Another fine bit of alpine history, but this time with a bit of sculdugery thrown in... And then your link to the TVMountain video of an actual ascent of the pillar is an excellent illustration of it all - including of the infamous crux pitch where Whillans (famously) fell off and lost 'is 'at - with his cigarettes stuck in the brim. Any normal person after such a fall would be traumatised and in need of deep therapy for months - but Whillans could only rage about losing his fags!
After the Freney climbing video it isn't hard to follow the link further to your video interview of Chris Bonnington - where he describes the climb.
Thanks for this excellent post - I hope many others enjoy it as much as I have.
Best wishes, Mark
Thanks Mark. I have added the link to Chris's interview you pointed out as well as another more general interview of Chris made by Jean Afanassieff at my place. As I told you when we saw each other in Chamonix, Chris was not keen to have that old 'story' with all its controversy come up again 50 years after, but being French and as the offence was made by compatriots, I felt adamantly that I had to put the story right once and for all and I am very glad to have done it. Best
merci, n'en jette plus, tu vas me noyer ! Tout ça c'est des histoires de vieux retraités pour essayer de faire croire (en vain) aux jeunes que nous aussi on a eu notre temps, bien que je suis sûr qu'ils n'en reviennent pas de voir à quel point nous étions nuls pour faire autant de bivouacs dans des voies pour eux aussi faciles, qu'ils parcourent en moins temps que j'écris cette réponse !
Comme le disait Mummery :
It has frequently been noticed that all mountains appear doomed to pass through the three stages: An inaccessible peak - The most difficult ascent in the Alps - An easy day for a lady.
Dommage pour nous les 'vieux' schnocks, mais quel plaisir de voir tous ces jeunes qui renouvellent sans arrêt ces mondes extraordinaires que sont l'alpinisme et l'escalade.
Ceci dit, comme l'a déclaré l'américain Mark Richey en recevant son piolet d'or l'année dernière à Courmayeur : 'We may be old but we ain't done yet' (lui a 54 ans et son copain Steve Swenson 58)
Glad you liked it. The video is superb. David Autheman is a Chamonix guide, a very good one, so the other guides with him on this climb, friends of mine. David has a superb site dedicated to Mountaineering - TVMOUNTAIN - with many other films he made on great classic climbs of the Mont Blanc range. I did have to cut my article a bit to make it readable so I took out a little detail which could interest American climbers. Gary Hemming and John Harlin went up the Freney glacier just before Desmaison and put up their tent on it. But in fact they had nothing to do with the Freney 'race'. In the following days they rescued a party of climbers in the vicinity. As I write this response from an hospital bed (I just had yesterday my second hip changed) I do not have the details but you and summitpost have helped me forget the hospital for a while. Thanks
Many thanks Eric for this article claryfing the events occurred during the II ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney...yes i truly do mean the SECOND ASCENT, because the moral winners of this route were Walter Bonatti, Pierre Mazeud and other pals stopped by the snow-storm below the Chandelle four weeks before. The facts you're reporting in the article are really nearby to reach the 100% of the true, i think, but i'm sure that only the taking part people does know the smallest particulars of what occurred in that ascent which was for someone without glory.
I wish you a quick recovery. All the best.
Silvia
Dear Silvia,
I suppose that you feel that way because Walter as Pierre did react strongly against the '1rst ascensionits' stating that they had trodden on the dead bodies of their friends and didn't respect their wish to do the 1rst ascent together as soon as Pierre would have cured from his frostbites! This is a humane reaction similar to that of Walter and Pierre at the time. But you must know that Pierre's reaction was the strongest and first against Pierre Julien and Ignacio Piussi who made an attempt one week after the drama and he did so because he knew them.
Then when 4 weeks after the 1rst ascent was finally done, Pierre had very strong words against particularly Desmaison, Julien, Piussi, Pollet-Villard because they knew each others well, particularly Desmaison with whom Pierre had done 2 years before a 1rst ascent on the left of the Branler Hasse on Cima Ovest, an aided climb as difficult but which did not become a classic as the Brandler Hasse. You see, they were close climbing friends and from close friends you expect some minimum 'attention' to say the least. Imagine that René never even bothered to warn Pierre, his supposed pal, of his attempt. Never did Pierre and Walter blamed Chris Bonington-Don Whillans party but Desmaison, Pollet-Villard, Michel Julien and most particularly for Walter, Ignazio Piussi.
