Aiguille du Dru

The Dru seen from the Mer de Glace

The Aiguille du Dru [ ɛgɥij dy dʀy ] is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, its showpiece, the 1100 m high west wall, the rear of the Arve valley east of Chamonix dominated. The two peaks

• Grande Aiguille du Dru or shortly Grand Dru, 3754 m, and
• Petite Aiguille du Dru or short Petit Dru 3733 m,

Arise in the extension of the Aiguille Verte Westgrates and by the Breche du Dru ( 3697 m) apart. Brevity, the doppelgipfelige mountain is often referred to as the Dru Dru or in the plural.

Ersteigungsgeschichte

The great difficulty and the magnificent view of the mountain West exert a very strong attraction to the Climbing Guild of France, Europe and the world; the Ersteigungsgeschichte is exceptional:

• The Grand Dru ( Dru large ) was developed by Clinton Thomas Dent, JW Hartley, Alexander Burgener and Kaspar Maurer for the first time on the southeast flank ( UIAA scale: III ) on September 12, 1878 to enter.

• The summit of the difficult -to-climb Petit Dru ( Dru smaller ) was in the following year, on August 29, 1879, on the southern flank and the south-west ridge ( UIAA scale: IV and III), first ascents. To successfully roped included the mountain guide Jean E. Charlet Straton - Prosper Payot and Frédéric Folliguet.

• The first traverse of both summits of the Petit Dru led to the Grand Émile Fontaine and Joseph Ravanel by on August 23, 1901.

• On August 1, 1935, the north face of the Aiguille du Dru Pierre Allain and Raymond Leininger on the for that time very difficult " Allainriss " was defeated.

• Inseparable from the Aiguille du Dru is the name of the great Italian climber Walter Bonatti, whose legendary single-handedly over the 750 m high southwest column at the Petit Dru from 17 to 22 August 1955 standards in Alpine history sat (difficulty UIAA scale: VI / A2). The first free ascent of " Bonattipfeilers " in difficulty VIII, overall in the French scale ED (ED = extrêmement difficile = extremely difficult ), Marco Pedrini and Claudio Camerani conducted on 11 July 1982.

The Aiguille du Dru was also the fate of mountain Ludwig Purtschellers. After an ascent of the Grand Dru on August 25, 1899 crashed his rope team, with Purtscheller broke his right upper arm. From this fall, he never recovered. He died in Bern on March 3, 1900 from the effects of pneumonia.

After the great landslide of 18 September 1997 and further in the following years, several West face routes, including the Bonattipfeilers, badly affected. From ascents in the area of ​​outbreaks is currently not recommended.