WWW.CLIMBMAGAZINE.COM FEBRUARY 2014 40 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 Alps, such as Tifenn (V6 A1 M8+, 1100 m) on the Aiguille Sans Nom, Destruction Massive (M7/IV, 400m) on the north face 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 enchainments, with a keen eye on the aesthetics of the mountain 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. Can you still write history there? Well I started going to the mountains aged four, and before ten I had already gone up a 4000 metre peak in the Mont Blanc area, so I have a lot of experience in the region. It is perhaps easy to think that everything has been done in the Mont Blanc Massif, that you can only open a few things here and there. In fact, you can still have a lot of fun. With such an exceptional massif, I guess it also depends on your perspective, on your focus and on how you look at it. The possibilities of enchainments are a matter of creativity and personal interpretation. You have certainly proved this with your adventures, for instance on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, which you climbed ten times. There, among other things, you opened Heidi with Patrick Gabarrou and Philippe Batoux, and during your last ascent you repeated the Gousseault- Desmaison. What makes you want to go back to faces like these? Well, a simple answer may be that you have the adrenaline on one side and the beauty of the scenery surrounding you on the other: it’s the perfect combination. You keep on pushing your limits and your sense of appreciation grows. You experience emotions which cannot usually be felt in everyday life. In addition to this, you run big risks and are confronted with death. You are aware of the fact that even a minor mistake may lead you to death. So when you return home, you see the world with different eyes and value everything around you much more, even things which may have seemed pretty mundane. There is clearly nothing mundane in what you do. You have travelled everywhere, from India to Alaska, Argentina to Canada, Peru to Pakistan, to name a few places. You went to China last year and opened a new route with Thomas Vialletet (Largo’s Route, ED1, W16, M5 X 5c). Why are a lot of strong alpinists going to China these days? China is an immense country, rich in history and traditions, all still pretty much unknown. China opened its borders to mountaineering, so to speak, about fifteen years ago. You can imagine what that means. It’s like a hidden treasure trove suddenly appearing, an alpine gold rush. There is an astonishing variety in the massifs there, such a complexity of landscapes and rock formations: China’s mountains cover such a vast territory and the possibilities there are almost endless. I went there as part of the GHM (Groupe Haute-montagne)- CMDI (Chinese Mountain Development Institute) programme and visited Li Ming in Yunnan for some trad climbing, before moving to the mountains of Sichuan. There, we attempted to climb Siguniang, but the extremely harsh conditions and very strong winds made it impossible. Some unfinished business worth going back for. A film was also produced from the trip, Sigun Exchange, directed by Bruno Peyronnet. Bruno is the same director of La Voie Bonatti, your acclaimed film which shows you and Yann Borgnet retracing climbing history on three Bonatti routes on the Mont Blanc Massif. What role does Walter Bonatti play for you? He was indeed a pioneer, a visionary mountaineer who had the courage to pursue the lines he had set himself to climb, albeit with the somewhat inadequate equipment at hand at that time. One may define him as a composer, a virtuoso in the history of mountaineering. What’s more, not only was he a gifted alpinist, but also a talented writer. In his books, he comes across as a hero, someone who was never scared, tired or hungry. He certainly was an exemplary figure, although his relationship with other alpinists and the community in general was not always so smooth. He also gave up mountaineering aged 35, which is quite unusual and further encouraged the veil of mystery that surrounded him. THE CLIMB INTERVIEW
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
W W W . C L I M B M A G A Z I N E . C O M
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
40
Lucia Prosino talks to
CHRISTOPHE DUMARESTFrance 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 Alps, such as Tifenn (V6 A1 M8+, 1100 m) on the Aiguille Sans Nom, Destruction Massive (M7/IV, 400m) on the north face 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 enchainments, with a keen eye on the aesthetics of the mountain 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. Can you still write history there? Well I started going to the mountains aged four, and before ten I had already gone up a 4000 metre peak in the Mont Blanc area, so I have a lot of experience in the region. It is perhaps easy to think that everything has been done in the Mont Blanc Massif, that you can only open a few things here and there. In fact, you can still have a lot of fun.
With such an exceptional massif, I guess it also depends on your perspective, on your focus and on how you look at it. The possibilities of enchainments are a matter of creativity and personal interpretation.
