Gousseault-Desmaison on Grandes Jorasses in-a-day by Védrines and Billon
- Friday 17th February 2023
Renowned alpinists Benjamin Védrines and Léo Billon report an impressive in-a-day ascent of the Gousseault-Desmaison on the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses.
The 1200m long ED2 VI-grade route, one of the longest and finest mixed routes in the Alps, tackles the steep line between The Shroud and The Walker Spur. Tragically, Serge Gousseault was killed during the first attempt on the route leaving René Desmaison, Giorgio Gertone, and Michele Clareta to make the first ascent over a seven day period in February 1973. Involving 50 to 85 degree snow/ice ramps as well as corners, chimneys and steep mixed climbing the Gousseaut-Desmaison was first free climbed by Guy Robertson and Pete Benson in October 2007.
Reporting their ascent on Instagram Védrines wrote, “One push to the Jorasses by the Gousseaut-Desmaison. A dream that comes true..! With Léo Billon this Wednesday, February 15th at 1:30 am from Chamonix, we left with all our equipment to climb one of the most iconic paths on the northern face of the Grandes Jorasses.”
The usual method of approaching the route is to take the train from Chamonix up to Montenvers. A four hour walk up the Mer de Glace leads to the Leschaux hut after which another 3-4 hours is needed to get to the base of the route. Conditions on the route often dictate the difficulty and hence the time taken for an ascent but a two day ascent is considered a very fast time; some ascents take 3-4 days.
Judged against these times, the in-a-day ascent by Védrines and Billon is remarkable. Translating from Védrines’ Instagram post their time splits are eye-watering, “15 hours from parking lot to summit, 9:10 on the route and 4 hours later in front of a real pizza, I will remember for a long time this long 19 hour day.”
Védrines was understandably delighted with their ascent saying, “All the ascent I had the joyful feeling of mastering this beautiful art of mountaineering. Everything was happening, our rope was working perfectly. When everything is going well, when you joke all the way and you really get your foot on it, then you enter a nirvana mountaineering dimension!”
Védrines added, “The idea of having to rely on ourselves, of being self-sufficient from the valley, of not having up-to-date information on the itinerary, and having the surprise of arriving much earlier than expected to the summit, without sunglasses! All the elements were there to experience the great mountaineering as we like it!”
Famously, in-a-day ascents have become the gold standard for many multi-pitch routes over the last few decades. However, the ascent of the Gousseaut-Desmaison on the Grandes Jorasses by Benjamin Védrines and Léo Billon in just 19 hours – including an on-foot approach from Chamonix - appears to be little short of remarkable!
Last winter Benjamin Védrines, Léo Billon and Sébastien Ratel completed their winter Alpine Direttissima Trilogy ascents (click here for that report) within a month. It seems Védrines and Billon have a very strong partnership at the moment.