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After have climbed Cache Cache yesterday, Pascal and I went to the SW Face of gendarme rouge of Aiguille du Peigne (3078m) to climb Le Maillon Manquant a 400m route graded ED-, 6b+/A0. I must say that after the amazing pitches of Cache Cache, I was a bit disapointed by Le Maillon Manquant. There are some nice pitches too but the route is a bit weird, going through slabs where there are nice cracks a couple of meters left or right, not to mention pulling the bolts of the 6b+/A0 pitch…

Aiguille du Peigne - Le Maillon Manquant (© P. Gatta)
Aiguille du Peigne – Le Maillon Manquant (© P. Gatta)

We took the first cable car to plan de l’Aiguille and reached the bottom of of the route in 45 minutes. Crossing the glacier (through the right) was fine but required the crampons and ice axe.

Le Maillon Manquant: 1st pitch (© P. Gatta)
First pitch (© P. Gatta)

Grades: 5, 5b, 5c, 5a, 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6a, 6a, 6a, 6b+/A0, 6a+, 5c.

Le Maillon Manquant: 3rd pitch (© P. Gatta)
3rd pitch of the route (© P. Gatta)

Le Maillon Manquant: 1st half (© P. Gatta)
1st half of the route (© P. Gatta)

Le Maillon Manquant: the route goes tot he right (© P. Gatta)
The route goes tot he right (© P. Gatta)

We climbed the route in 5h30 (knowing the route), rappelled down in 1h30 and went back to Plan de l’Aiguille Midi to catch the last cable car.

Rappelling down (© P. Gatta)
Rappelling down (© P. Gatta)

Frendo spur seen from Peigne (© P. Gatta)
Frendo spur seen from Peigne (© P. Gatta)