Success On The Dru, Take Two!

Me at the base of the West face of
The Dru

On Friday morning Ally and I headed off to the Midi Station psyched and ready for a day’s climbing on the South face of the Midi. Unfortunately when we got close to the station, we noticed that the queue for the lift was massive and they were also running a numbered/ticket system for the individual lifts up. This was also annoying as the queue for the tickets was bigger than the one for the lift. 

As it was looking like we wouldn’t be getting anywhere near a lift in the next three hours we opted to give it a miss and headed back to the apartment to make up another plan. Thankfully this plan was much better than the original and all was not lost!

The bivi spot (home sweet home)

We decided that we would head up on the Montenvers train that afternoon and then walk across the Mer De Glace and up to bivi at the base of the Dru that night. Then we would be ready for another amazing route early on Saturday morning, but this time on the west face of this spectacular mountain.

As we were walking up the moraine to the bivi site we noticed there was another team of two already at the top of the Sócle (a 240m wall that needs to be climbed before you can gain access to the route). This was not a big problem, as we where planning on getting an early start the next day and if it was a fast team ahead of us, they would stay out of the way. But if it was a slower team, we knew we would be able to pass them fairly quickly, we weren’t too fussed either way. So we got our climbing kit organised and I sorted out my OutdoorResearch Aurora bivi bag and my Deuter Trek Lite 250 sleeping bag ready for another night of anticipation filled sleep in the mountains. 

Ally and I chowing down

How comfy does this look?

After a quick bite to eat and once we had watched the awesome sun set over the Aiguilles Rouge, it was into our little bivi cave and off to bed for a few hours sleep before the 3am rise in readiness for our early start up the Sócle the next morning, and then onto “American Direct”.

When my alarm went off at 3am, the moon was shining bright over the Chamonix Aiguilles and it was nice to wake up to such a breath taking view of the mountains (this never fails to disappoint). We brewed up a coffee and wolfed down some porridge, and then it was on with the climbing gear and off across the snow field to the base of the wall.

Here comes the cold!

We swiftly made our way up the Sócle and within a short time we where belayed at the base of the imposing crack system that slices its way up the West face of the Dru. The two other climbers had obviously heard us coming and they had made their way up the first pitch and were just starting the second when we arrived at the base. I set off up the route and after cruising up the first pitch I was able to take the variation second pitch to get to the belay below the third pitch just as the leader of the other group also arrived. Thankfully they spoke English (British climbers) and they were both really nice guys. They agreed that we were going to be faster than them and let Ally shoot off up the third pitch (this was very good of them!).

The Dru in the setting sun

After climbing in a muddled formation of leader, leader, seconder, seconder for a couple of pitches (this was pretty annoying), Ally and I finely broke free and quickly put a few pitches between the others and ourselves. 

Once we were on our own, the climbing seemed to get a lot more enjoyable and the immaculate granite cracks seemed to go on forever, with not one bad move throughout the entire route (well mostly). We ran a fair few of the pitches together, so that we kept moving fast up the face and it was not long before we were approaching the famous jammed block bivi ledge. 

The view out of my window

The route itself is home to mostly good sound rock quality apart from the pitch below the Jammed block which is full of very very big very loose blocks that were deposited there when the South-West Bonatti Pillar fell down a few years ago. I lead that pitch, and it was pretty scary to be pulling on blocks the size of vans that were teetering on the face ready to come away (not very enjoyable).

The early morning moonshine

In our guide and topo it states that most people finish the route at the jammed block bivi ledge, just below the 90m Dièdre and that this is a recognised end to the route. But Ally and I wanted to continue up to the end of the hard climbing. So after chilling (literally) on the bivi ledge for 10mins waiting for the sun to pop over the ridge so that we could soak up some warmth before the next section, we could here the other two climbers approaching a few pitches below us. We continued on up the line, and after reaching the end of the difficult sections of the immaculate Diedre we got out our tag line (light weight rope for rapping) and set about rigging the abb. 

Me approaching the Socle

As we were doing this it was hard not to notice that there was an all mighty storm rolling in over Mont Blanc, and we both knew it was time to put the foot down and get a move on down the face back to the gear at the bivi sight. 

Me in an off-width on one of the
 many amazing pitches.

After a couple of hours rapping back down the line, we were back down at the base of the Sócle and back to the luxury of our big mountain boots. Instead of our crippling rock boots that we had been jamming in cracks all day. We threw on our crampons and swiftly traversed back across the snow field and up to the bivi cave, just in time for the heavens to open and then the rain started to come down hard. We decided to spend another night at the bivi and head back to the Montenvers train first thing in the morning.

We shared the last of our food, which consisted of half a cupa-soup each and a few oatcakes, and then it was back into the sleeping/bivi bags for another night of luxury! Unfortunately when we woke, the rain was still coming down hard, and it was obvious that it was going to be a soggy descent back to the train. 

Whilst still in our very cramped shelter/bivi cave, we shoved all our kit into our sacks and then headed swiftly down the moraine ridge towards the steep ladders that lead to the Mer De Glace. The difference in the landscape since our approach on the Friday was pretty amazing. The little streams that we had stepped over had turned into raging rivers due to the rainfall overnight, and we had to make some fairly scary dashes across one or two of these, between the boulder flurries that where getting washed downstream from higher up the moraine.

Once we were back on the main path and away from the wet moraine, it was an easy yet sloppy walk back to the ladders and then up to the train which took us back to Chamonix, then it was just a quick walk back to the apartment.

Me following Ally up the Diedre

After sorting the gear and trying to put it somewhere to dry, it was off to the internet to check the weather and to decide what we would do for the next couple of days. 

Again, the forecast was pretty unsure about the weather in the near future and it looks like a lot more rain and snow high up. So we will just have to wait and see how it turns out and decide what to do nearer the time.

It was still very overcast when I woke up this morning and it had obviously been raining hard overnight. So I opted for an early morning run up the hill to the Plan de L’Aigulle station (2233m) to try and keep up the hill fitness while the bad weather hangs around.

Nearly there!

 Ally and I have some cool looking routes in mind so as soon as the weather permits, we will be back into the hills and back on the big routes. So keep an eye on my blog for new updates.