Courmayeur · Italy

The Brenva Spur

The glacier descending towards this road is the Brenva, and the wall above it is the Italian face of Mont Blanc: some 1,400 metres of ice and rock, with hanging glaciers that break away without warning. One sees them go, and the sound arrives a few seconds later. For most of the nineteenth century climbers observed it and went elsewhere. In July 1865 four British climbers and two Swiss guides, Jakob and Melchior Anderegg, ascended the spur that divides the face. It was Jakob who cut the steps along a blade of ice that has been celebrated ever since. It was the first great ice route in the range, and it demonstrated that this side of the mountain was not closed. They emerged on 15 July. The previous day, beyond the ridge at Zermatt, four men had died descending the Matterhorn. On the Brenva nobody yet knew.

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What happened on the Matterhorn?

On 14 July 1865 Edward Whymper's party made the first ascent, and on the way down a rope broke. Four of the seven fell. It was the end of the decade in which most of the Alps were climbed for the first time.

Is the route still climbed?

Yes. It is called the Old Brenva and it is a classic. But the face has changed: as the ice thins the seracs are less predictable, and people now climb it early and fast, watching upwards.

Did the glacier reach further down?

Much further. In the nineteenth century the Brenva came down almost to the valley floor and in some years dammed the river. That is why the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de la Guérison, a little further along, faces straight at it.

Where it is

Case della Brenva, Val Veny, 11013 Courmayeur · 45.81832, 6.93847 · Open in Maps

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