Passing through Paris, the young mountaineer Charles Dubouloz recounts his ascent carried out in artificial mode (with pitons, jammers and stirrups) with fear as his only companion.
From January 13 to 18, the young mountaineer Charles Dubouloz achieved the solo feat of climbing the north face of the Grandes Jorasses to climb the Rolling Stones route, a dry route known for its bad stones, open to the summer 1979 by four Slovak mountaineers and which no one had yet tackled solo and in winter, when the temperatures at night are close to minus thirty degrees in feeling.
A rare performance to place in the annals of the Mont-Blanc massif, alongside the big names in mountaineering. Dubouloz, already author in 2021 of the ascent of the north face of the Petits Drus in the same massif and the opening of a new route in duet with Benjamin Védrines on the north face of Chamlang (7319 meters, Nepal), s is now in line with the masters of French mountaineering such as Jean-Christophe Lafaille, Marc Batard, Lionel Daudet and Christophe Moulin.
Charles Dubouloz © DR
“What Charles did is a feat, it’s the test to test himself and tap into his resources. It’s almost in the realm of meditation. We find the roots of mountaineering. In addition in winter on routes like this, it’s almost bestial. You need extraordinary abilities, ”commented to AFP Christophe Moulin, who climbed this same north face in winter in 2006, but with two rope companions. “It’s an extremely high and committed face. It is one of the most difficult mountains in all of the Alps to climb. It is a degrading granite, with many rocks in balance. It is very cold, the days are shorter so we are sure to spend more time there, the slightest gust of wind is a test. To succeed alone, you really have to be one of the best mountaineers,” says Moulin.
With this unprecedented ascent, Charles Dubouloz has brought back to the fore the front of the stage “the great adventurer solo” in the Alps, which made people dream in the 1990s and 2000s before passing into the background in favor of “the great ropes and the records of speed,” according to Moulin.
Photo credit: Sebmontazstudio
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