Benjamin Védrines and Nicolas Jean sign an unprecedented crossing of Mont-Blanc in three days

In three days, Benjamin Védrines and Nicolas Jean produced an unprecedented crossing of the Mont-Blanc Massif in Ski. An alpine trip punctuated by mythical peaks and steep slopes, made possible by favorable weather and rigorous preparation.

“Magic, unreal and suspended.” It is with these words that Benjamin Védrines sums up his crazy adventure alongside Nicolas Jean. For three days, the Haut-Alpine cordée offered itself a full crossing of the Mont-Blanc massif in Ski.

“The idea was to cross the Mont-Blanc massif from South to North by trying to descend as many steep slopes as possible skiing and through the most prestigious summits”, tells Benjamin Védrines already author of a chain of the three main northern faces of the Alps in less than a week, last April.

From April 29 to May 1, the two mountaineers therefore took up an unprecedented challenge made up of vertiginous ascents and descents at more than 4,000 meters above sea level on the most legendary lines of the massif. “An aesthetic and demanding route”underlines the French mountaineer met a few days after his journey.

“It is a very aesthetic crossing, which starts from the contamines and goes to the village of the Tour. And it is something that has already been hanging in our head for a while, I would say two to three years. It is a crossing that had not yet been made. It is required, it requires that the conditions be present. It is multifactorial, but in any case, we had the chance to be the first to be able to realize this dream”, he rejoices.

A dream made possible thanks to a favorable weather and a rigorous preparation, both logistical and mental: “There were a lot of phone calls to our peers to find out if the faces are in good conditions. I also made location on the spot, I went to the top of Mont Blanc two days before and in the Argentière basin to look at the faces.”

The adventure begins at dawn. After reaching the Blanche Lée (3,697 m) at daybreak, they plunge in its immaculate northern face. The Miage Dome, with its snow without catch, requires extreme concentration. Then comes the bionnassay needle (4,052 m), “A real ordeal”, According to Benjamin Védrines.

It was the most delicate and the most complicated to manage. At times, we really timed, we were scared.

Benjamin Védrines, professional mountaineer

“We knew that it was a slope which was not in exceptional condition because of the snowfall a little deficit this season. And there, we found ourselves in front of ice plates which were just covered with a thin layer of fresh snow, which was really very complicated to maneuver. Even if it is not the stiff, it was the most delicate and the most complicated to manage. fear”, he remembers moved.

This first day ends with the snack refuge, one of the points where the equipment transported in the bags of about 10 kg proved to be essential. “We leave for a trip and in this trip, there are in particular three nights in refuge. The first and the last are in kept shelters, but the night’s night which is at the refuge of snack is not kept. And in this specific case, we had to take a stove, food gas, to eat and melt snow so that we have water for the next day”, explains the mountaineer.

There is little oxygen, extreme temperature variations, and despite everything, you have to remain lucid in descents where the slightest error can be fatal.

Benjamin Védrines, professional mountaineer

The next day, they set off again at dawn to climb the white Mont before switching to the legendary southern face of the Brenva. The duo then faces a few unforeseen events, including a lost ice ax and an impracticable descent line which forces them to adapt their route. They continue with the Gervasutti corridor, then cross the Leschaux glacier before going up to the refuge of the lid, concluding a day of rare intensity.

“It is more than 10 hours of effort per day, above 4,000 meters above sea level. There is little oxygen, variations in extreme temperature and despite everything, you have to remain lucid in descents where the slightest error can be fatal”specifies Benjamin Védrines.

After having crossed the green needle (4,122 m) then that of Argentière, the duo concludes his journey through the goldfinch. The descent by the Migot spur and the north face of the goldfinch is made in ideal conditions, a final point to this unprecedented crossing which has just been engraved in the snow of the Mont-Blanc massif.