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Home , Grandes Jorasses, Grand Capucin, Ice axe, Lionel Terray, Mont Blanc massif, Patrick Gabarrou

THE CLIMB INTERVIEW

Lucia Prosino talks to CHRISTOPHE DUMAREST

France is renowned as a country of exceptional climbers and outstanding mountaineers. Christophe Dumarest is no exception. Behind this highly skilled athlete, however, lies an inventive and attentive person, always ready to crack a joke and eager to share his experiences with others. He’s climbed extensively in the Greater Ranges and opened many new routes in the , such as Tifenn (V6 A1 M8+, 1100 m) on the Aiguille Sans Nom, Destruction Massive (M7/IV, 400m) on of the Tournier Spur on the Droites, and Jean-Chri (7a+, A1, 800 m) on the, Hidden Pillar of Freney. He’s also repeated some of the famous hard modern classics in the range, such as the Lesueur Route (ED3, M8+, 900 m) on the north face of the Dru, and the Gousseault/Desmaison (M7+, 1100m) route with a direct variation. But he prefers to spend his time devising his next , with a keen eye on the aesthetics of the range in question, and the historical aspects of the routes he chooses to link up. Lucia Prosino recently spoke to Christophe about his life and climbs, the role of ethics in the sport, and the enduring respect he has for British climbers and mountaineers.

Mont Blanc is your home and your playground. (Largo’s Route, ED1, W16, M5 X 5c). Why are a lot of Can you still write history there? strong alpinists going to China these days? Well I started going to the aged four, and before ten I China is an immense country, rich in history and traditions, had already gone up a 4000 metre peak in the area, all still pretty much unknown. China opened its borders to so I have a lot of experience in the region. It is perhaps easy to , so to speak, about fifteen years ago. You think that everything has been done in the Mont Blanc , can imagine what that means. It’s like a hidden treasure trove that you can only open a few things here and there. In fact, you suddenly appearing, an alpine gold rush. There is an astonishing can still have a lot of fun. variety in the massifs there, such a complexity of landscapes and With such an exceptional massif, I guess it also depends on rock formations: China’s mountains cover such a vast territory your perspective, on your focus and on how you look at it. and the possibilities there are almost endless. The possibilities of enchainments are a matter of creativity and I went there as part of the GHM (Groupe Haute-montagne)- personal interpretation. CMDI (Chinese Mountain Development Institute) programme and visited Li Ming in Yunnan for some trad , before You have certainly proved this with your moving to the mountains of Sichuan. There, we attempted to adventures, for instance on the north face of the climb Siguniang, but the extremely harsh conditions and very , which you climbed ten times. strong winds made it impossible. Some unfinished business There, among other things, you opened Heidi with worth going back for. A film was also produced from the trip, and Philippe Batoux, and during Sigun Exchange, directed by Bruno Peyronnet. your last ascent you repeated the Gousseault- Desmaison. What makes you want to go back to Bruno is the same director of La Voie Bonatti, faces like these? your acclaimed film which shows you and Yann Well, a simple answer may be that you have the adrenaline on Borgnet retracing climbing history on three one side and the beauty of the scenery surrounding you on the Bonatti routes on the . What role other: it’s the perfect combination. You keep on pushing your does play for you? limits and your sense of appreciation grows. You experience He was indeed a pioneer, a visionary mountaineer who had emotions which cannot usually be felt in everyday life. In the courage to pursue the lines he had set himself to climb, addition to this, you run big risks and are confronted with albeit with the somewhat inadequate equipment at hand at death. You are aware of the fact that even a minor mistake may that time. One may define him as a composer, a virtuoso in lead you to death. So when you return home, you see the world the history of mountaineering. What’s more, not only was he with different eyes and value everything around you much a gifted alpinist, but also a talented writer. In his books, he more, even things which may have seemed pretty mundane. comes across as a hero, someone who was never scared, tired or hungry. He certainly was an exemplary figure, although his There is clearly nothing mundane in what you relationship with other alpinists and the community in general do. You have travelled everywhere, from India to was not always so smooth. He also gave up mountaineering Alaska, Argentina to Canada, Peru to Pakistan, to aged 35, which is quite unusual and further encouraged the veil name a few places. You went to China last year of mystery that surrounded him. and opened a new route with Thomas Vialletet

