Siebe Vanhee – FRAMED (Going it Alone)

April 2024, Spring was well on its way and I was looking for projects. Projects to get me going, to climb and have fun. But to be honest, also to make a living. In the end that’s what a pro climber has to do with the activity he loves. How else would he be able to travel the world to climb, spend days at end in a tent or portaledge, train every day and create tons of content for social media? If he wouldn’t come up with projects and present them to sponsors, there is no way the collaboration will be sustainable. For me it wasn’t always like this. I was just a climber, focusing only on what I loved the most; climbing and everything that belongs to this beautiful sport and lifestyle. Until I was given the amazing opportunity to become a pro-climber. From then on, things changed. 

My life became … FRAMED.

In the last 5 years I was getting into lead rope solo (LRS) climbing. A style of climbing where you climb routes on lead on your own (solo) but still secured with an auto-belay system (rope). To make lead rope soloing a bit more challenging, my aim is to also freeclimb like you would freeclimb with a partner. And because ‘free’ lead rope soloing a single pitch doesn’t interest me, I only aim for multipitches in this style. I was now searching for a new ‘free’ lead rope solo multipitch challenge! Can you still follow?

In the past years, “Voie Petit”, a 12 pitch route graded 8b at around 3500 meters altitude on the Grand Cappucin (3838m) in the Mont Blanc Massif was on my mind. Not surprisingly, Voie Petit was opened by Arnaud Petit accompanied by Stéphanie Bodet, Pascal Gaudin and Jean-Paul Petit, in 1997. The route was first freeclimbed by, also not surprisingly, Alexandre Huber in 2005 and he graded it 8b. The grade had been confirmed for several years but recently downgraded to 8a+ after several other repeats. Nonetheless, Voie Petit stays one of the harder multipitch lines in the alps and is definitely hard because of the high altitude. When I first thought about trying this gem I knew my aim would be to try onsight and send in one single day. Searching for a good project these days I thought; ‘Why not being ambitious and going alone?’. 

Given I earn a living from climbing I quickly faced the pro climber’s obligation to not just climb hard but also make sure I create content and a story. Despite the fact that the point of climbing solo is about being on your own in the mountains, confronted with just yourself and nature, I had to find a way to get this ambitious project documented. It’s not every day that I would attempt such a climb in this style. To protect the idea of ‘solo’ in the mountains I thought it would be a great idea to just have one person flying a drone. At least I would be on my own on the wall without dealing with static ropes and a camera crew. I get goosebumps thinking about this. Like I’ve been doing in the last 6 years, I called my manager Dave Yarwood and talked my plan trough. As always, he was supportive and respectful for my approach but as a good manager has to do, he mentioned it would be a lost opportunity, from a professional point of view, to ‘only’ have a drone filming. He was right, every year I try to have at least one cool film project that I can share with a sponsor, this one would be a really cool one to propose. 

Days filled with phone calls, mails and some writing later we had a project proposal. The moment of execution would be June 2024. From a climbers’ perspective, that moment of the year wasn’t the best timing. In June at 3500 meter altitude the walls can still be snowy, wet and the weather unstable. July and even August would be a better choice but because of the pro climbers’ compromise this wouldn’t be possible. Drones are not allowed to fly in July and August in the Mont Blanc massif. Tourists would start flying drones into the blades of a rescue helicopter, no one wants that. June 2024 arrived and the weather looked shit, the walls looked wet, we had to postpone. I had to hold myself from going alone and be just a climber, but to be a good pro climber I awaited the next ‘drone’ window.

On Tuesday 24^th of June 2025 I left the tent, pitched at the Combe Maudite right below Grand Capucin at 3400m altitude. My aim was still to go for the onsight in one single day, so this means no reckon mission in advance. The ground up and adventure part is very important to me so I wanted to be prepared in case I couldn’t send onsight or in a day. I brought a light sleeping bag, some extra food and a stove to melt snow on the ledge after pitch 7, just in case. This way I wouldn’t have to bail and try again from the ground if I wouldn’t make it that first day. 

I left Bernard Giminez and Julien Nadiras on the glacier. Bernardo’s task was to direct, he’s the one in charge of the movie production. Julien was our drone pilot for the project, so it would be mainly him capturing footage that day. My task was divided, be a strong climber and send my project but also be a director and filmmaker. Because Bernardo wouldn’t be coming on the wall to film, this is a line I drew to keep the climbing project as pure as possible, it was expected of me to document the climb myself as much as I could. Climbing rope solo this means doing a ton of selfie videos at the anchors, using my I-phone and Insta360 with the selfie stick, to document thoughts, feelings and emotions. Luckily, this is something I like doing and am even quite good at, as an extravert with years of practice.

