Grandes Jorasses: Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines race up the legendary Gousseault-Desmaison

9 hours and 15 minutes to climb the Gousseault-Desmaison up the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. This is the latest, astounding achievement carried out by the French alpinists Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines who repeated this difficult classic up the Walker Spur in a single day on the 15th of February. Making the most of evidently excellent conditions, their ascent comes in the wake of the new route put up by Cazzanelli-Stradelli-Favre on the west face of the Aiguille Noire du Peuterey, and a repeat of the the Direttissima on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses at the hands of Charles Dubouloz, Symon Welfringer and Clovis Paulin.

15 hours non-stop climbing
After setting off from Chamonix at 1.30am on 15 February, the two climbers needed circa 6 hours to reach the base of the route, then just over 9 hours to climb to the summit. After a short break they returned to the car in roughly 4 hours, meaning that they’d been on the trot for a total of 19 hours. "A dream come true, one of the most emblematic routes on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses" commented Védrines. "This route scared me for a long time, with the images and stories of the first ascentionists. I first heard about it in the early 2000s, at the time mixed climbing seemed way beyond me."

That was back then, things are very different now and Védrines and Billon encountered no particular difficulties at "mastering this beautiful art of mountaineering." "I really loved setting off from the foot of this mythical face, the epicenter of mountaineering in the Alps." Védrines continued. "And I'm even happier to have climbed this route steeped in history, following in the footsteps of Serge Gousseaut and René Desmaison". This challenging Direttissima up the Walker Spur is rarely repeated; technically difficult, it follows smooth and insidious granite slabs past several overhangs exposed to lightning. The teams that have managed to repeat it can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. None, from the information currently available, climbed the route as quickly as Billon and Védrines did last week.

11 days on the Grandes Jorasses
Established by Serge Gousseaut and René Desmaison in February 1971, this direct line up the Walker Spur has a troubled history. The two star alpinists started up the route on the 11th and climbed for three days, until the 14th of February, without encountering any particular problems. The technical difficulties were extreme, but nevertheless the climbers managed to make constant progress. This changed all of a sudden on the 15th when the pair was overcome by a violent snowfall. Poised just 300 meters from the summit, Gousseaut and Desmaison had with them two days' provisions, three ice screws and a rope cut to to three quarters of its length. Despite prohibitive conditions, they ascended a further 50 meters. Morale remained high, but their energies began to run low.

On 17 February Gousseaut started to feel weak and soon he was no longer self-sufficient. From here it was no longer possibile to descend, both knew this all too well, and they only thing they could do was push on and reach the summit as quickly as they could. More days passed by, 11 to be precise, during which they battled with all their might against the elements, the technical difficulties, against exhaustion. In the end, their superhuman efforts proved in vain. Serge Gousseaut died of exhaustion 80 meters below the summit. Desmaison somehow survived, after being rescued having spent 5 days hanging off a peg, and a total of 342 hours on the wall.

Two years later Desmaison made the decision to complete the line he so nearly finished with Gousseaut. He did so from 10 to 17 January 1973, and was joined by Giorgio Bertone and Michel Claret whose support was fundamental in reaching the summit. Out of respect towards Gousseaut, their names are omitted from the official route name. 1200 meters high and with difficulties up 6a, A1/A2, the climb bears the names of the two who in 1971 fought to the bitter end. First for a dream, then for their lives.

by Gian Luca Gasca