Un triplé légendaire: Face au large (7a) at Aguilles Dorées

We had already received a glimpse of Face au large during our abseil descent after climbing the beautiful Et je suis le vent. The rock and the line looked fantastic and we were stoked to come back to Face au large on the next day. The start at the base is close to Et je suis le vent so that we could leave all gear up there and approach light the next morning leaving at 7:00 o'clock.

Our discussions before the climb mainly revolved around the second and third pitches (6c & 7a) and we hoped it wouldn't be too much of a tough start.

L1 IV

Nice start in good rock along easy ramps & corners. Look out for a single glue-in ring up to the right.

L2 6a+

Take a left at the layback-flake with some beefy moves and follow the widening crack. Eventually traverse left along a juggy crack with poor feet.

L3 6c (55m!)

Long and sustained slab pitch on a face structured with knobs, dents, edges & small cracks. I think most 50m ropes will barely be long enough to cover this pitch, but at least the start is not very difficult. Keep an eye on rope drag, though. Due to its sustained length you also find a generous total of 7 bolts - but bring your gear along as several parts are still clean. The difficult moves are mostly on small crystals and rough smears which gave it a quite secure feeling. The upper half with less bolts needs a bit of intuition and faith as the belay comes into sight only quite late.

L4 7a (6c 1 p.a.)

After having negotiated the 6c slab quite well we were curious whether we could keep the momentum. From the area I knew the 7a cruxes of La chevauchée fantastique and Le retour en Afrique and both were quite hard to free climb for me. While the first involves pumpy thin hands, the latter tested an unintuitive boulder sequence. Here the case is clearly a single section right after the belay, namely a mantle over a small roof. The protection is very generous and even facilitates aiding the crux if necessary. The possibility to visually check out the holds above the roof helps quite a bit to make a free climbing plan. We both thought the difficulty of the actual move(s) was quite friendly maybe also because this kind of move is common in today's bouldering gyms. But after the initial crux the pitch is far but over - more interesting challenges wait like getting into some high underclings, a funny stemming & jamming corner, a bouldery prow...don't let the last bolt lure you into the desparately looking slab, but rather enjoy the detour via a crack to the right and a nice ramp up to the belay.

L5 6a+

The first protection is a thread through a peculiar granite tunnel. It protects the crux which is a delicate traverse & reach for the shallow cracks to the far left. Might be a bit morpho and even when you are 1.85m it doesn't feel entirely safe. Once in the wide shallow cracks it gets a bit easier but never quite easy. Lastly exit into easier terrain, passing the belay of an other route (expansion bolts, not glue in!) and reach the 1st Pointe.

Short rappel (5m) & scramble to the base of the headwall. Look out for a single glue-in bolt at a comfortable stance.

L6 6b+

The terrain features many steps in good rock and allows for swift progress. The crux is a section of spreading and we thought it was pretty soft for the grade (given your legs are long enough).

L7 6b+

A big flake gets you closer to the headwall where the crux consists of getting around and up a nice prow protected by a single bolt.

L8 6c

While the last two pitches felt a bit more like approach climbing (yet very nice!) the next pitch means business again. It's long (45m), it's sustained and clean up to one bolt for the layback crux at the end. But the climbing along splitter cracks & corners in the marble rock is amazing and often allows for good rests. Towards the end the climbing gets increasingly steeper and more athletic, but the frequent jugs make it really fun. Even though it was a bit more physical I still tought it was quite fair for the grade.

L9 6c

The terrain remains steep and impressive - with a sleek turn left at the start (bolt is not visible, don't go right into the chossy corner) and some moves in well structured rock you soon reach the crux: a smooth section separating you from the juggy corner. It's remarkable how the rock produced two decent edges in the necessary position to negotiate the otherwise completely blank face. Nevertheless, getting in the correct position (and hand sequence...) needs a bit of tinkering, otherwise the absolute lack of feet might get the better of you. Once the karate-kick to the other side of the corner is done you are rewarded with a plaisir finish in generously structured rock.

L10 6a

This pitch seamlessly continues in the amazingly structured face and even offers a corner for support. Higher up I wondered a bit if the line takes the chimney on the left or goes out to the face on the right. Eventually, I chose the chimney, but I guess the face might work, too. The belay is shared with Et je suis le vent.

L11 5b+

For the summit pitch, Face au large tackles a long system of crumbly pinch cracks in a corner to the right. The grain texture is quite rough and some of it might actually come loose. Not entirely trivial for the grade and some of the flakes are quite thin. While it's not the creme de la creme we thought it was still entertaining climbing.

We had taken about 7:30h to reach the top - quite a journey, but we made sure to let every meter of this marvellous route sink in! :)

This time we decided to rappel Eole, because the upper pitches of Face au large seem quite risky to get your rope stuck (even though it worked smoothly the day before!). Well, we got our rope stuck for good on L9 of Eole (like many apparently) and needed to do a bit more climbing to resolve the situation. Including this little mishap we took 1:30 h for the rappel and finally came back to the bivi at 18:50 o'clock.

Our verdict is clear: Face au large is a majeur route and not to be missed by any clean climbing aficionado with a good command of difficulties around 6b. The protection with bolts in the compact sections is very fair while the rest let's you easily implement two racks. The grading tends to be on the mild side with no desparate or aleatoric sections. The start at 6c/7a might seem daunting but in particular the 7a crux in L3 is quite accessible and even though the 6c slab in L2 is long and homogenous there are no Hudini moves to go gray about (whatever that means).