SAMAYA x LEO BILLON

 

 

On January 28, 2024, two seasoned mountaineers, Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines, set off in pursuit of the legendary Drus, Droites and Grandes Jorasses. For Samaya, Léo recounts this crazy challenge, the surprising terrain conditions and the strength of the duo.

 

"Last winter, we did the Grandes Jorasses via the Gousseault Desmaison on a day trip from Chamonix. This trip gave us a glimpse of the possibilities for some fairly technical linking. We looked into the matter and, almost as a matter of course, we wanted to link up three routes in the Mont-Blanc massif, a priori the somewhat emblematic north faces where interesting things always happen: the Drus, the Droites and the Jorasses. We refined our route by choosing passages with technical difficulties. We got what we wanted!

 

On the whole, we had a lot of pleasant surprises, especially with the conditions in the Drus and Droites. For the Jorasses, it was the opposite. Everything was very dry. The route we set out on had little or no ice and tackle conditions, which is rather unusual for the place. We had expected these conditions, but not to the extent that the rock was so bad and the climbing so tricky.

 

It was on this side that we had our most difficult moment. We got lost and couldn't find a way through. We tried once to the left, then to the right, without success. We thought we'd never get out. We fell into a mode of tension from which we absolutely had to extricate ourselves. We ended up forcing a passage to get back on course. This back and forth cost us two hours.

 

At times like these, you really have no choice but to look for solutions. And then, too, we train ourselves to deal with moments like these. We're conditioned to try to find solutions, to solve the problem. In the end, going to the mountains means getting into trouble in the first place. But that's also what we like: finding solutions in these tense moments. That's not to say that we never have any doubts, but rather that we try to remain positive and objective to see what options are open to us.

 

We're not very good dry technicians, in fact we hardly ever do it. My last dry outing was last year, on the Gousseault Desmaison in the Jorasses, with Benjamin. And the time before that was the winter before that. It's a bit of an annual event. In concrete terms, these are technical itineraries for mountaineering, which remain accessible to a certain extent. Let's just say that it's more a question of a combination of factors: technicality, commitment, fatigue and time management, but also the experience of knowing how to work together.

 

Mentally, it's a bit the same. Taking on ambitious projects is something we've both been doing for fifteen years. It happens quite naturally. First there's the phase of creating the project and the objective, which we've determined and refined together. We project ourselves into it, think about the details, imagine what might happen and how long we think it will take. It's a beautiful process, involving a lot of imagination and visualization.

 

Benjamin and I are starting to get to know each other very well, both individually and collectively. On routes such as these, which are referenced, we're able to project quite precisely the time we'll be able to put in, our speed, and the difficulties we might encounter. And since we've been climbing together, we've been developing our projects, always with this little culture of linking up that we've been building up little by little over the last 15 years. Every time we went out, we'd say to ourselves: "this time, we're going to finish at night". So far, it's this last link-up where it's really happened.

 

We used to have this little joke that we'd finally found a project where we were really going to take the piss and finish at night. But every time, everything went well and it was still light at the top.

 

It happened to us again last year, at the top of the Jorasses, on our way out around 4pm! We hadn't brought sunglasses because we'd planned to arrive around 10pm. It happens every time. It's a bit crazy, but it unfolds and it's almost destabilizing. It's a bit of a paradox, compared to what you imagine when you leave.

 

For this outing, we knew that we would certainly finish at night, but if we hadn't gotten lost, we could have finished during the day.

 

A lot of people think we do a lot of tight rope, but in reality we had to do a maximum of twice 70 metres of tight rope, with a 60-metre rope, only on the really easy parts. In the end, we weren't climbing much differently from our 2-day climbs, for example. Also, we're pretty comfortable with the difficulty, which means we can climb pretty quickly, while protecting ourselves properly. In our progression, the second tries to go very fast. We're pretty efficient at making belays, finding protection, handing over gear and making all the little transitions without wasting time.

 

Then we're light. The first climbs with almost nothing and the second with even less. It's the ratio between lightness and efficiency.

 

We're well dressed, with tights, down pants and GoreTex for the bottoms, and for the tops, we have several layers consisting of a heavy down jacket, 2 liters of water per person per day and about 400 grams of food per person, as well as a small pharmacy.

 

On our backs, we end up weighing approximately 1.5 kilograms. If our bag already weighs 400 grams, that's 30% of the weight just for the container, so it's a bit of a shame. With my 70-gram Samaya bag, it was great!

 

When we got to the top, it was a bit strange. At the top of Les Jorasses, we were a little tired, but not at all exhausted. Over the last 15 years, Benjamin and I have developed a real culture of linking things up, of going for things that seem ambitious, and every time we finish the race, another project emerges. This time, when we got to the top, we both wondered what we were going to do next.

 

But on the other hand, we were really happy with what we'd done. That's when I realized what it all meant. I hadn't really thought that far ahead, and when I got up there, I was happy to have been able to make this great journey.

 

The question now is, where do I turn next? There are other projects calling my name... "

 

Photos by Benjamin Védrines @benjaminvedrines