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CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW THE FULL PRINTOn top of the Aiguille du Fou, John Harlin was captivated by a display in the sky:
“We at last pulled ourselves onto the summit slabs. Here the summit of the Fou looked in the sun and the towering cumulus all around at our level reminded one of many similar moments while flying. However, here one could actually feel elements and be part of them. These sculptured forms even made mockery of our Fou. The south face of the Fou, perhaps the hardest climb in the western Alps, yet it could not compare with the sky above, filled with cracks and chimneys of translucent vapor with crystals in hand.” (John Harlin, AAJ 1964) From this summit floating in the clouds, high above the Vallée Blanche and dangling in space above Les Grandes Jorasses, John obliged me by stepping out for a best-ever summit photograph.
The summit is at 3501 m and the wall itself is no more than 300 m, but it is of extreme difficulty, a difficulty due to its configuration as much as to its unusual structure. All the other walls in the range are seamed with couloirs, lined with arêtes, and with granite slabs, but the Fou is unique in having a smooth vertical surface of pure red granite; it is bounded by four straight, pure lines, and right up the centre is the route.
The most outstanding achievement of those who first climbed it, remarkable American climbers very well trained on granite and in the Mont Blanc range, was that they were sensitive to the beauty and purity of the climb, and that they were able to preserve that beauty. It gives a quite extraordinary impression.
In 1962 Yvon Chouinard predicted: “Yosemite Valley will, in the near future, be the training ground for a new generation of super-alpinists who will venture forth to new heights in the Alps and the Andes. As the big and difficult walls on the face of El Capitan are climbed, a new style will emerge, and Yosemite will be the proving ground for a new generation.” (AAJ 1963)
HARLIN ATOP THE FOU, after the ascent of the South Face, Chamonix Aiguilles, Mont Blanc Massif, Chamonix, France, by John Harlin, Gary Hemming, Stewart Fulton, and Tom Frost, July 1963. The Grandes Jorasses beyond.
Photo: Tom Frost
CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW THE FULL PRINTOn top of the Aiguille du Fou, John Harlin was captivated by a display in the sky:
“We at last pulled ourselves onto the summit slabs. Here the summit of the Fou looked in the sun and the towering cumulus all around at our level reminded one of many similar moments while flying. However, here one could actually feel elements and be part of them. These sculptured forms even made mockery of our Fou. The south face of the Fou, perhaps the hardest climb in the western Alps, yet it could not compare with the sky above, filled with cracks and chimneys of translucent vapor with crystals in hand.” (John Harlin, AAJ 1964) From this summit floating in the clouds, high above the Vallée Blanche and dangling in space above Les Grandes Jorasses, John obliged me by stepping out for a best-ever summit photograph.
The summit is at 3501 m and the wall itself is no more than 300 m, but it is of extreme difficulty, a difficulty due to its configuration as much as to its unusual structure. All the other walls in the range are seamed with couloirs, lined with arêtes, and with granite slabs, but the Fou is unique in having a smooth vertical surface of pure red granite; it is bounded by four straight, pure lines, and right up the centre is the route.
The most outstanding achievement of those who first climbed it, remarkable American climbers very well trained on granite and in the Mont Blanc range, was that they were sensitive to the beauty and purity of the climb, and that they were able to preserve that beauty. It gives a quite extraordinary impression.
In 1962 Yvon Chouinard predicted: “Yosemite Valley will, in the near future, be the training ground for a new generation of super-alpinists who will venture forth to new heights in the Alps and the Andes. As the big and difficult walls on the face of El Capitan are climbed, a new style will emerge, and Yosemite will be the proving ground for a new generation.” (AAJ 1963)
HARLIN ATOP THE FOU, after the ascent of the South Face, Chamonix Aiguilles, Mont Blanc Massif, Chamonix, France, by John Harlin, Gary Hemming, Stewart Fulton, and Tom Frost, July 1963. The Grandes Jorasses beyond.
Photo: Tom Frost