After climbing K2 on his own in 11 hours without oxygen last summer, it was hard to imagine what Benjamine Vedrines would do next. In the end, he didn’t even need to leave his backyard to leave us speechless again. He has just done a five-day winter solo of the Dru, one of the great granite towers in the Mont Blanc massif near Chamonix. And he climbed it via a route on the hazardous West Face done only once before.
First repetition, solo
Vedrines soloed BASE, a 1,000m route opened by his friend and regular climbing partner Leo Billon. Billon did the line, which includes difficulties up to M8+, 7a, with Sebastien Ratel, Jordi Noguere, and Thomas Auvaro in March 2021. No one had managed to repeat it until last week.
For Vedrines, a winter solo on a legendary face like the Dru was an idea he had nurtured for years. He admits he was both “afraid and excited” when considering it. The project was scary enough that Vedrines had considered attempting it last winter, but was intimidated and backed off.
“I did not dare to undertake it, [I was] too impressed,” he said. So he filed the idea away for the future when he felt more ready. This winter, he found the confidence to try it.
The ‘BASE’ route on the West Face of the Petit Dru. Photo: Chamonix Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne
“It was one of the most intense experiences of my life,” the French alpinist wrote of his five days on the wall.
‘Gave me the shivers’
Looking down the void from the West Face of the Dru. Photo: Benjamin Vedrines
The climb, on mixed terrain in winter, is difficult enough for a team.
“The famous 7a pitch, on rotten rock, gave me the shivers,” Vedrines explained. “I didn’t know if I could do it, but I needed to prove to myself that I was capable…”
This one time, Vedrines didn’t focus on speed. Rather, he tried to be efficient and to persevere over the many difficult pitches and the four bivouacs on the icy face.
“The first [bivouac] was on a small ledge of hard suspended snow…tied up with straps so as not to slide into the void,” he said.
Unstable rock
While it one of the most coveted big walls in the Alps, the West Face of the Dru has also made headlines for its recent huge rockfalls — even in winter. The most recent one happened just last month. Vedrines confirmed that the rock here, like elsewhere in the range, is far from stable. “Yes, the granite is no better than in the Écrins,” he commented.
Vedrines, 32, is no newcomer in the Dru. Last winter, he and Leo Billon completed a crazy enchainment of the North Faces of the Dru, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Droites, on-sight and in just three days. Vedrines, Billon, and Nicolas Jean then attempted the first alpine-style ascent of the north face of Jannu East in the Nepalese Himalaya. They retreated when one of the party fell ill.
On his solo of the Dru, “I found what I came looking for,” he admitted.
