Back in Last November in 2012, Ben Briggs and I went up to climb the Dru Couloir. Conditions were excellent, but we made a couple route finding errors in the dark and the rock pitches were quite time consuming.
This October I randomly bumped into Tasmanian beast Kim Ladiges in Macdonalds. The first and only other time we had climbed together was on the Peuterey Integrale back in 2010. Ben Tibbets joined us at the last minute to complete our trio.
Magnificent photos courtesy of Ben Tibbetts.
A light dusting of snow, thin mixed and black ice were the order of the day.
A BD Firstlight tent made the bivi more comfortable. The bivi at the bottom of the Dru is very well situated and seems to be a prime spot for epic sunsets.
The glacier was easy enough to negotiate, save for a ball tingling three foot gap jump over a monstrous crevasse. After the schrund there is 50m of 70 degree brittle ice, then a long stretch of 50-60 degree neve.
Before the rock wall and nominee crack, there are 3 rope lengths of slightly steeper neve covering rotten rock. In 2012 conditions were much fatter and we easily ran up this section, confused by the mention of chossy grade 3 rock in the guide book. This time there was thin snow and neve on the slabs making it insecure and tedious with very spaced gear.
There are in situ anchors at all of the belays for the rock section, which is a useful reference point for the Nominee. It follows a very steep finger width pegged up crack. It can be climbed in one pitch with 60s. Last year Ben and I struggled up it using a combo of free and aid. It goes free at M7+ sport grade. I’m not a regular dry tooler so hard to say how this would compare to a M7+ at a dry tooling crag. IMO, unless you are a uber wad on your tools, there is no point trying to free it. It’s simply not a good pitch of free climbing. The placements are tenuous and there are pegs everywhere. Once you admit this to yourself, it makes sense to attack it with full aid tactics. Kim, fresh off his last Yosemite trip, pissed up it in minutes with etriers. We ascended the rope which was far quicker and easier than our approach last year. Alpine aiding on second sucks.
Kim on the overhanging start of the Nominee
Despite my smile, jumaring on half ropes is not super fun.
After the aiding, there is a long tricky M6 pitch. First a short steep step, then veer right to a pegged corner. After 20m of sustained climbing, keep heading right over slabs. It is easy to make the mistake of continuing straight up. I led this section in a full 60m pitch to the start of the crux offwidth.
Last year I climbed half of the pitch before bailing and protected the start with a stubby screw. This year there was a little ice in the back of the wide crack, but not enough to be much use. The crux is a full 60m of sustained hard mixed. Starts off M6/M6+, with the crux wide flake M7. Scottish 8 free. I’d recommend taking camlots 3 and 4. Great effort by Kim. Easier with lots of ice or no ice (in winter 2011 it was dry, and talked to one French guide who took his crampons off for it and jammed it with thin gloves).
Above; Kim getting stuck into the first section, me halfway up.
After the crux wide flake (very awkward climbing) keep veering right and into the ice couloir.
We were hoping to move together up it but it was mostly heinous black ice, so we pitched it. Usually the S bend (crux of the upper couloir) is pretty mellow mixed or just ice. We find a tricky overhanging snow plugged that was quick time consuming. Good lead by Ben, then onto the last 4 pitches of black ice.
From the Breche, its 800m of rapping back down. Best to head straight down the overhanging chimneys of the direct. All anchors are in place but on the lower neve they may be hard to find and of questionable integrity. We arrived back late at our bivi and crashed there for the remainder of the night. Great to finally complete this mega classic on a truly iconic mountain.
Tom Grant 