23 minutes of pure vertigo from the man who made French rock climbing punk.
Portrait of Jean-Claude Droyer, a famous French climber and mountain guide. He is known for having participated in the rise of free climbing in France in the late 1970s. Trained at the climbing schools of Fontainebleau and Saussois, he distinguished himself in 1965 by solo climbing the Pentecôte route at Glandasse. He also made first ascents in the Verdon Gorges, winter ascents in the Prealps and the Mont Blanc massif, notably in 1971 the first solo ascent of the Directe Américaine on the west face of the Drus. The film was selected for the "Les Écrans Documentaires" festival in 2004.
Cinematography
1970s footage of the Drus west face—no drones, just terror.
Direction
Wolff lets Droyer's hands do the talking. They say everything.
Director
Florent Wolff
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Droyer helped birth 'escalade libre' in France, importing Yosemite ethics to a country that previously thought pitons were personality.
The 1971 Drus solo was so ahead of its time that even his climbing partners learned about it from newspaper reports.
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