Although several months old, two noteworthy, but entirely separate linked ascents in the Alps received almost nothing in the way of publicity until quite recently. The first involved a journey from Les Droites to Mont Blanc; the second from Monte Rosa to the Matterhorn.

Young Chamonix guides, Maxime Belleville and Julien Herry, have made impressive ascents in both the Alps and Nepal. In autumn they made a four-day traverse from Les Droites to Mont Blanc, via a succession of excellent ice/mixed routes.

The pair first climbed the classic Colton-Brooks (Brooks/Colton, 1977: 1,000m: ED1: IV/5 and Mixed) on the North Face of Les Droites but instead of following the upper rightward-slanting ramp to its head, pursued a direct and poorly protected line up thinly iced rock above to create the new variant, Talibans. Reaching the West Summit (3,984m) at 2pm, they descended to the Talèfre Glacier, picked up three days food cached by a friend, and headed directly to the Leschaux Hut, where they spent the night.

Next morning they reached the foot of the right-hand end of the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses, and by the end of the day had climbed to the summit of Pointe Young (3,966m) via variants to the Ivano Ghiradini route, Rêve Ephémerie d'alpinistes (Ghiradini, solo, 1994: 800m: originally ED2: V/5 6a and A2) and then rappelled to the Canzio Bivouac Hut on the Col des Grandes Jorasses.

The following day they traversed the frontier ridge, over the Rochefort, and across the Géant Glacier to spend the night in the Col de la Fourche Hut - a long day. Their last section of the link-up involved crossing below the Brenva Face to climb a logical combination of the Belgian Route and the Cecchinel-Nominé on the North Face of the Grand Pilier d'Angle (800m: TD+/ED1: this combo avoids the infrequently formed Cecchinel-Nominé crux and its top rock pillar), then up the top section of the Peuterey Ridge to 4,807m Mont Blanc.

The second journey took place earlier and features the somewhat familiar names of Patrick Gabarrou and Christophe Dumarest. Gabarrou is now in his late 50s: Dumarest is less than half his age. The pair met on the limestone slabs of the Bargy, down valley from Chamonix and south of Cluses, when Dumarest was just 13. In recent years the partnership has flourished, resulting in many notable achievements, their four-day link up along the Swiss-Italian border being the most recent.

The first day saw them leave Alagna and at 6pm reach the foot of the giant North East Face of the Signalkuppe (known to the Italians as Punta Gnifetti: 4,556m)), one of 10 tops of more than 4,000m that make up the Monte Rosa Massif. By midnight they were in the Margherita Hut, which stands on the summit, having completed a fast and very rare ascent of Gringo, an ED1 (2,300m from the lowest point of the wall and 80° max) on the left side of the face climbed in 1990 by Slovenians Vanja Furlan and Bojan Pocker. These two young climbers were amongst the most active and talented alpinists of their country and Furlan went on to win the Piolet d'Or for his new route on Ama Dablam with Tomaz Humar. Sadly both had relatively short careers: Furlan was killed rock climbing on home ground, whilst Pockar disappeared in East Nepal.

Next day Dumarest and Gabarrou descended west to the foot of Lyskamm East (4,479m) and climbed the classic 750m North East Face (D+) in just two and a half hours. They continued over the top of Lyskamm West (4,527m) and Castor (4,228m: PD+/AD-) to reach the Rossi and Volante Bivouac Hut (3,750m) below the Breithorn's Roccia Nera, where they spent the night.

Next morning found them crossing the Schwarztor and descending to the base of 4,075m Roccia Nera's North Face, where they proceeded to dispatch in fine style the famous but infrequently climbed Gian Carlo Grassi route, Via del Gran Diedro Ghiacciato (Bernardi/Grassi, 1980: c450m: TD+: 80° and difficult mixed terrain).

The pair then traversed the Breithorn (4,164m), spent a night in the Testa Grigia and the following morning reached the Hornli Hut. Here, content with their achievements, they opted for a relaxed ascent of the Hornli Ridge (1,220m: AD), reaching the summit of the Matterhorn (4,477m) at midday.

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