SAMAYA x Symon Welfringer
At the top of the Grandes Jorasses with Charles Dubouloz and Clovis Paulin
Symon Welfringer, Charles Dubouloz and Clovis Paulin marked the history of climbing by climbing the Grandes Jorasses in winter, by the famous Directissime de la Walker, opened in the summer of 1986 by Patrick Gabarrou and Hervé Bouvard. Symon looks back on this ascent and gives us his motivations and his doubts.
What made you want to take part in this crazy adventure?
Symon Welfringer : This story started this fall. We went with Charles to Nepal to open a route on Manaslu, a summit over 8000 meters. We didn't succeed because of the conditions which were quite complicated, and so we immediately planned on doing a good route this winter, climbing at least four, five days on a face. It was kind of the last big challenge left in the Alps. A line that crosses the north face of the Jorasses, from bottom to top, almost straight, opened in the 1970s and where no one had ever returned. Clovis joined us, we grabbed the slot, we took 15 days off and there was a crazy high so it was really cool.
Four to five days up there means having to spend several nights on the cliff, how did you sleep?
SW : We knew the weather was going to be nice and the bivouacs aren't comfortable enough to set up a tent. They are only very small platforms, so I made the choice to take a rather light sleeping bag and a NANO BIVY. At night it was still quite windy, so it was really cool to have the windproof effect. I didn't regret it at all because even if I condensed it a little, I clearly felt much less cold than if I hadn't had it with me.
Have you had moments of doubt?
SW :: I'm always super optimistic and I prefer to work like that because at least I try and that's what makes me vibrate. The hardest part was in the central part: we couldn't find the route. We did a lot of variants compared to the opening because they had gone straight and we had to dissociate ourselves from this idea, find a logical route for a winter. One evening when I was doing the length that was blocking us, I tried left, straight, right without success. However, I could see that it was working 10 meters higher. I said to myself “come on, go ahead”, I put good points, I did the 10 meters and after that it was the release. It's played in two minutes, it was crazy because we had tried everything, we were going to stumble!
It's awesome ! After such a feat, are you still motivated by smaller projects?
SW : It's true that I checked off a few projects all the same, but this year I really got the taste back, especially with the ice climbing season which had started well. There were some great conditions which gave me a good boost. I was also able to open a big route at the Aiguille des Pèlerins, an needle on the north face of the Aiguilles de Chamonix. There were already a lot of open routes, but there was still a small line to open so we opened that. After projects, we still have quite a few!