Chris and his pals did not know Walter and Pierre personnally though they were of course admirative of the conqueror of the 'Bonatti pillar' and they were totally unaware of Walter and Pierre' to have asked other climbers to let them do another attempt in 'memoriam' of their dead friends.
To make my article short, I have not published the full correspondence from Pierre Mazeaud to Lucien Devies accusing Desmaison in the strongest terms and giving to Chris and Don's party all the benefit of the 1rst ascent with not harsh feeling against them whatsoever. Pierre knew very well who the 'liars' were. Note that Mazeaud was so adamant against Desmaison and Lucien Devies's attitude that he resigned from the CAF (the French Alpine Club whose president was Devies).
Pierre knew well that he could not expect from climbers who he had no acquaintance with, the same from friends (and for Walter it was particularly so with Ignacio Piussi). Also you must know that never did Walter nor Pierre (even today for Pierre) did claim that they made the first ascent. But you can say that they opened the route as Raymond Lambert and Tenzing did in 1952 to Hillary and Tenzing on Everest, to select one example.
I can add that Pierre's frostbites took longer than expected to cure meaning that the season was finished for him. Why would young and talented climbers wait much loger (but if they were friends of Walter and Pierre). Mountains luckily belong to no one even after they have been climbed. It took Pierre quite a number of years but finally he forgave Desmaison to remember only the good times he had with him.
Also, note that Chris did not agree easily to let me publish this article in the ACJ, as he never liked controversies and because the greatest culprit, Desmaison, is dead and cannot respond. It is only when I realized that Desmaison's lies on this 1rst ascent were still being taken as the truth worldwide but England that being French I felt I had to repair the wrong done to the British-Pole party.
Of course Chris today will agree with you that with his friends he shared the 1rst ascent with Walter and Pierre at least 'morally' as you state. For Chris, climbing is all about pleasure, challenge of course, but foremost friendship. This was not the case with Desmaison and it was not to be the only time when he would lie about a first ascent. You see being one the 'toughest' mountaineer of the time in France did not mean that he was not a sickly ambitious and egotist man.
Another little thing I can add is that 2 years ago I spoke to a Italian friend of Ignazio Piussi and when speaking about this event he told me that Ignazio did not want to speak about the Freney affair so bad he felt about it. I guess that having been pushed by Desmaison to sign an erroneous statement was heavy on his conscience.
Finally remember also one thing, they all were young men and you couldn't expect too much wisdom from them. They were ambitious, wanted to solve to their benefit 'this last great problem in the Alps'. One thing for sure, they all loved climbing, at least a thing they all shared.
Best
Note: For long I thought great climbers never lied because the ones who were my friends never did. Although unfrequent luckily, I am afraid that this is not always quite so. At some stage I will write an article on the true first ascent of Mont Blanc. In France for 226 years all the benefit of this 1rst ascent was given to Jacques Balmat, though one British climber, Leslie Stephen restored the truth (published in the ACJ in 1920) and I believe also one German and one Austrian at about the same time. Their historical work were fully ignored in France until the publication to come shortly about the first ascents on the Mont Blanc range summits until 1901 by the first ascencionists to which I participated for the ascent of Mont Blanc. It makes a very amazing story particularly when you know that Alexandre Dumas our great French author was instrumental in the propagation of Balmat's lies. But this is another story
Dear Eric,
you have quite interpreted my deepest feeling about those facts; I thank you heartily for these other informations about a piece of mountaineering history which had always interested me. I didn’t know what the italian press wrote about the “Affaire Freney” at time, because of in 1961 I was a little children; but i never found anything about it neither in more recent times. I only had read the report published by Walter on his book “I giorni grandi” (The great days) and a good book a bit romanticized written by Marco Ferrari and entitled “Freney 1961”. I think you know Walter spent during four decennia a lot of his endless energies trying to establish the true about the well-known national “Affaire K2”, a question which had hardly troubled him during his life, surely much more than the “Affaire Freney”. Also by writing some different books about this ticklish matter, till 1994, the 50 th anniversary of the ascent, in which year a wise men’s council finally clarifyed the question, but not in the full way Walter had expected.
