Kuffner Ridge (aka Frontier Ridge)

An excellent snow, ice and mixed route at altitude, with outstanding position.

Begins with a 100m snow ramp either to the Fourche Bivouac (left) or right at the base of where the ridge up Mont Maudit steepens (right). If going via the Fourche Bivouac way, note that the bivouac is no longer there. It collapsed summer 2022 and it’s not clear what impact this has had on this passage. The bivouac used to be just over the top of the ridge on the Brenva side though so you won’t see signs of this from the east. Either way, follow the path of least resistance up the ridge until you find yourself below a large rock spire (Pointe de l'Androsace). Turn this spire on the left by an exposed but easy mixed traverse. A 4c (5.7) crux has to be overcome in order to reascend to the ridge. Pitons are in place.

Continue to follow the path of least resistance along snow aretes and mixed ground to the north east shoulder of Mont Maudit. Snow slopes and corniced ridges are overcome by their north side and provide access to the summit of Mont Maudit, or a premature descent to the Trois Monts route.

Make sure you have good weather and snow conditions, since the only reasonable retreat off this route is to reverse the climb.

Take the Geant Glacier around the south side of the Grand Capucin to where the glacier curves around the back side of Mont Blanc du Tacul into Combe Maudit. Note the campsite at the base of the Capucin where the rock climbers set up. This is a good place to camp.

It's a bit of a walk from here to the ridge, but the Combe Maudit (if you're facing the Kuffner ridge from below the Capucin then this is the cirque around the corner and to the right) had a massive serac at the top in 2016 when we were there, which looked even nastier when we passed it from above on the descent and saw how it was peeling apart from the rest of the glacier in the Col Maudit. Looked like it could easily have wiped out the entire cirque if it came down. I don't know how this will evolve over future seasons, but the Batoux guidebook also confirms serac fall danger in this cirque in the route description for "Lacrime Degli Angeli" (something about "campervan" sized blocks regularly being spit out). Best to sleep well out of the way.

The ridgeline extending from the Tour Ronde on the left hand side of this valley runs up to the summit of Mont Maudit. The Kuffner ridge begins from the low point of this ridge and follows snow aretes and mixed rock to the summit of Mont Maudit.