The French mountain guides Benjamin Védrines, Nicolas Jean and Julien Cruvellier de Luze are opening a new route through the previously untouched "La Gorge" on the south face of the Barre des Écrins, the southernmost 4000m peak in the Alps: De l'Or en Barre (1000m, M7 , A1, 5+, ED+).
At the end of January, Line van den Berg from the Netherlands and Fay Manners from the UK climbed Phantom Direct in a single push in 31 hours. With this venture, they not only secure the first women-only ascent of the route, also known as 'Via in memoria di Gianni Comino'. They are probably only the fourth rope team to have successfully repeated this route from 1985.
