On Tuesday January 30, the french climbers Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines reached the summit of the Grandes Jorasses via the famous No Siesta route. The days before, they climbed Dru North Face’s voie des guides and Droites north face’s Rhem-Vimal Route. Three impressive alpine north faces in a row : Drus, Droites, and the Jorasses masterpiece as a grand finale: a magnificent trilogy for an exceptional team.
wo years after the other anthology winter trilogy completed with Ratel (Eiger-Jorasses-Cervin), Védrines was highly motivated to carry out a major project. Védrines first thought of a solo ascent on a different mountain, before imagining this trilogy of north faces with his high school buddy, now GMHM member Léo Billon. So the plan was to climb in a row : the voie des Guides (850 mètres, ED+, M8+), Drus north face, then Rhem-Vimal, one of the hardest of the Droites, (1000 m, M7/M8), and, as a dessert, the Grandes Jorasses north face, either by Bonatti-Vaucher, or No Siesta, arguably both very committed and hard routes. Finally, they ended up by climbing No Siesta in a single day, which is a premiere.
Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines at the sunset, near the Drus. ©Seb Montaz
Grandes Jorasses. No Siesta is in the middle of the face, under the Croz Spur. ©Jocelyn Chavy
The two friends have known each other since high school, and each has gone on to develop separately at the highest level. There’s no doubt that their team is one of the strongest in the world. Védrines made several remarkable ascents last year, the most fantastic of which was undoubtedly his solo ascent of the Intégrale de Peuterey in less than seven hours.
In February, also in 2023, Védrines and Billon stunned the mountaineering world with a one-day ascent of the Gousseault Desmaison route on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. Not only did they climb it all day, but they did it from Chamonix! A remarkable feat. In other words, they know the Grandes Jorasses well, but not the No Siesta wall, probably one of the most difficult routes in the headwall below the Croz spur.
©Seb Montaz
In the end, they wrote a magnificent new page in the history of mountaineering.
Top of the Jorasses, the 30th January evening. Védrines and Billon happiness !
Prior to that, they climbed the voie des Guides for the day as planned, with some very steep sections in cracks climbed by dry tooling, then the Rhem Vimal route on the north face of Les Droites, a little-traveled route whose lower, less steep section was a worry for Védrines and Billon due to the impossibility of protecting themselves properly.
Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines followed in the footsteps of the great trilogies – the one invented by Christophe Profit having left its mark – but added a dose of talent and speed never seen before. Sure that their one-day ascent of No Siesta’s 30 pitches impresses the best alpine climbers. After the NIAD, the NSIAD is the new alpine landmark !
In the end, they wrote a magnificent new page in the history of mountaineering.