Quebec mountaineer François-Guy Thivierge began the challenge of a lifetime in August 2019: climbing 55 mountains in 55 months to celebrate his 55th birthday. Le Journal regularly features a mountain he climbed as part of this project.
François-Guy Thivierge’s pocket of great challenges is bottomless. The climber had already offered himself the summit of Mexico, but as there was always more to discover, the longest climbing route in the country, Mount El Toro, had to be tackled. Nothing to good for his crazy project of 55 mountains in 55 months.
The adventurer from Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges recently fulfilled another dream via the route Time Wave Zero, a grueling rock face that requires 23 pitches.
“It’s sort of the opposite of the Quebec ice climber that I am in that I can’t take the heat very badly, which is my biggest enemy. This route is pure climbing and I will remember it for the rest of my life,” he enthused, returning to his latest epic in the mountains.
In central Mexico, Thivierge took on this challenge head-on, at the crag of El Potrero Chico Park, about an hour from the popular city of Monterrey.
A quartet
Photo provided by François-Guy Thivierge
In turn, Alfred Boivin, Julie Paquette, Jeff Rivest and François-Guy Thivier took part in the adventure made possible thanks to the partnership between Sterling Rope and Salewa Equipment.
For once, Thivierge was lucky enough to go on an adventure with a quartet. During his various journeys as part of this challenge, he was accompanied by Alfred Boivin, Julie Paquette and Jeff Rivest. When the opportunity arose to bring together all these wonderful people, no one hesitated, even if it was necessary first… to get to know each other!
“I’ve often gone out with each of the three, but they didn’t know each other. It made the experience even more enjoyable to be with a great team,” noted Thivierge.
Before embarking on the main course of the nine-day journey, the four thieves cut their teeth on other shorter stretches, a matter of acclimatization to the monster that awaited them.
Middle of the night
Because of the quickly overwhelming heat, Thivierge and his followers decided to set off in two groups of two in the middle of the night.
Photo provided by François-Guy Thivierge
It’s night, but no time to sleep. The four climbers started their journey around 3am.
The approach started at 3 a.m. and just before 4 a.m. the ascent began, the two rope teams separated by about thirty minutes to avoid the dangers of the scree.
“This is a very special surface. The wall is really rough and the extremities, both fingers and feet, have to work hard to hold on well. It ends up being a whole layer of skin extending from my fingertips. »
“We have to do it anyway, in the middle of the night, before sunrise, hitting 12 pitches with our headlamps,” Thivierge recalls.
two above
Also, the day before, the group had done a little reconnaissance on the first pitches to make sure they had a good handle on the spot after dark. Needless to say, the sunrise was greeted with both relief and wonder.
“There is no other word, it was magical, magical, magical to see the colors on the mountain! It is for moments like this that we put all these efforts, ”said the adventurer.
Photo provided by François-Guy Thivierge
Accompanied by Jeff Rivest, Thivierge felt great relief when he reached the summit.
Accompanied by Jeff Rivest, François-Guy Thivierge reached the summit after seven hours of hard work. Her other two companions had to turn back due to exhaustion.
dangerous descent
“We would have liked to have put all four on top, but when the risk becomes too great, the rational side has to win. It was quite an adventure, especially when the sun started beating down in the morning. We had to move our hands over the rock because it felt like we were holding a hot cup of coffee,” said the tireless 58-year-old.
Photo provided by François-Guy Thivierge
The abseil represents the most dangerous moment of the journey and fatigue sets in.
Worse, with this type of climbing, abseiling is often the biggest hazard.
“There have been several rappelling deaths on this mountain. We have remained very vigilant,” he said.
After 13 hours of effort, everyone landed, their heads still in the clouds. And another mountain ticked off the list of 55!
Mount El Toro
- Height : 1593m
- Country : Mexico
- Region : El Potrero Chico
- First ascent: 2008
- rise: 700m
- Duration : 13 o’clock
► To follow his adventures: francoisguythivierge.com | Facebook | instagram @francoisguythivierge