40 WWW.CLIMBMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2014 WHEN I IMAGINE A NEW ROUTE, WHAT ATTRACTS ME THE MOST IS THE INVENTIVE ASPECT OF IT ALL. BEING ABLE TO SHAPE MY IDEAS FOLLOWING MY INSPIRATION, AND THEN SHARING MY ACHIEVEMENTS WITH OTHERS ARE THE THINGS I TRULY CHERISH

PORTRAIT BY MARC DAVIET

41 WWW.CLIMBMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2014 THIS PAGE: Christophe off La Dent du Géant in the Mont-Blanc Massif. In background is the famous Arête de Rochefort. MARC DAVIET

Tell me about the Bonatti routes shown in your film. These three routes (Bonatti-Vaucher, Pointe Whymper, north face of the Grandes Jorasses, Bonatti-Ghigo on the and Bonatti-Oggioni on the Red Pillar of Brouillard, with an exit on Mont Blanc) are pivotal ones in WHEN YOU START the Mont Blanc Massif. Retracing them was hard, but also fun for Yann [Borgnet] and myself. It was CLIMBING AT A my way of paying homage to Bonatti, but we did YOUNG AGE, IT COMES not want to boast any outstanding achievements. All through the film, you can see our hesitations, NATURALLY TO INVENT our mistakes and our fears. I really don’t see myself as a pioneer of mountaineering. Taking NEW LINES, TRAVERSING inspiration from and his thoughts, collected in Conquistadors of the Useless, I often FROM ONE MASSIF TO say that is the evolution of mountaineering. And it’s true. I am a professional mountaineer, as THE OTHER, GIVING well as a mountain guide, but I sometimes find it A CONTEXT AND hard to define myself as such.

And yet, looking at the things you A DEEPER SENSE TO THE achieved, one may be tempted to say the opposite. Together with Yann ROUTES BY LINKING THEM Borgnet, you repeated the Leuseur Route on the north face of the Dru in March 2012, climbing it free in its entirety, following the original itinerary right through from beginning to end. It was the first free repeat of this route. How does it feel to complete such an achievement? realised that what was supposed to be a rather The north face of the Dru is one of the great north straightforward route, turned out instead to be the faces of the Alps; it is very imposing, with its many one which partly collapsed after the major 1998 slabs and roofs, and the setting is quite austere. rock fall. All in all, it was a tremendous challenge. The Leuseur brothers, two very strong climbers of We did not have the right gear, no proper peg the 1950s, opened this route in July 1952. They hammer, and not enough pro. We had thought did not have proper rucksacks, but they carried of doing just one bivy, and ended up doing four a pan with them to cook some steaks at their (with the last one on top), so we were shattered first bivy. Those were the times! The route itself when we came back. My hands in particular were is peculiar in its originality, traversing the face in a terrible state. from one side to the other, making it a bold and You seem to favour enchainments and sometimes puzzling itinerary; its length exceeds adventures in less known areas, like 16 pitches, which are not always easy to decipher. your twelve-day tour of eight north Yann at one point even dropped an ice axe, so that faces in the Écrins massif (with Aymeric made our progression even more interesting. Clouet in 2008, and the film Les You have been nominated for the Méridiens des Écrins the result) the Fiz, Cristal FFME for the reopening of the opposite Mont Blanc, or further afield, Rimmon Route, a partially collapsed such as in the Vercors. How do these line on the Troll Wall in 2004. This is ideas come about? Europe’s tallest rock face and that route When I imagine a new route or a new adventure, had been declared unclimbable after what attracts me the most is the inventive aspect the September 1998 rock fall. What sort of it all. Being able to shape my ideas following of experience was it for you? my inspiration and my imagination, and then I went to Norway with the then FFME team, sharing my achievements with others are the as part of the ENJA (Equipe National Jeune things I truly cherish. I shape my itineraries Alpiniste) and our team leader was Christophe following a desire to spend more than just one Moulin. We felt really ambitious and were or two days in the mountains; I think that when strongly motivated. With Didier Jourdain and you start climbing at such a young age as I François Dupety, we set off on the classic route have done, then it comes natural to invent new on the north face of the Trollveggen, the Rimmon circuits and lines, traversing from one massif to Route (VI 5.10, 900m) which could be compared the other, giving a context and a deeper sense to the Walker on the Grandes Jorasses, but even to the routes by linking them. I also really enjoy steeper than that. Repeating this route was a turning a map around, searching for paths which good challenge for us, especially since we hadn’t go beyond what’s conventional and established.

