Aiguille du Dru
| Aiguille du Dru | ||
|---|---|---|
 The Drus seen from the Mer de Glace |
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| height | 3754 m and 3733 m | |
| location | France | |
| Mountains | Montblanc massif | |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 55 '58 " N , 6 ° 57' 23" E | |
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| rock | White granite | |
| First ascent | Clinton Thomas Dent, JW Hartley, Alexander Burgener and Kaspar Maurer on September 12, 1878 | |
| Normal way | Crossing from large to small Dru: difficulty III + according to UIAA , vice versa IV +, combined tour | |
The Aiguille du Dru [ ɛˈgɥij dy ˈdʀy ] is a mountain in the Montblanc massif , whose showpiece, the 1100 m high west face, dominates the rear valley of the Arve east of Chamonix . The two peaks
- Grande Aiguille du Dru or Grand Dru for short , 3754 m , and
- Petite Aiguille du Dru or Petit Dru for short , 3733 m ,
rise in the extension of the western ridge of the Aiguille Verte and are separated from each other by the Brèche du Dru ( 3697 m ). In abbreviation, the double-peaked mountain is often referred to as the Dru or, in the plural, the Drus .
Ascension story
The great difficulties and the impressive western view of the mountain exert a strong attraction on the climbing guild of France , Europe and the world; the ascension story is extraordinary:
- The Grand Dru (large Dru) was entered on September 12, 1878 by Clinton Thomas Dent, JW Hartley, Alexander Burgener and Kaspar Maurer for the first time via the southeast flank ( UIAA scale: III).
- The summit of the more difficult to climb Petit Dru (small Dru) was first climbed the following year, on August 29, 1879, via the southern flank and the southwest ridge (UIAA scale: IV and III). The successful rope team included the mountain guides Jean E. Charlet-Straton, Prosper Payot and Frédéric Folliguet.
- The first crossing of both peaks from the Grand to the Petit Dru was carried out by Josef Lochmatter from St. Niklaus and his guest LF Ryan in July 1901, the first crossing of both peaks from the Petit to the Grand Dru by Émile Fontaine and Joseph Ravanel on August 23, 1901.
- On August 1, 1935, the north face of the Aiguille du Dru was conquered by Pierre Allain and Raymond Leininger via the "Allain crack", which was extremely difficult for the time.
- 1952 were
- the south pillar on July 30th by Michel Bastien and André Contamine and
- the west face by Guido Magnone, Lucien Bérardini, Adrien Dagory and Marcel Laine in two stages from 1st to 5th and from 17th to 19th July first rose
- as well as a new north face tour on the Grand Dru (so-called »Lesueurführe«) from 25-27 July opened up by the Lesueur brothers.
- The name of the great Italian mountaineer Walter Bonatti is inextricably linked with the Aiguille du Dru , whose legendary solo effort over the 750 m high southwest pillar on the Petit Dru from August 17 to 22, 1955 set standards in alpine history (difficulty according to UIAA scale: VI / A2).
Marco Pedrini and Claudio Camerani carried out the first free ascent of the »Bonattippeilers«, grade VIII, overall rating according to the French ED + scale (ED = extrêmement difficile = extremely difficult) on July 11, 1982.
- In 1962, Royal Robbins and Gary Hemming opened American Direct on the west side of the Petit Dru. The upper part of the route, from the pendulum crossing to the right, no longer exists after several landslides . But from this point it is possible to cross bolts from the 1950s to the left, where you meet the classic north face guide just above the ice field.
The Aiguille du Dru was also Ludwig Purtscheller's mountain of fate . After climbing the Grand Dru on August 25, 1899, his rope team fell , with Purtscheller breaking his right upper arm. He did not recover from this fall. He died in Bern on March 3, 1900 of complications from pneumonia .
After the great landslide on September 18, 1997 and others in the following years, several west wall routes, including the Bonatti pillar, were badly damaged. We currently advise against climbing in the area of the eruptions.
See also
Web links
- Photos Pays du Mont-Blanc (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian Imboden: Berge: Beruf, Berufung, Schicksal , Rotten Verlag, Visp, 2013, page 133