Nine days to swallow around thirty summits. Only the Himalayas usually offer such staggering mountaineering races. But this one took place barely 10 km as the crow flies from Chamonix and its crowds of tourists, on the crown of ridges surrounding the Mer de Glace. “It’s like an expedition to the end of the world… but at home”, describes Benjamin Ribeyre, a high mountain guide who wants to limit his carbon footprint and air travel.
At the forefront of global warming
With his climbing companion Fred Degoulet, he signed one of the exploits of the summer in the mountains. “Going around the Mer de Glace in one go is unique (55 km and 12,000 m of elevation gain). We had to clear badly mapped areas, manage technical difficulties, refueling without going back down to the valley (they lost two trouser waistlines!), and deal with a very dry mountain. There was so little snow that we were sometimes reduced to melting a mixture of ice and dust. Not the most pleasant when you drink 6 liters of water a day…” Cheers.
VIDEO. Mer de Glace: “White gives way to grey, it’s a sea of stones”
The abnormal heat of this summer, even at more than 4000 meters, transformed, moreover, the walls into immense Russian roulettes. The permafrost melts and no longer acts as cement between the rocks. “The mountain was giving way under our feet. For nine days, we heard stones falling around us. We grilled luck cards, ”admits Benjamin, hoping that nothing falls on him.
“The challenge was mainly physical at the start. Then, being at the forefront of global warming, around the largest suffering French glacier, it made us think. We are both guides. Faced with that, you wonder if it’s a job for the future…” It was the first Ultra tour of the Mer de Glace, and perhaps the last.