and one black, on the same ridge, close together.
Who was Emile Rey?
The most sought-after guide in Courmayeur at the end of the nineteenth century, born in a hamlet above the village. He died ten years after this climb, slipping on the way down from the Dent du Géant on ground anyone would have called safe.
Where it is
More stories in Courmayeur
- The Aiguille Noire
- Duke of the Abruzzi Alpine Museum
- The Brenva Spur
- The Guides' House
- Church of Saint Pantaléon
- The quiet col
- The Col de la Seigne
- Saussure on the Col du Géant