SAMAYA x LEO BILLON

 

 

On January 28, 2024, the two seasoned mountaineers Léo Billon and Benjamin Védrines set out to tackle the legendary link-up of the Drus, Droites, and Grandes Jorasses. For Samaya, Léo recounts this wild challenge, the surprising terrain conditions, and the strength of the duo.

 

“Last winter, we did the Grandes Jorasses via the Gousseault-Desmaison in a single day from Chamonix. This long outing allowed us to glimpse the possibilities of fairly technical link-ups. We looked into it, and it seemed almost obvious that we wanted to link three routes in the Mont-Blanc massif, essentially the somewhat iconic north faces where interesting things are always happening: the Drus, the Droites, and the Jorasses. We refined our route by choosing passages with technical difficulties. We certainly got what we came for!

 

Overall, we had a lot of good surprises, especially regarding the conditions on the Drus and the Droites. For the Jorasses, it was the opposite. Everything was very dry. The route we committed to had little to no ice or veneer conditions, which is quite unusual for that location. We expected these conditions, but not to the point where the rock would be so poor and moving through it so delicate.

 

It was on this face that we experienced the most delicate moment. We got lost; we couldn’t find where to go. We tried once to the left, then to the right, without success. We thought we would never make it out. We slipped into a state of tension from which we absolutely had to extricate ourselves. We eventually forced a passage to get back onto the route. These back-and-forth efforts cost us two hours.

 

In those moments, you don’t really have any choice other than to look for solutions. And also, we train to face moments like those. We are conditioned to try to find solutions, to solve the problem. Ultimately, going into the mountains is already about wading into problems. But that’s also what we like: finding solutions in those moments of tension. That doesn’t mean we never have doubts, but rather that we try to stay positive and objective to see what options are available to us.

 

We are not very strong at dry tooling; in fact, we almost never do it. My last dry tooling outing goes back to last year, on the Gousseault-Desmaison in the Jorasses, with Benjamin. And the time before that was the winter before. It’s a bit of an annual appointment. Concretely, these are technical routes for mountaineering that remain accessible, to a certain extent. Let’s say it’s more of a combination of factors: technicality, commitment, managing fatigue and long durations, but also the experience of knowing how to work together.

 

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

 

With Benjamin, we are starting to know each other well, both mutually and individually. On routes like these, which are well-documented, we manage to project ourselves quite accurately regarding the times we will be able to manage, our speed, and the difficulties we might encounter. And since we started climbing together, we have evolved our projects, always with this little culture of link-ups that we have been growing bit by bit for 15 years. Each time we went out, we said to ourselves: "This time, we will finish in the dark." Until now, it was only for this last link-up that it really happened.

 

Before, we had this little joke about how we had finally found a project where we would really struggle and finish in the dark. But every time, everything went well, and it was still daylight at the summit.

 

It happened to us again last year, at the top of the Jorasses, coming out around 4 PM! We hadn’t brought sunglasses because we had planned to arrive around 10 PM. It’s like that every time. It’s a bit crazy, but it goes smoothly, and it’s almost destabilizing. It’s quite paradoxical compared to what we imagine when we set off.

 

For this outing, we knew we would certainly finish in the dark, but if we hadn’t gotten lost, we could have finished in daylight.

 

Many people think we do a lot of climbing on a moving rope, but in reality, we probably only did two 70-meter pitches on a moving rope at most, with a 60-meter rope, only on the really easy sections. In the end, we weren't climbing much differently than our two-day ascents, for example. Also, we are quite comfortable in difficulty, which allows us to climb quite quickly while still placing protection correctly. In our progression, the second climber tries to go very fast. We are quite efficient at setting up belays, finding protection, passing gear, and performing all the little transitions without wasting time.

 

Next, we are light. The first climber climbs with almost nothing, and the second with even less. It’s the ratio between lightness and efficiency.

 

We are well-dressed, with tights, down pants, and a Gore-Tex for the bottom; for the top, we have several layers composed of a big down jacket, 2 liters of water per person per day, and about 400 grams of food per person, as well as a small first-aid kit.

 

On our backs, we end up with approximately 1.5 kilograms. If our pack 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 pack, it was great!

 

When we arrived at the summit, it was a bit strange. At the top of the Jorasses, we were a bit tired, but not at all exhausted. For 15 years with Benjamin, we have really had this culture of link-ups, of going into things that seem ambitious to us, and each time we finished the climb, another project would emerge. This time, arriving up there, we both asked ourselves what we were going to do now.

 

However, we were extremely happy with what we had done. It was at that moment that I realized what it represented. I hadn’t projected myself that much, and coming out up there, I was happy to have been able to complete this beautiful route.

 

The question I am asking myself now is what should I turn to? There are other projects calling me…”

 

©Photographs taken by Benjamin Védrines @benjaminvedrines