Etat de Choc - 250m 7a (6c obb.) - Petit Clocher du Portalet
Years ago, a photograph in Alp Grandi Montagne caught my attention. It showed a tiny climber working his way up a corner that looked as though someone had split a granite monolith perfectly in two. In the bottom right corner, a caption read: “You don’t need to go to Yosemite to climb cracks. Come to the Petit Clocher du Portalet.”
Only years later did I discover that this perfect corner belonged to État de Choc, a route established by the Rémy brothers. It shoots straight up the steep north face of the Petit Clocher du Portalet, a granite monolith tucked into the Swiss side of the Mont Blanc massif.
The route begins with three pitches up to 6b+ that could almost be described as an approach to the main event. They climb the lower buttress of the pillar and offer enjoyable climbing, but only a hint of the quality waiting above.
Pitch four is a near perfect splitter hand crack, finishing in a chimney where you belay. This is where the route really starts to deliver.
Then comes the monster pitch. It begins inside a squeeze chimney so tight that you can barely turn your head. Before it narrows even further, the way out is to the right, onto the face, where good holds lead to a long offwidth crack. From here, you can either put your wide crack technique to work or commit to an exhausting layback. Neither option looks particularly restful.
Although easier on paper at 6c, pitch six makes you work for it too. A slightly overhanging offwidth leads to the top of a small tower, where two perfect parallel cracks take over and lead to the belay.
There is still one more hard pitch to go. Once again, it starts with an offwidth climbed as a layback, followed by a stiff boulder problem on small edges. Fortunately, a well placed bolt protects the crux.
A word of advice for anyone planning a repeat: choose a warm summer day, ideally with the freezing level close to 4,000 metres, unless you fancy spending the whole day climbing in your down jacket. This north face can feel very cold.
And don’t expect to have it to yourself. The face, and this route in particular, have become extremely popular in recent years, so queues are a real possibility. If your schedule allows it, I would definitely aim for a weekday.
Pitch Summary: 6b+, 6b+, 6b+, 6c, 7a, 6c, 7a, 6b+, 4c
Gear: 60m ropes, 2 rack of cams (3 if you do not feel confident on this kind of climbing) up to 3 BD, one 4 BD and even a 5 BD could be helpful
For more info: Svizzera, Versante Sud