Annabelle Bouchardon makes first female solo ascent of American Direct on Les Drus

24-year-old French alpinist Annabelle Bouchardon has made the first female solo ascent of the famous American Direct on Les Drus in the Mont Blanc massif. Established in July 1962 by the American climbers Gary Hemming and Royal Robbins on the the West Face of Petit Dru, the 1,100m line features difficulties up to ED-, 6c and is regarded as one of the major routes in the Mont Blanc massif.

The first rope solo of the American Direct was carried out on 17 and 18 August 1971 by Frenchman Jean-Claude Droyer, while in 1982 his countryman Christophe Profit completed the first free solo in an astounding time of just 3 hours and 10 minutes. In June 1991 Catherine Destivelle established a new route on the same face after eleven days of effort, but this line has since disappeared following the major rockfalls of the 2000s.

Bouchardon set off by headlamp at 4:00 on Tuesday 23 June after having made a first bivouac at the foot of the face. Two more nights on the wall were needed to complete the rope solo ascent: the first bivouac at the Chockstone Block, 600 metres up, and the second in the Trou du Canon, a small natural niche hollowed out in the wall, which offered providential shelter when a thunderstorm broke out late on Wednesday evening. She reached the summit of the Petit Dru (3733m) at 8:10 am. From here she continued with the traverse to the Grand Dru, before beginning the abseil descent via the south face. She started the abseils 12:00 pm, set foot on the Charpoua glacier on Thursday at 3:30 pm and reached the hut at 4:30 pm.

Bouchardon climbed rope solo, which makes progress particularly demanding. Each pitch must be climbed, then downclimbed, before being climbed a second time to retrieve the gear and haul a pack weighing about 17 kg. In total, about thirty pitches were climbed one after another on the immense Dru wall.

Prior to the ascent, she stated "Alpine performance is not the sole purpose of this adventure. I want to add an extra difficulty by managing my decisions and all my efforts alone. To test the trust I have in myself, to better understand my limits and to face a physical, technical and mental challenge, while still having fun."

A former member of the GEAN (Groupe d’Escalade Alpine Nationale), Bouchardon excels equally in big wall climbing and ice climbing. Among her recent notable achievements is the repeat of the Fowler-Watts route on Taulliraju (5,830 m) in Peru with the GEAN team. She trained specifically for her latest ascent with a rope-solo ascent of Grand Pic de Belledonne. She had reached the mountain from Grenoble by bike, and descended by paraglider.