Major rockfall on the
Petit Dru in June 2005
Over the last 48 hours there have been 3 significant rockfalls on the Petit Dru above Chamonix. The last major rockfall occurred there in late June 2005 and I happened to be on the Mer de Glace with a grandstand view of the whole proceedings. See photo to the right.
The first of 3 rockfalls in 2011 occurred on the afternoon of Saturday 10th September, with 2 more taking place today, Sunday 11th September. These appeared to be on the west and north face of this iconic mountain.
There are some great photos on Rob Jarvis' blog, as he had the good fortune to be on the Aiguilles Rouges at the time and a quick camera reflex.
Houses in Les Tines were coated with granite dust as a cloud spread over the valley.
With the rockfall on the Gouter (see news piece from 25th August), a very careful choice of route is required just now.
There is a short piece on the Dauphine website
This local paper says the volume of the rockfall was about 12,000 cubic meters, which equates to a slab 100m high.
The 2005 incident was 265,000 cubic meters.
No one was killed in the incident but a team was rescued from the American Direct (presumably needing clean underwear). The Office de Haute Montagne say the American Direct remains intact but they are advising complete avoidance of the Dru, even the normal route, until the end of the summer season.
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