You have certainly proved this with your adventures, for instance on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses, which you climbed ten times. There, among other things, you opened Heidi with Patrick Gabarrou and Philippe Batoux, and during your last ascent you repeated the Gousseault-Desmaison . What makes you want to go back to faces like these? Well, a simple answer may be that you have the adrenaline on one side and the beauty of the scenery surrounding you on the other: it’s the perfect combination. You keep on pushing your limits and your sense of appreciation grows. You experience emotions which cannot usually be felt in everyday life. In addition to this, you run big risks and are confronted with death. You are aware of the fact that even a minor mistake may lead you to death. So when you return home, you see the world with different eyes and value everything around you much more, even things which may have seemed pretty mundane.
There is clearly nothing mundane in what you do. You have travelled everywhere, from India to Alaska, Argentina to Canada, Peru to Pakistan, to name a few places. You went to China last year and opened a new route with Thomas Vialletet
(Largo’s Route, ED1, W16, M5 X 5c). Why are a lot of strong alpinists going to China these days?China is an immense country, rich in history and traditions, all still pretty much unknown. China opened its borders to mountaineering, so to speak, about fifteen years ago. You can imagine what that means. It’s like a hidden treasure trove suddenly appearing, an alpine gold rush. There is an astonishing variety in the massifs there, such a complexity of landscapes and rock formations: China’s mountains cover such a vast territory and the possibilities there are almost endless.
I went there as part of the GHM (Groupe Haute-montagne)-CMDI (Chinese Mountain Development Institute) programme and visited Li Ming in Yunnan for some trad climbing, before moving to the mountains of Sichuan. There, we attempted to climb Siguniang, but the extremely harsh conditions and very strong winds made it impossible. Some unfinished business worth going back for. A film was also produced from the trip, Sigun Exchange, directed by Bruno Peyronnet.
Bruno is the same director of La Voie Bonatti, your acclaimed film which shows you and Yann Borgnet retracing climbing history on three Bonatti routes on the Mont Blanc Massif. What role does Walter Bonatti play for you?He was indeed a pioneer, a visionary mountaineer who had the courage to pursue the lines he had set himself to climb, albeit with the somewhat inadequate equipment at hand at that time. One may define him as a composer, a virtuoso in the history of mountaineering. What’s more, not only was he a gifted alpinist, but also a talented writer. In his books, he comes across as a hero, someone who was never scared, tired or hungry. He certainly was an exemplary figure, although his relationship with other alpinists and the community in general was not always so smooth. He also gave up mountaineering aged 35, which is quite unusual and further encouraged the veil of mystery that surrounded him.
THE CLIMB INTERVIEW
W W W . C L I M B M A G A Z I N E . C O M
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
41
PORTRAIT BY MARC DAVIET
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
W W W . C L I M B M A G A Z I N E . C O M
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
42
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 Grand Capucin and Bonatti-Oggioni on the Red Pillar of Brouillard, with an exit on Mont Blanc) are pivotal ones in the Mont Blanc Massif. Retracing them was hard, but also fun for Yann [Borgnet] and myself. It was my way of paying homage to Bonatti, but we did not want to boast any outstanding achievements. All through the film, you can see our hesitations, our mistakes and our fears. I really don’t see myself as a pioneer of mountaineering. Taking inspiration from Lionel Terray and his thoughts, collected in Conquistadors of the Useless, I often say that hiking is the evolution of mountaineering. And it’s true. I am a professional mountaineer, as well as a mountain guide, but I sometimes find it hard to define myself as such.
And yet, looking at the things you achieved, one may be tempted to say the opposite. Together with Yann 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? The north face of the Dru is one of the great north faces of the Alps; it is very imposing, with its many slabs and roofs, and the setting is quite austere. The Leuseur brothers, two very strong climbers of the 1950s, opened this route in July 1952. They did not have proper rucksacks, but they carried a pan with them to cook some steaks at their first bivy. Those were the times! The route itself is peculiar in its originality, traversing the face from one side to the other, making it a bold and sometimes puzzling itinerary; its length exceeds 16 pitches, which are not always easy to decipher. Yann at one point even dropped an ice axe, so that made our progression even more interesting.
You have been nominated for the Cristal FFME for the reopening of the Rimmon Route, a partially collapsed line on the Troll Wall in 2004. This is Europe’s tallest rock face and that route had been declared unclimbable after the September 1998 rock fall. What sort of experience was it for you? I went to Norway with the then FFME team, as part of the ENJA (Equipe National Jeune Alpiniste) and our team leader was Christophe Moulin. We felt really ambitious and were strongly motivated. With Didier Jourdain and François Dupety, we set off on the classic route on the north face of the Trollveggen, the Rimmon Route (VI 5.10, 900m) which could be compared to the Walker on the Grandes Jorasses, but even steeper than that. Repeating this route was a good challenge for us, especially since we hadn’t
realised that what was supposed to be a rather straightforward route, turned out instead to be the one which partly collapsed after the major 1998 rock fall. All in all, it was a tremendous challenge. We did not have the right gear, no proper peg hammer, and not enough pro. We had thought of doing just one bivy, and ended up doing four (with the last one on top), so we were shattered when we came back. My hands in particular were in a terrible state.