42 WWW.CLIMBMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2014 CHRISTOPHE DUMAREST IS SPONSORED BY JULBO, , SCARPA, TINGERLAAT, DYNASTAR, NIC IMPEX, & RÊVE DE CIMES

I do not believe in a true hierarchy of the What is your opinion of British mountains. Sure, Mont Blanc can be considered climbers, and British climbing? my playground, and I will always hold dear I have the utmost respect for British climbers memories there, but there are also other places and mountaineers. They have maintained their where sound adventures can be had, such as the best adventure climbing areas in almost pristine Fiz Chain and the Natural Park of the Vercors, conditions, free from protection or belays, which are not very high mountains nor are they so freedom and a true sense of adventure still very well known. prevail. Together with , In the Fiz, Yann Borgnet and Rèmi Duhoux is one of the countries where you’ll find the accompanied me. We climbed Biografiz (8a highest number of bolted routes, even in max, 300m) and Entre les Gouttes (7c+ max, the Mont Blanc area. I consider these routes 300m), finishing off with Albatros (7b+ max, profound mistakes and some serious debolting 300m). It was a wonderful journey along the should be put in place. A case in point is the impregnable fortresses of the Platé desert. Dent du Géant, where you’ll find some thick In August 2012, Yann Borgnet and I climbed old fixed ropes set alongside some exceptional three routes in the Vercors in one day: the cracks, their difficulties being AD (IV). They Glandasse and Archiane faces, adding the far- had been clearly put there to ease the job of away Mont-Aiguille face. All the routes had been some mountain guides, but they completely opened in the 60s and 70, their grades either TD/ spoil both the route and the environment. TD+. The routes are the Pilier Leprice-Ringuet I once spoke to Andy Parkin [the leading on Glandasse (400m, TD+), Voie du Levant on British alpinist and painter based in ] Archiane (400m, TD) and Voie des Diables on during a meeting on trad climbing and the Mt Aiguille (220M TD+). bolting of routes and he summed the whole The interesting thing about our adventure in thing up brilliantly when he said: ‘In France, the Vercors is the fact that these three routes, you sit down and discuss these things. Back ranging from 200 to 400 m, were done in one home in the UK it’s a completely different story single day, so the real challenge was to link them altogether. We simply debolt the route if it’s in time. been bolted in a trad-only area, and the person who put the bolts in the first place gets a good Have you ever climbed in the UK? beating. And you can be sure he won’t do that No, unfortunately I have never been there. This again!’ is quite a hefty shortcoming in my climbing life. I will most probably go and climb in the Ben Nevis area this winter, together with some TOP: Christophe climbing the normal route of La Dent du Géant in the Mont-Blanc massif. RIGHT: Christophe high on the hard alpine friends. I would also like to discover the Peak big wall of Entre les Gouttes (7c+ max, 300m) on the Fiz in the District next summer. Valley, west of the Mont Blanc Massif. BOTH MARC DAVIET

43 WWW.CLIMBMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2014