​A Grand Nightcap by Keith Bell is one of a trio of humorous stories about the first Australian ascent of the East Face of the Grand Capucin in Chamonix, France in 1971. In story two, Howard shares his side of the experience with Night Cap - The Plan.

​The third story in the trio - Fiasco on the Grand Cap - 1969 - takes place a couple years earlier on the first attempted Australian ascent of Grand Capucin by Mike Stone and Ian Guild (friends of Howard and Keith). Common Climber is fortunate to be able to re-publish Mike's original story that was featured in Thrutch magazine in 1971 (Vol 5 - No 9, January/February 1971, Pages 13 - 14). Mike Stone passed in 2019. In honor of Mike's contributions to the climbing world, Keith Bell provides a tribute.

This story by Keith Bell was also originally published in Thrutch, Vol 67, Page 16, September 1975 and has been slightly edited from its original version.

Snow was swirling around the overhanging corner as Howard and I settled down for the night on Bonatti’s first bivouac. Below us lay the approach couloir and several hundred feet of pegged up grooves. Below too was the notorious Stone’s Chimney and the Grade 6 Guild’s Slab of Horror*. There could only be easier climbing further on!!
 
The bivouac was one of those best not talked about, certainly not in terms of comfort. Soon after midnight torches moving across the Vallee Blanche began converging on the Cap. These contrasted sharply with the flashes of lightning on the Italian horizon. They both had us worried. Towards morning the lightning ceased but the torches moved steadily towards us. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as we as we hung about watching the antics of the climbers far below. At least we had grabbed the grid position in the Grand Cap Derby; any other party would have to follow us.

​Howard was climbing the Grade 5 corner above the bivouac as the first continentals with their tinkling aluminum etriers began to move up the vertical grooves at the end of the initial traverse from the couloir. 

​We followed a line of grooves until a rightward traverse on pegs across a beautiful red wall was reached. Tremendous aid climbing put us at the base of strenuous Grade 5 chimney.

​After a hard start, the chimney led to a wide, flat ledge, a perfect bivouac site (if only we had known!). The back wall of this ledge was the famous 40 metre wall, the reputed crux of the climb. A long pitch by Howard took the entire wall in a single push and landed us on a broken, shingle ledge, Bonatti’s second bivouac. A traverse left, then a short wall followed by another leftward traverse led to a stance in a niche. The next move was into the unknown.

Keith Bell on the Vallee Blanche "cattle track" on the way to the Grand Capucin (1971) (Photo Credit: Howard Bevan)

On stepping around the corner, all of the exposure that the Grand Cap is famous for came into focus. A small foothold large enough for the toes was topped by a bulging wall leading to a 2-metre roof about 25 metres above us. Below, the rock was undercut and our eyesight was first interrupted by the glacier 400 metres below.

Howard Bevan leading the 40 metre wall, the crux of the climb. (Photo Credit: Keith Bell)

From the overhang, the line trended to the right initially but then started to sneak leftwards. Always it followed cracks and grooves, deceptively hidden and difficult of access. The route must surely be a credit not only to Bonatti’s skill as a climber but also to his genius for route finding.
 
Finally, about 150 metres short of the summit, the line took a diagonal traverse rightwards to the NE ridge. The stance on the ridge was in a fine position under an enormous overhang. A difficult descending traverse rightwards led to a series of grooves. The ascent of the grooves put us onto a snow ramp, which led to a large ledge on the west face, 7-metres below the summit.

​It was mid-afternoon so we sat around in the brilliant sunshine resting and taking in the view. Finally, we were spurred into action by the sound of voices emanating from below. We scrambled down the face to a point where a long abseil dropped us into a col formed by the back of the Cap and Mt. Blanc. An iced-up broken gully dropped down towards the Vallee Blanche. We started down. Towards the bottom the following parties had completed their abseils and started descending the gully. The clumsy-footed bastards kicked huge blocks down making our lower position in the gully untenable.

The Grand Capucin, Chamonix, France (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Keith Bell at the top of the Grand Capucin - accomplishing the Australian first ascent of the East Face. (Photo Credit: Howard Bevan)

For a long time the air was rent with shattering rocks as a succession of French, Swiss, German and god knows what stormed past. Fortunately, a large shingle ledge outside the gully provided a safe refuge. We had long abandoned all ideas of being back in Chamonix for the night so we prepared ourselves for another bivouac. We slept well on our comfortable ledge. In the morning we had to extricate ourselves from the snow that had fallen overnight. It was still snowing as we trudged across the Vallee Blanche cattle track. At least by midday we would be sipping beers in the Bar Nationale to celebrate the completion of a classic climb.

​*See Fiasco on the Grand Cap-1969 by Mike Stone