Solo Ascents • new route on Les Drus

In July 1991, one year after soloing the Bonatti Pillar,Catherine returned again solo and spent 11 days creating a new route to the left of the Bonatti Pillar which involved hanging bivouacs and, in places, hard aid climbing, a skill which she had had to learn on the desert sandstone spires of the USA with Jeff Lowe specifically for this project. The "Destivelle route" has never been repeated, and it will never be : the face collapsed in 1997 !

A film has been done about this ascent : "11 days in the Drus".

Photos : Sylvie CHAPPAZ

“ As might be expected, when France's first lady of climbing swings about on the Dru for 11 days, the media attends in force both by helicopter and by telescope from the Montenvers station watching her every movement. Which makes you wonder... Where is the bathroom ? ” (High magazine)

" Who has the tenacity to persist alone for 11 days on a new route of the South West Pillar of the Dru with all the physical and psychological hardship that that entails ? " (High magazine)