원정 개요

BC at foot of Kalapattar's ridge at small lake
Biv1 on South Pillar
Biv2 on South Pillar
Biv3 on South Pillar.

First for acclimatization went on 1 Dec at 1:00 am 5 members [not Baugey] left BC to go to East Col and at Col via normal route on southeast side at 8:30 am; C1 at Col; Besson, Rhem and Ruby decided to go down (tired) while Blanchard and Profit went to top at 3:00 pm and back to BC at 11:00 pm.

Then to French route on South Face: left BC 8 Dec at 4:00 am by five (not Blanchard) but Ruby found route too hard and gave up at bergschrund, so did little real climbing. Other 4 biv at 6300m just at bottom of 2nd steep; biv 2 next day (9th) at 6500m also on French Pillar at bottom of 3rd step. 10th went to ice pully on right of pillar because "nice route" with ice climbing where no ridge had ice flutes and not so safe and then returned to pillar route top of 3rd step at 6900m. 4th step above was only 50m high and was climbed on 11th on way to summit. 4 members returned to BC 5:00 pm. Most difficult parts: 1st day of snow in gully and ice flutes obstructing it; 2nd day's 2nd step's vertical rock "was very nice adventure" without any recce climb: "we climbed as we think" when were on face and "we respect most important thing: the engagement with the mountain." Descended from summit via 1st Dec route, to Col and down southeast side, normal route. Expectation of descending normal route was another reason to have climbed it on 1st Dec. Did not descend pillar because had not fixed any rope on it.