Benjamin Védrines and Léo Billon complete the Eiger-Matterhorn-Jorasses north face trilogy

The trilogy? “A rare adventure to pull off, you need all the right conditions, the weather, your friends…” says Benjamin Védrines, answering the phone between two paragliding jumps ! The trilogy is a specialty for Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines, who in 2022 signed their own reinvention of the North Face trilogy : at the time, in one winter, they successfully completed the three “directissimes” of the North Face with Sébastien Ratel : the Harlin route on the Eiger, the Directe de l’Amitié on the Jorasses and the Gogna-Cerruti on the Matterhorn.

The winter of 2024 saw them inaugurate an original and very difficult Chamonix trilogy : Drus, Droites, Jorasses, in three days, an “achievement” at the time for Benjamin Védrines. But since then, the Diois high school team has continued to cut its teeth at the very highest level, whether in the Himalayas, where Benjamin climbed K2 in 11 hours last summer, or in the Alps in winter, with Léo Billon pushing the dry tooling boundaries at Pré de Bar, or Benjamin soloing the hardest route on the Drus. So yes, there was the Jannu expedition, a U-turn after Léo felt ill. But the Billon-Védrines team has seen it all before. And they got back together once again, but at the last minute !

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The Eiger, Léo Billon in action. ©Coll. Billon/Védrines/Degrenelle

“In fact, I was thinking of doing a traverse elsewhere with Nicolas Jean, but the skiing conditions weren’t right. So, at the last minute, I suggested this sequence to Léo Billon, the classic trilogy of north faces, all of which seemed to be in good condition!” says Benjamin Védrines.

It all began in Grindelwald on April 6. The objective : the Eiger, 3970 meters, its mythical north face, and the Heckmair route, opened in 1938 to two roped parties. The last of the great north faces of the Alps to be conquered, the Eiger was for a long time an impassable wall. Here, Benjamin and Léo rediscover the thread of this vertical history, in dry and demanding conditions. It took them just 4 hours 10 minutes, overtaking no less than eight roped parties !

“We could have taken less than 3h30 without the other climbers, but the atmosphere was great,” says Benjamin. “I’m still impressed by Ueli Steck’s record on this same Heckmair route” (2h22 in 2015, which he took from Dani Arnold, 2h28 in 2011).

Then comes the Matterhorn, 4478 meters, from Zermatt. The Schmid route, opened by the brothers of the same name in 1931, marks an era of maximum commitment. And the Schmid brothers had also come from Munich by bike ! As with the Heckmair route, neither Léo nor Benjamin knew the route, which took them 5 hours and 40 minutes to complete.

The next day, while Léo made the journey by car, “because he wanted to stick to his climbing training”, Benjamin explained, he cycled 120 kilometers to Chamonix from Visp. The afternoon is devoted to the ascent to Montenvers, where the two friends pitch their tents.

Matterhorn, at Hörnli. ©Coll. Billon/Védrines/Degrenelle

The next day, with a departure from Montenvers extending the approach somewhat, Léo and Benjamin got up at 3.30 a.m. and reached the rimaye 2.30 hours later. “We’ve saved some energy for what’s to come,” says Védrines, who was still nursing a hamstring injury not so long ago. “I’m still not fully recovered, but I’ve got my doctor’s approval,” he half-jokes. The team climbs the Colton-McIntyre gullies in 4 hours 20 minutes. There they met only one other team.

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At the foot of the Jorasses ©Coll. Védrines/Degrenelle

Jorasses, the highlight

Here too, Benjamin Védrines had a thought for Ueli Steck, who folded the McIntyre chutes in a record time of 2h21 in 2008. “I’m really tempted by this kind of solo in the Jorasses. And even doing the trilogy solo too,” confesses Benjamin Védrines. “In the end, what we’ve done, it’s a form of recognition of the field ” he laughs.

After all, the trilogy is a myth on which other soloists have written their names : Ivano Ghirardini was the first to do it solo in 1978. The next person to come to mind is Christophe Profit, with his famous winter trilogy of March 1987, in which he completed the three north faces in 42 hours (including helicopter links). As for Védrines, he says he was “inspired by Klian Jornet’s 82 4000 meters” last summer, which Kilian reached by bike or on foot, without motorized means.

The ascent of Les Jorasses is going well, but three hundred meters below the summit Benjamin has “a bout of tiredness” due to a cold he’s had since the beginning of the week. But the team reached the summit of the Jorasses without a hitch, with Léo “super stressed” at the idea of taking off in a paraglider. And with good reason : “he hadn’t really flown for four years!” explains Benjamin. “We prepared the flight together, and then he took off running, because without wind we had to run,” he says.

This project is also a story of friendship : that of two high-school students who have become rope-mates and who, year after year, try to reinvent their practice. It’s also the story of a generation, in which we see mountaineering evolve without denying its foundations. It’s all about climbing the great north faces, but with a sober, sporting approach that remains faithful to a human vision of the mountains. “Mountaineering in the Alps is not dead. It just needs a little imagination, passion, and the courage to create its own path,” says Benjamin Védrines. For him, “this trilogy is not a story of ultra-performance, but a human adventure”.

Benjamin adds: “The night before the Eiger, we were singing outside at 10 p.m. Climbing with ease makes it easier to concentrate on something other than performance.” He emphasizes the “friendship and fluidity” with Léo during these three climbs, which involved a mix of tight rope, micro-traxions (protection for belaying in motion) and a few belays. A “relaxed” approach that only the sharpest rope team in the Alps can afford.