About the question of climbers’ falsehood, I’m an idealist, deeply also you are so, Eric, I think, and you showed it writing this article! But during the years we had learned we can’t always expect quite so from all the other climbers. This is quite sad, but I think we have to carry on our way without worrying. I’m well informed about the first lie in the history, the first ascent to Mont Blanc, this matter made the object of an article I wrote some years ago and I wish to translate it and submit here on SP as soon as possible.
All the best.
silvia
I can help you eventually with your Mont Blanc 1rst ascent story but we better restore to private mail from now on as this has nothing to do with the 'Freney Affair'!
A last little anecdote for someone who liked Walter:
During their night at the Col de la Fourche bivvy, Chris and his companions saw at 23h30 a nice looking man wearing a helmet enter. Sure of himself he goes to the log book which they had filled a few hours before with the mention:' Freney pillar?' He looks at them, writes his own route and goes out. They rushed to the log book and discovered that it was Bonatti with a customer going to the Brenva spur. When 2 hours later they will start, they will see the front lights of Walter and his customer high up on the Brenva spur.
Thanks for pointing it out. I corrected the mistake in this article which was made in all French and British reports/texts, including my friend Chris Bonington.
markhallam - Dec 1, 2012 4:13 pm - Voted 10/10
Bravo (again) Eric!Another fine bit of alpine history, but this time with a bit of sculdugery thrown in... And then your link to the TVMountain video of an actual ascent of the pillar is an excellent illustration of it all - including of the infamous crux pitch where Whillans (famously) fell off and lost 'is 'at - with his cigarettes stuck in the brim. Any normal person after such a fall would be traumatised and in need of deep therapy for months - but Whillans could only rage about losing his fags!
After the Freney climbing video it isn't hard to follow the link further to your video interview of Chris Bonnington - where he describes the climb.
Thanks for this excellent post - I hope many others enjoy it as much as I have.
Best wishes, Mark
ericvola - Dec 1, 2012 5:40 pm - Hasn't voted
Bravo (again)Thanks Mark. I have added the link to Chris's interview you pointed out as well as another more general interview of Chris made by Jean Afanassieff at my place. As I told you when we saw each other in Chamonix, Chris was not keen to have that old 'story' with all its controversy come up again 50 years after, but being French and as the offence was made by compatriots, I felt adamantly that I had to put the story right once and for all and I am very glad to have done it. Best
macintosh - Dec 2, 2012 5:44 am - Voted 10/10
Re: Bravo (again)Je serai toujours étonné par ton érudition sur le monde de la montagne. Merci, Eric !
ericvola - Dec 2, 2012 8:56 am - Hasn't voted
Re:Bravo (again)merci, n'en jette plus, tu vas me noyer ! Tout ça c'est des histoires de vieux retraités pour essayer de faire croire (en vain) aux jeunes que nous aussi on a eu notre temps, bien que je suis sûr qu'ils n'en reviennent pas de voir à quel point nous étions nuls pour faire autant de bivouacs dans des voies pour eux aussi faciles, qu'ils parcourent en moins temps que j'écris cette réponse !
Comme le disait Mummery :
It has frequently been noticed that all mountains appear doomed to pass through the three stages: An inaccessible peak - The most difficult ascent in the Alps - An easy day for a lady.
Dommage pour nous les 'vieux' schnocks, mais quel plaisir de voir tous ces jeunes qui renouvellent sans arrêt ces mondes extraordinaires que sont l'alpinisme et l'escalade.
Ceci dit, comme l'a déclaré l'américain Mark Richey en recevant son piolet d'or l'année dernière à Courmayeur : 'We may be old but we ain't done yet' (lui a 54 ans et son copain Steve Swenson 58)
dadndave - Dec 10, 2012 2:07 am - Voted 10/10
ExcellentA very interesting article, Eric. I'll save the climbing video for this evening.
