Between July 30 and 31, 2025, mountain guides Carlo Filippi, Isaie Maquignaz, and Francesco Ratti established a new route on the southeast face of the Aiguille de la Brenva (3,278 m), on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. The line, dubbed Cinderello (460 m, 7b max / 6c obl.), owes its name to a curious episode involving… a climbing shoe.
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A project between friends on a “wild” wall
The idea was born as a quick getaway from work: “In the height of summer, we took two days to look for a face with beautiful rock, rarely visited, and a bit wild,” explains Francesco Ratti, Cervino Guide. We chose the southeast face of the Brenva, reachable in about two hours on foot from the Skyway Pavilion, but rarely seen in the last twenty years.
In that area, in fact, classic routes from the 1940s and 1950s dominate; the only modern line is the Via Mares, opened in 2002.
Exploration and opening
On July 29th, after the previous days’ snowfall, the three surveyed the face from below and identified a central line that exploited the entire height. That same evening, they bivouacked at the base. On July 30th, they established the first six pitches (about 300 meters) up to the steepest final shield. They then descended, fixing the crux sections, and set off again at first light on July 31st.
The crux, a 7b tackled by Ratti, took nearly two hours. “I was worried I wouldn’t reach the summit that day,” he confesses. But the final three pitches went faster than expected, and around 4:00 PM, the trio reached the Aiguille ridge.
Style and protections
“We tried to place as few bolts as possible, averaging less than two per pitch, focusing on quickdraws and intuition,” Ratti explains. “It’s a true mountaineering route, cold but beautiful. We hope someone will come and repeat it soon.”
The reason for the name
While abseiling on the first day, Isaie Maquignaz lost a climbing shoe, which fell irretrievably to the Brenva Glacier. The following day, he climbed with just one climbing shoe and one climbing boot: hence the ironic name Cinderello, a mountaineering tribute to the famous Disney cartoon.
