The Drus’ arrow is a powerful magnet. The kind you can’t take your eyes off. The king mountaineers never forget. After a bitter failure in April, when one of them was rescued, Amaury Fouillade and Baptiste Obino returned, with Philippe Bruley, to takle the immense west face of the Drus. Not to repeat but to open a new route in seven days, Petit Pont (ED, M5, A3, 6a, 1000 m), a bigwall with a severe atmosphere despite (or because of) the proximity of another frendly rope party due to rock falls. Amaury Fouillade, a membre of the french GMHM (Groupe Militaire de Haute Montagne), recounts this memorable adventure.
The west face of the Drus is a cathedral of the Earth, said the poet John Ruskin. A diamond of granite, the spire of the Drus rises like a perpetual challenge, taken up since the middle of the 20th century. The