Swiss alpinist Dani Arnold has set a record time on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses. He climbed the Walker Spur (4,208 metres, 13,806 feet) on the Mont Blanc massif on the Cassin route in 2 hours and 4 minutes.
With the speed record on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses and the fastest time on the north face of the Matterhorn, the 34-year-old from canton Uri, central Switzerland, now holds records on two out of the three great north faces in the Alps.
“I’m feeling unbelievably happy and very proud of my achievement,” ArnoldExternal link, a Mammut Pro Team athlete, said after the climb on July 27. The feat was reported on Monday.
For the third summer in a row, he focused on the Grand Jorasses north face project. In 2016 and 2017, weather conditions made any attempt impossible.
“Looking back, waiting such a long time for the right moment really paid off. Despite the fact that this was quite a struggle for me – as patience certainly isn’t my strongest skill. However, everything needs to be right: little details, such as whether I should climb two metres more to the right or to the left, sound ridiculous when you’re talking about a 1,200-metre face, but in the end, these details make the difference.”
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Arnold tells swissinfo.ch how he set out on April 20 with just half a litre of sugar-water and no real intention of breaking the speed record up a route that in 1938 took three days for the first climbers to complete (and survive). The 27-year-old mountain guide from canton Uri in central Switzerland climbed the…
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