From 17–22 August 1955, the Italian climber Walter Bonatti climbed a difficult solo route on the south-west pillar of the Petit Dru (the Bonatti Pillar); this route – like many on the west face – no longer exists in its original state owing to rockfall, the scars of which remain clearly visible from the Chamonix valley.
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The first ascent of the Grand Dru was by British alpinists Clinton Thomas Dent and James Walker Hartley, with guides Alexander Burgener and K. Maurer, who climbed it via the south-east face on 12 September 1878.
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Seven years later, from 24–26 July 1962, Gary Hemming and Royal Robbins climbed the 'American Direct', a more direct route up the west face than that taken in 1952.
After soloing the north face of the Col du Plan, he climbed: the Bonatti Pillar, Aiguille du Dru; the Freney Pillar directissima, Mont Blanc; Gervussutti Pillar, Mt Blanc du Tacul; Walker Spur, Grandes Jorrasses; Brenva Spur, Mt Blanc; Eiger north face, Droites north face.
Following the war, the couple became members of the Groupe de Haute Montagne and climbed Chamonix, Dauphiné, the north face of the Dru and the south ridge of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey.
He then turned his attention to the Aiguille du Dru (3,754 m), a steep granite peak in the Mont Blanc massif that had been ignored by the early generation of alpinists whose ambitions had been focused more on the higher mountains.
Together with Royal Robbins he made the first ascent of the American Direct route on the Aiguille du Dru in Chamonix in 1962, and was widely known in France for his role as a rescuer of a party on the same mountain in 1966, earning him the moniker "le Beatnik".
After a descent of the Aiguille du Dru with G. Löwenbach and Jakob Oberhollenzer on August 25, 1899, an ice axe broke and the rope team fell into a bergschrund.
He wore these on the sandstone boulders as well as on the granite walls of the Alps, where he made several famous first ascents, including the north face of the Aiguille du Dru.
Aiguille du Dru | Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell | Dru C. Gladney | Dru Castro | Dru Pagliassotti | Dru Lavigne | Dru Berrymore | Aiguille du Tour | Aiguille du Goûter | Aiguille Dibona | Aiguille de la Grande Sassière | Aiguille Croche | Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey |