Remember the summer when you were 18, when you tried to negotiate an Interrail pass with your parents to conquer Eastern Europe and, by chance, discover the insane Sziget Festival in Budapest. At the same age, Benjamin Vedrines had a completely different delirium: running away solo to discover Nepal. Like an initiatory journey of a month and a half, from 2010, for this mountain lover who grew up between the Vercors and the Hautes-Alpes. “It was with this adventure in Nepal that the idea of climbing Everest really formed in my head, says the man who had only told his parents of his escape once he arrived in Kathmandu. Seeing me at the time succeeding in double trek stages with more than 10 hours of walking per day, Israelis were convinced that one day, I would climb Everest. »
A prediction that is increasingly possible for the 30-year-old mountaineer, a certified high mountain guide since 2016. Last year, Benjamin Védrines in fact offered himself the Broad Peak ascent speed record in Pakistan (8.047 m), without oxygen cylinder. Only 7h28 from his base camp located at 4,900 m above sea level were necessary for him on July 19, 2022. The 38-year-old record of the Polish Krzystof Wielicki (3:40 p.m.) was simply blasted, which was well worth the making of the film Edge of reason (“at the limit of reason”), currently unveiled as part of the festival Mountain in scene.
“It was really fireworks for me! »
“What interests me is to be innovative, confides the person concerned. There, to spice up the quest for my first 8,000, I wanted to add a dimension of performance. And on D-Day, I felt myself floating, in a state of grace. All the pain of my training has paid off. Benjamin Védrines had prepared his exploit well by opting for a first ascent in two days, the previous week, alongside his friend Nicolas Jean. And to really spice it up, he took off on a paraglider after reaching the summit in record time.
I hadn’t really planned it but I had seen before leaving that morning that the air conditions could be adequate. So I imagined myself as a kid, taking off from Broad Peak. It really was fireworks for me! I savored this very moving moment, and this magical sequence could well remain unique in my life. »
A euphoria that feels good in Edge of reason, before we perceive the opposite extreme, nine days of filming later, still during his expedition to Pakistan. Barely rested at base camp, located at almost 5,000 m (“which uses energy non-stop, even when you watch TV”), he sets off again for the mythical K2 (second summit in the world with its 8,611 m above sea level). The one who had opened a new route with Charles Dubouloz at Chamlang (7,319 m in Nepal), a year earlier, was disillusioned this time and had to give up.
Severe hypoxia in the ascent of K2
“I had eyes a little bigger than my stomach absolutely wanting to reach the top of K2 in one day, slips Benjamin Védrines. I was aware of my advanced state of fatigue and the fresh snow that was falling on top of that. We all have in mind the two ascents of Everest chained in less than seven days by Kilian Jornet (in 2017) but it is very rare and risky on a physiological level. My main project was Broad Peak and I hadn’t planned on trying K2 at all. But when I arrived, I was seduced by this mountain and I couldn’t resist…”
A daring that earned the young mountaineer a real fright. “I suffered from severe hypoxia around 8,400 m,” he says. As much as I remember very little at that time, as much when I went back down below 8,300 m, I had no more juice but I had reactivated the mode we. I was fully aware of everything. »
Everest “in alpine style” as the ultimate dream
And in particular the need to reach base camp, before temporarily putting his crazy projects of 8,000 without oxygen on hold. Ten days ago, it was on the famous crossing of the Alps between Chamonix and Zermatt (the Haute Route) that Benjamin Védrines broke a new record, this time in ski mountaineering alongside Samuel Equy, with 100 km and 8,300 meters of positive elevation swallowed in 2:54 p.m., without refueling, assistance or tracking. The professional athlete from Team North Face now takes his failure on K2 with philosophy.
Somehow, if I had remained on my success of the Broad Peak, I would perhaps have been too confident to chain future projects. There, it reminded me that even acclimatized, and after eight days of rest, the body can be extremely weak. And then, in such an expedition, you never really know if you will succeed in committing yourself. You may be stuck at base camp for three weeks. Sometimes there is only one day when all the planets align and you have to be ready to immediately dive into the unknown. »
That does not mean that the Grail that is Everest is no longer relevant for him, far from it. Since “the flame of mountaineering was born” in Benjamin Védrines, when he climbed his first wild route in the Ecrins massif at the age of 15, Everest (8,848 m) has occupied part of his dreams. If the Nepalese giant has about 200 ascents without oxygen in history, only three have conquered him “in alpine style”, that is to say in minimalist equipment and without borrowing a fixed rope. Suffice to say that these very rare performances would need to be dusted off, since they date back to 1980 with the Italian Reinhold Messner and 1986 with the duo Erhard Loretan-Jean Troillet.
“What interests me above all is the way of life to one day become the fourth human to achieve it in alpine style”, concludes Benjamin Védrines. And why not, as long as you do, also walk in the footsteps of the late Jean-Marc Boivin, author in 1988 of the first historic paragliding descent from the roof of the world that is Everest.