Fresh Attempt at the Drus
The attempt of Chamonix mountain guide, Martial Dumas, and his climbing partner, Jean Yves Fredriksen, at the Drus kicked off on Sunday morning. The pair caught the first bin up to Grand Montets before launching themselves into the adventure with a ski down a steep couloir towards the foot of the west face of the Drus.
The mythical rock face has been left scarred by a series of rock falls, the most recent of which, in June 2005, saw the veritable extermination of the Bonatti pillar when 600m of granite collapsed like a house of cards. The fall wiped out no less than ten of modern mountaineering's most outstanding climbs.
The two man party began its ascent on this freshly exposed, virginal face on the left of the Bonatti pillar. Yesterday, (Wednesday) the well-informed were following the climbers' slow but steady progress through binoculars from the vantage point of the Montenvers train station at an altitude of 1900m. Three days into their ascent they were a third of the way up, they are expected to take a week to reach the summit at an altitude of 3733m.
Source: Le Dauphiné Libéré
