Climbing
Two of the world’s most talented mountaineers died yesterday on the Aiguille du Plan near Mont Blanc in Chamonix. The bodies of Max Bonniot, 31 and Pierre Labbre, 38 were discovered early Wednesday morning at the base of a gully by a search and rescue team.
The couple left Tuesday morning to climb the Bonington Route V M7 up Aiguille du Plan but nothing was then heard from them. It is assumed that they slipped while climbing together with a taught rope.
Bonnoit was a member of Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne military corps and Labbre was a mountain guide. The two experienced climbers had established new routes around the work and repeated some of the most difficult, including the Southeast Ridge on Cerro Torre earlier this year. Labbre had climbed a new route on Latok II and the 7,134-metre peak called Gauri Shanker in the Himalayas. Bonniot made the first ascent of the east face of Siula Grande in 2016 and in 2018 climbed Golden Gate 5.13 on El Capitan. Jeff Mercier and Korra Pesce made the first free ascent of the Bonington Route in 2014, according to Gripped.com.
