Courmayeur · Italy

The Grandes Jorasses

The wall at the head of this valley is the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, and in the 1930s it constituted one of the three problems European climbers discussed. Its highest point, the Walker Spur, had repulsed everyone. In August 1938 Riccardo Cassin came from Lecco to attempt it. He had never seen the mountain. He had arrived by train, with two companions and equipment from home. He walked up to observe it for two days, then climbed it in three with Ugo Tizzoni and Gino Esposito, emerging in a storm. Cassin was a factory worker who had learned on the limestone slabs above his own town. He did not belong to the world of guided expeditions and alpine clubs, and the line he opened on his first visit remains the classic route on the face.

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What were the three problems?

The north faces of the Eiger, the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses. All three were climbed in the 1930s, within a few years of each other, mostly by people from outside the old alpine establishment.

Who was Cassin?

A man from Lecco who went to work as a boy and learned to climb on the Grigna above the town. Before the Jorasses he had done the Cima Ovest and the north-east face of the Piz Badile. He later made climbing equipment, and he lived to a hundred.

Can you see the face from here?

Yes. From the floor of Val Ferret the whole wall stands above you, and the Walker Spur is the pillar dropping from the highest point on the ridge. The light is best in the morning.

Where it is

Planpincieux, Val Ferret, 11013 Courmayeur · 45.83151, 6.98478 · Open in Maps

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