ericvola - Dec 11, 2012 1:49 am - Hasn't voted
ExcellentGlad you liked it. The video is superb. David Autheman is a Chamonix guide, a very good one, so the other guides with him on this climb, friends of mine. David has a superb site dedicated to Mountaineering - TVMOUNTAIN - with many other films he made on great classic climbs of the Mont Blanc range. I did have to cut my article a bit to make it readable so I took out a little detail which could interest American climbers. Gary Hemming and John Harlin went up the Freney glacier just before Desmaison and put up their tent on it. But in fact they had nothing to do with the Freney 'race'. In the following days they rescued a party of climbers in the vicinity. As I write this response from an hospital bed (I just had yesterday my second hip changed) I do not have the details but you and summitpost have helped me forget the hospital for a while. Thanks
Silvia Mazzani - Dec 11, 2012 12:20 pm - Voted 10/10
A very interesting articleMany thanks Eric for this article claryfing the events occurred during the II ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney...yes i truly do mean the SECOND ASCENT, because the moral winners of this route were Walter Bonatti, Pierre Mazeud and other pals stopped by the snow-storm below the Chandelle four weeks before. The facts you're reporting in the article are really nearby to reach the 100% of the true, i think, but i'm sure that only the taking part people does know the smallest particulars of what occurred in that ascent which was for someone without glory.
I wish you a quick recovery. All the best.
Silvia
ericvola - Dec 12, 2012 2:08 am - Hasn't voted
a very interesting articleDear Silvia,
I suppose that you feel that way because Walter as Pierre did react strongly against the '1rst ascensionits' stating that they had trodden on the dead bodies of their friends and didn't respect their wish to do the 1rst ascent together as soon as Pierre would have cured from his frostbites! This is a humane reaction similar to that of Walter and Pierre at the time. But you must know that Pierre's reaction was the strongest and first against Pierre Julien and Ignacio Piussi who made an attempt one week after the drama and he did so because he knew them.
Then when 4 weeks after the 1rst ascent was finally done, Pierre had very strong words against particularly Desmaison, Julien, Piussi, Pollet-Villard because they knew each others well, particularly Desmaison with whom Pierre had done 2 years before a 1rst ascent on the left of the Branler Hasse on Cima Ovest, an aided climb as difficult but which did not become a classic as the Brandler Hasse. You see, they were close climbing friends and from close friends you expect some minimum 'attention' to say the least. Imagine that René never even bothered to warn Pierre, his supposed pal, of his attempt. Never did Pierre and Walter blamed Chris Bonington-Don Whillans party but Desmaison, Pollet-Villard, Michel Julien and most particularly for Walter, Ignazio Piussi.
Chris and his pals did not know Walter and Pierre personnally though they were of course admirative of the conqueror of the 'Bonatti pillar' and they were totally unaware of Walter and Pierre' to have asked other climbers to let them do another attempt in 'memoriam' of their dead friends.
To make my article short, I have not published the full correspondence from Pierre Mazeaud to Lucien Devies accusing Desmaison in the strongest terms and giving to Chris and Don's party all the benefit of the 1rst ascent with not harsh feeling against them whatsoever. Pierre knew very well who the 'liars' were. Note that Mazeaud was so adamant against Desmaison and Lucien Devies's attitude that he resigned from the CAF (the French Alpine Club whose president was Devies).
Pierre knew well that he could not expect from climbers who he had no acquaintance with, the same from friends (and for Walter it was particularly so with Ignacio Piussi). Also you must know that never did Walter nor Pierre (even today for Pierre) did claim that they made the first ascent. But you can say that they opened the route as Raymond Lambert and Tenzing did in 1952 to Hillary and Tenzing on Everest, to select one example.
I can add that Pierre's frostbites took longer than expected to cure meaning that the season was finished for him. Why would young and talented climbers wait much loger (but if they were friends of Walter and Pierre). Mountains luckily belong to no one even after they have been climbed. It took Pierre quite a number of years but finally he forgave Desmaison to remember only the good times he had with him.
Also, note that Chris did not agree easily to let me publish this article in the ACJ, as he never liked controversies and because the greatest culprit, Desmaison, is dead and cannot respond. It is only when I realized that Desmaison's lies on this 1rst ascent were still being taken as the truth worldwide but England that being French I felt I had to repair the wrong done to the British-Pole party.
