Just back from Nanga Parbat, Benjamin Védrines followed up with a pretty crazy ascent on Monday. And the French mountaineer has achieved a feat by soloing the integral of Peuterey, the mythical – and most difficult – ridge on the Italian side of the Mont-Blanc massif. The Briançon Alpinist achieved this feat in a record time of 6 hours and 51 minutes.
Védrines, who is one of the best mountaineers of the new generation with Charles Dubouloz and who has been thinking about this integral for four years, left the parking lot of Peuterey at 4:02 a.m. At 5:10 a.m., he was at the foot of the south ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, before continuing with the abseiling of the Noire, the crossing of the Dames Anglaises, the ascent and then the crossing of the Aiguille Blanche of Peuterey, the pillar of Angle before the last lengths to Mont Blanc, where he arrived at the summit just under seven hours later, at 10:53 a.m.
Exactly 40 years ago, in July 1983, Jean-Marc Boivin had achieved a record ascent with this integral completed in 10h30. Legend Ueli Steck also covered this integral part of Peuterey in August 2013, when he linked Val Veny to the village of Les Houches (in just over 16 hours and 9 minutes).