You seem to favour enchainments and adventures in less known areas, like your twelve-day tour of eight north faces in the Écrins massif (with Aymeric Clouet in 2008, and the film Les Méridiens des Écrins the result) the Fiz, opposite Mont Blanc, or further afield, such as in the Vercors. How do these ideas come about?When I imagine a new route or a new adventure, what attracts me the most is the inventive aspect of it all. Being able to shape my ideas following my inspiration and my imagination, and then sharing my achievements with others are the things I truly cherish. I shape my itineraries following a desire to spend more than just one or two days in the mountains; I think that when you start climbing at such a young age as I have done, then it comes natural to invent new circuits and lines, traversing from one massif to the other, giving a context and a deeper sense to the routes by linking them. I also really enjoy turning a map around, searching for paths which go beyond what’s conventional and established.
WHEN YOU START CLIMBING AT A
YOUNG AGE, IT COMES NATURALLY TO INVENT
NEW LINES, TRAVERSING FROM ONE MASSIF TO
THE OTHER, GIVING A CONTEXT AND
A DEEPER SENSE TO THE ROUTES BY LINKING THEM
THIS PAGE: Christophe abseiling off La Dent du Géant in the Mont-Blanc Massif. In background is the famous Arête de Rochefort. MARC DAVIET
W W W . C L I M B M A G A Z I N E . C O M
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
43
CHRISTOPHE DUMAREST IS SPONSORED BY JULBO, PETZL, SCARPA, TINGERLAAT, DYNASTAR, NIC IMPEX, & RÊVE DE CIMES
I do not believe in a true hierarchy of the mountains. Sure, Mont Blanc can be considered my playground, and I will always hold dear memories there, but there are also other places where sound adventures can be had, such as the Fiz Chain and the Natural Park of the Vercors, which are not very high mountains nor are they very well known.
In the Fiz, Yann Borgnet and Rèmi Duhoux accompanied me. We climbed Biografiz (8a max, 300m) and Entre les Gouttes (7c+ max, 300m), finishing off with Albatros (7b+ max, 300m). It was a wonderful journey along the impregnable fortresses of the Platé desert.
In August 2012, Yann Borgnet and I climbed three routes in the Vercors in one day: the Glandasse and Archiane faces, adding the far-away Mont-Aiguille face. All the routes had been opened in the 60s and 70, their grades either TD/TD+. The routes are the Pilier Leprice-Ringuet on Glandasse (400m, TD+), Voie du Levant on Archiane (400m, TD) and Voie des Diables on Mt Aiguille (220M TD+).
The interesting thing about our adventure in the Vercors is the fact that these three routes, ranging from 200 to 400 m, were done in one single day, so the real challenge was to link them in time.
Have you ever climbed in the UK?No, unfortunately I have never been there. This 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 friends. I would also like to discover the Peak District next summer.
What is your opinion of British climbers, and British climbing?I have the utmost respect for British climbers and mountaineers. They have maintained their best adventure climbing areas in almost pristine conditions, free from bolt protection or belays, so freedom and a true sense of adventure still prevail. Together with Switzerland, France is one of the countries where you’ll find the highest number of bolted routes, even in the Mont Blanc area. I consider these routes profound mistakes and some serious debolting should be put in place. A case in point is the Dent du Géant, where you’ll find some thick old fixed ropes set alongside some exceptional cracks, their difficulties being AD (IV). They had been clearly put there to ease the job of some mountain guides, but they completely spoil both the route and the environment.
I once spoke to Andy Parkin [the leading British alpinist and painter based in Chamonix] during a meeting on trad climbing and the bolting of routes and he summed the whole thing up brilliantly when he said: ‘In France, you sit down and discuss these things. Back home in the UK it’s a completely different story altogether. We simply debolt the route if it’s been bolted in a trad-only area, and the person who put the bolts in the first place gets a good beating. And you can be sure he won’t do that again!’
TOP: Christophe climbing the normal route of La Dent du Géant in the Mont-Blanc massif. RIGHT: Christophe high on the hard alpine big wall of Entre les Gouttes (7c+ max, 300m) on the Fiz in the Arve Valley, west of the Mont Blanc Massif. BOTH MARC DAVIET
Related Documents
