UKC

Does anyone know if the Dru N face is being climbed these days?
I've been hoping to do the pierre-allain route for a couple of years but keep getting put off by stories of huge rockfalls.
Any recent info would be appreciated

In reply to garrett85: There were certainly a few parties doing the classic N face route in '09 around the time we did the American Direct. I don' t have my guide handy so can't comment on the route you mention but IIRC pretty much everything left of American Direct was still climbable.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer:

Thanks for the reply, but I think maybe it's changed since then.
We were planning on doing the classic route (I think that's the same as the pierre-allain?) in 2012 but the lads at the ohm warned us off because there'd been a huge rockfall the week before, and they seemed to think the whole N face was very unstable. I think there've been a few more since, but maybe more on the W face.
I was wondering if anyone had done it in the last couple of years?

In reply to garrett85:

Did the Pierre Allain 2 summers ago. The bottom is still very loose but once you get level with the bottom of the snowfield/ glacier, things improve. The was no rockfall on the north face while we were there although the west face has constant rockfalls. Great route, finish off by doing the traverse to the grande Dru and abbing down other side. OHM in cham has a topo of the abseils. The batoux topo is wrong in places. OHM can give you a better on. PM me if you want more details. Rob

In reply to saclimber2000: yes, but that is a long way up the face. Does the lower part still follow the guide book line and can one bivvy low down as we so often did the night before?

In reply to jcw:

Bivy at the rognon below NF. 45minute approach in morning. Yes, it was still the same line.

In reply to saclimber2000:

Cool. Thanks for the info