Of course Chris today will agree with you that with his friends he shared the 1rst ascent with Walter and Pierre at least 'morally' as you state. For Chris, climbing is all about pleasure, challenge of course, but foremost friendship. This was not the case with Desmaison and it was not to be the only time when he would lie about a first ascent. You see being one the 'toughest' mountaineer of the time in France did not mean that he was not a sickly ambitious and egotist man.
Another little thing I can add is that 2 years ago I spoke to a Italian friend of Ignazio Piussi and when speaking about this event he told me that Ignazio did not want to speak about the Freney affair so bad he felt about it. I guess that having been pushed by Desmaison to sign an erroneous statement was heavy on his conscience.
Finally remember also one thing, they all were young men and you couldn't expect too much wisdom from them. They were ambitious, wanted to solve to their benefit 'this last great problem in the Alps'. One thing for sure, they all loved climbing, at least a thing they all shared.
Best
Note: For long I thought great climbers never lied because the ones who were my friends never did. Although unfrequent luckily, I am afraid that this is not always quite so. At some stage I will write an article on the true first ascent of Mont Blanc. In France for 226 years all the benefit of this 1rst ascent was given to Jacques Balmat, though one British climber, Leslie Stephen restored the truth (published in the ACJ in 1920) and I believe also one German and one Austrian at about the same time. Their historical work were fully ignored in France until the publication to come shortly about the first ascents on the Mont Blanc range summits until 1901 by the first ascencionists to which I participated for the ascent of Mont Blanc. It makes a very amazing story particularly when you know that Alexandre Dumas our great French author was instrumental in the propagation of Balmat's lies. But this is another story
Silvia Mazzani - Dec 13, 2012 11:50 am - Voted 10/10
Re: a very interesting articleDear Eric,
you have quite interpreted my deepest feeling about those facts; I thank you heartily for these other informations about a piece of mountaineering history which had always interested me. I didn’t know what the italian press wrote about the “Affaire Freney” at time, because of in 1961 I was a little children; but i never found anything about it neither in more recent times. I only had read the report published by Walter on his book “I giorni grandi” (The great days) and a good book a bit romanticized written by Marco Ferrari and entitled “Freney 1961”. I think you know Walter spent during four decennia a lot of his endless energies trying to establish the true about the well-known national “Affaire K2”, a question which had hardly troubled him during his life, surely much more than the “Affaire Freney”. Also by writing some different books about this ticklish matter, till 1994, the 50 th anniversary of the ascent, in which year a wise men’s council finally clarifyed the question, but not in the full way Walter had expected.
About the question of climbers’ falsehood, I’m an idealist, deeply also you are so, Eric, I think, and you showed it writing this article! But during the years we had learned we can’t always expect quite so from all the other climbers. This is quite sad, but I think we have to carry on our way without worrying. I’m well informed about the first lie in the history, the first ascent to Mont Blanc, this matter made the object of an article I wrote some years ago and I wish to translate it and submit here on SP as soon as possible.
All the best.
silvia
ericvola - Dec 14, 2012 1:25 pm - Hasn't voted
Re:I can help you eventually with your Mont Blanc 1rst ascent story but we better restore to private mail from now on as this has nothing to do with the 'Freney Affair'!
A last little anecdote for someone who liked Walter:
During their night at the Col de la Fourche bivvy, Chris and his companions saw at 23h30 a nice looking man wearing a helmet enter. Sure of himself he goes to the log book which they had filled a few hours before with the mention:' Freney pillar?' He looks at them, writes his own route and goes out. They rushed to the log book and discovered that it was Bonatti with a customer going to the Brenva spur. When 2 hours later they will start, they will see the front lights of Walter and his customer high up on the Brenva spur.
Best
Silvia Mazzani - Dec 14, 2012 3:03 pm - Voted 10/10
Re: Re:A curious anecdote well lighting up about the stuff Walter had. I agree and i'll get in touch with you via PM.
silvia
yatsek - Jul 12, 2015 6:07 pm - Hasn't voted
Not Jan DjugloszBut Jan Długosz.
ericvola - Jul 13, 2015 1:41 am - Hasn't voted
DlugloszThanks for pointing it out. I corrected the mistake in this article which was made in all French and British reports/texts, including my friend Chris Bonington.
David Thompton - Dec 11, 2020 9:17 am - Hasn't voted
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