'Le château dans le ciel' added to Petit Dru by Yanis Cherqaoui, Baptiste Obino, Hugo Peruzzo

Yanis Cherqaoui, Baptiste Obino and Hugo Peruzzo have struck it big with their ascent of what is highly likely to be a new route on none-other than Petit Dru in the Mont Blanc massif. Located on the mountain’s stunning west and north face, Le château dans le ciel was established from 18 - 21 June. The trio encountered difficulties up to ED, 7b+ along the 1000m line, predominantly on the upper section of the route.

Acting on an idea of Cherqaoui, the young French alpinists started climbing at 2:00 am on Wednesday morning after spending the night at the Rognon des Drus bivy on the Nant Blanc glacie. They made their way up about 1/3 of the face before calling it a day and spending the night on their inflatable portaledges. At 5 am the next mornign they resumed activities, and pushed upwards to reach the large snowfield where they pitched their tent and spent another night. A 7 am start on Friday morning saw them negotiate the three crux pitches in the obvious roof above the niche, after which they fixed the rope and abseiled back down to thir tent for another night. On Saturday they awoke at 3 am, jumared back up the rope to reach their highpoint, and climbed through the final headwall before reaching the summit of Petit Dru at 11:30 am. From here they traversed across to the Grand Drus and abseiled down to the Charpoua glacier, and made it to the Refuge de la Charpouahut in time “to enjoy a nice soup” early that evening.

Commenting after their 4-day alpine style climb, Peruzzo stated “Every day, a thick cloud settled precisely as sunlight grazes the north face—as if this fortress were rejecting us. An atmosphere both mystical and mentally grueling, testing our nerves to their limit without quite breaking them."

The alpinists climbed without a bolt kit, and left only one peg in-situ; all the rest was protected by cams and wires. They did come across pegs every now and then on the lower section of the route, most likely belonging to abandoned attempts or even early crystal hunters. Low down they also crossed an old aid climb, while pitch 9 shares sections of Passage Cardiaque (Michel Piola, Pierre-Alain Steiner; 25- 27/07/1986).

Castle in the Sky is no doubt a major addition to the Dru and Peruzzo concluded "With all the objectivity one can muster when discovering a new route, the pitches strike us as beautiful and varied, on excellent quality rock."