Val Ferret - Venus
By Jess Forster
Venus is almost certainly the best alpine rock route I have climbed – 350m of magnificent granite slabs, technical face climbing and steep juggy reaches, and is tucked away at the far end of Val Ferret, a beautiful mountain-shrouded alpine valley. From a distance, the rock face looks altogether rather unimpressive, just a vague lump in a sea of vast rocky and snowy mountains. But up close up it’s character changes: the granite seems to shoot up from the ground and soar skywards, perspective becomes distorted and the face could be anything from 300m to 800m tall.
My husband, Jonny, and I had heard about the climb from three people. A French pair climbing in the Chamonix valley, the man running the campsite where we were staying and friends we had made earlier on our trip. It seemed this was the route to seek out and climb. The route seemed accessible for us as we had been happily climbing the grade (6a/6b+) for a while and we knew that if we were struggling we could aid the crux move (6b+) using a nearby bolt.
The climb is located in the Val Ferret, which shoots off from the huge Val d’Aosta stretching away from the Mont Blanc Massif on the Italian side. The town at the head of the valley is Courmayeur, a bustling hub of tourists eating delicious gelato and buying €500 designer dog coats! The two valleys stretching away each side are quiet green paradises, holding only a fraction of the number of walkers, climbers and tourists as the Chamonix valley not far away. Val Ferret runs from Courmayeur northeastwards along the edge of the Mont Blanc Massif.
Although the valley is quiet relative to its neighbour, Chamonix, Venus is one of the sort-after routes in the area and we knew we would share our route with a few other teams. Having caught the first bus to the end of the valley we set off walking to the base of the route with four or five teams of climbers. As we got nearer to the route, a few teams split off to go and climb GenepÌ Due, another local classic. We carried on with the remaining two teams until it was clear we were the only ones who knew the approach to the base of the route. The other four climbers eventually asked if we were going to the same climb as them and so we lead the way. One pair shot ahead and managed to set up their kit first, one of the pair was clearly a guide who definitely wasn’t going to be holding us up (in fact we then tasked ourselves to keep up with him for as long as possible). We were having a slightly awkward silent battle with the other couple as to who could get their ropes set out next. In the end it didn’t matter as they climbed an alternative first pitch that took them much longer.
There are three routes fairly close together in the lower section, with a few shared belays so it’s easy to end up doing a mix of different climbs. All the grades are fairly similar and all the rock is superb so we weren’t worried too much about ending up on the wrong line for a pitch or two. This helped to give us and the other two teams a bit of space on the first few pitches, before we spread out (we couldn’t keep up with the guide after the fifth pitch...damn).
We ended up climbing the first pitch of Ahi Ahi Ahi, the route to the left of Venus, which turned out to be a brilliant mistake as the climbing was incredible and one of the best pitches on the route (some guidebooks give this as the first pitch of Venus – a good decision!). It started up a large flake requiring big moves on big holds and finished on small crimps up a steep wall. We found it much easier than it looked and super fun to climb.
The next few pitches followed a series of mid-angled slabs broken up by interesting steep steps requiring enjoyable but slightly awkward moves and the odd high foot. If, like us, you’re at one with gritstone slabs you can easily totter up quickly. The climbing continues with increasing steepness and meets a ledge just under half way.
After scrambling across the scree and grass covered ledge, we arrived at the base of the crux pitch, one of the last slab sections before it gets pretty steep and heads off to the side. We traversed upwards towards a vague line of ripples in the granite that make up the two crux moves of the pitch. Using these tiny hand and foot holds you delicately move up to a large jug. If the moves are feeling a little too precarious, the move can be aided using the nearby bolt.
As the rock started steepening up and I thought ‘oh crap, are we going up there?’ we headed rightwards into a large groove. We were swinging leads and as someone who does not like climbing anything steep and imposing looking, I had previously worked out that Jonny was going to get the first of the steep pitches – turns out they were all actually fine (as they always are in the end), and really enjoyable to climb. Big holds and funky moves actually meant that the first steep pitch was one that has stayed in my mind as being one of the great ones of the route.
The last pitch wandered up a low angled grassy slope with the occasional bolted rock (not really climbing) and took us up to a small cairn where we sat and had lunch in the baking sun. The climbers in front of us were just about to head down when we got to the top so we had the place to ourselves. As normal we had worried about whether we could climb fast enough to get back down to the road for the last bus so had tried to climb fast. It turned out that we had finished climbing within three and a half hours and were back down at the bus by 3 o’clock having enjoyed every minute of our outing.
Overall, the grades are pretty accessible and because the descent involves abseiling back down the route it’s not too committing. Venus is a great route and I would recommend you put it on your list if you’re heading out to the Alps.