Starting off the climb, I very quickly realized it wouldn’t be the same as the many limestone multipitches I had done in this style. The pitches traversed a lot and had many roofs of all sizes. This is not a problem for climbing, but it is for the LRS strategy. Let me explain the LRS system first. First, I tie the rope to the anchor (or a piece of gear just above the ground in the first pitch) at the right distance so I have just enough rope to climb the next pitch. In the end of the rope I tie a little stopper knot. Free climbing up, I belay myself with the EDELRID PINCH clipped to my harness with a triple lockingbeaner and an Avant rubber to keep the lockingbeaner in place so it can’t get cross loaded. The PINCH stays upright close to my chest thanks to an Avant chest harness and a little string. With the help of a SPOC attached to the harness and taking the weight from the lead rope off the PINCH, I pull out slack now and then so the rope feeds smoothly through the PINCH while I climb up. Ones arrived at the pitch’s anchor I have to go down again to untie the knot at the previous anchor and get my gear out. I attach the lead rope and rappel down on the same side I climbed up. On the way down, I fix the rope on some of the runners to make sure it doesn’t get damaged later when I jug back up. This is LRS, a lot of work. You got to climb, rap back down, jug back up and haul the haulbag up.

Because of the many roofs and traversing pitches, I often had to haul two to three times in one pitch, off a bolt and then on to the next, all this to avoid the haulbag from getting stuck.

I smoothly past pitch 2, the 7b runout on a slab. The crux pitch, pitch 5 graded 8b / 8a+, depending to who you talk to, was more complex than hoped. A 45min ropesolo fight brought me halfway up the infamous roof at the end of the pitch and ended in a big fall. Defeated, the ambitious objective to onsight LRS wouldn’t be possible anymore.

My second try I passed the roof, a was doing it, I was sending! Or not…? The end of my rope dangling off me got stuck in a crack 20m below. This stopped the rope from feeding through the PINCH, it pulled me down and I had to drop. Defeated again, this time by the LRS system!

I returned to the base of pitch 5. It was hot, on the valley floor in Courmayeur car tires where melting on the burning asphalt, it was 36 degrees Celsius. My climbing shoes were melting at around 3500 m altitude on this hot granite south face. I was exhausted from the sun, my eyes where burning. On top of that, I was already running out of chalk! Yeah, you’re allowed to laugh, but I’m a chalk addict and to climb hard and confident, I need my powder. I climbed awkwardly those two tries, I’m not made to climb in the sun! But who would have thought it would get that hot at 3500m altitude? I took a nap, hanging in my harness leaning with my head on the haulback. I woke up and the pitch was in the shade, it was almost 3 pm and it looked unlikely I could still go to the top today. I prepped the LRS set up and took off again, with all the draws in place but Totem cams on my harness. This time it went smooth, I felt the energy of the shade! Fluidly I popped over the roof and send the crux pitch! The day wasn’t over, I still had a big struggle in pitch 6 and 7, which I both had to redpoint. Onsight climbing on this granite was harder than expected. My selfie interviews became less and less positive and I used my Insta360 as a partner I could complain to. At 7pm my haubag and I arrived on the ledge. I immediately realized I made a great decision to bring my sleeping stuff, this is the solo adventure I was psyched on! I spend an amazing night cuddling up with myself, filled with excitement resulting in insomnia. I looked at the stars and enjoyed my first lonely night on a wall. 

The next morning, I felt better, not great of course. It was still a fact I got my ass kicked in almost every pitch the day before. I had really thought I had a better chance of onsighting almost every pitch.

After having done some posing for the drone, selfinterviews and communicating with Bernardo and Julien, the second climbing day could start. I changed strategy, in pitch 10, the 7c+ breakfast, I took it slow and figured out the moves first. Confident and warmed up, I send second try. Pitch 11 (7b+) surprised me. A diagonal runout made me freak out a bit. Despite the early start the wall got hot quickly and I didn’t trust my chalkless skin and soft rubber. The drone was buzzing around my head and I knew this would be the most esthetic pitch to film. This made me even more nervous, I should just give it all now, but I fell.

A bit annoyed to continue the habit of falling in what I expected to be ‘easy’ I gave it a second try and this time send. At least the production crew was happy with the footage. This is part of the job. The ride to the summit from there was just magical, an exposed 6b arête followed by more high quality rock.

At 11am I stood on the summit, proud of my ‘project’. A rope solo experience linked to a movie production. The climb was successful, but the filming wasn’t over.