EActually, says Dani Arnold, at that time he had nothing to do with this wall. It was mid-August, midsummer, a time when there is usually an extreme risk of falling rocks on the north face of the Aiguille du Petit Dru (3733 meters) in the Montblanc massif. The Petit Dru is “like a crumbling mountain”, says Arnold, and there are often dramatic rockfalls, “in August the refrigerators usually fall down”. Not the state you would want if you plan to climb the 900 meter high north face on your own, without a rope partner. How Dani Arnold planned to do it.
But then he benefited from what annoyed many others: the bad summer, the really cool days. When he and Stefan Brugger traveled to Chamonix (France) on August 14th, the weather forecast was good, the wall was calm, no falling stones, no refrigerators. In the autumn of 2020 Arnold had already been this far once, he had watched the wall with his binoculars for a long time, the conditions seemed good.
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