Petit Dru West Face: GMHM establish BASE

Just as they set out to do, from 18 to 22 February the French alpinists Thomas Auvaro, Léo Billon, Jordi Noguere and Sébastien Ratel climbed a line up the legendary west face of Petit Dru (3,733m) in the Mont Blanc massif.

After having transported some gear to the base of the mountain in the previous days, on Thursday the four alpinists belonging to the elite Chamonix High Mountain Military Group began their climb. Their ascent was streamed live on Youtube and the quartet reached the summit on Sunday afternoon after four days and nights on the face. On Monday they descended safely to Chamonix.

The route is called BASE and partially follows a dogged attempt carried out, as the BMC explains, by Josep Maria Esquirol and David Palmada. Climbing with the use of aid, over 14 days in winter 2015 the Spaniards managed to climb to within 300 meters of the summit before retreating.