Besides their professionalism and unrivalled standard as practitioners, the advisers test prototypes and final products and provide constructive feedback.
Philippe Batoux
ACTIVITIES: Alpinisme, expéditions.
BASE: Annecy, France.
High-mountain guide, teacher at France's National Skiing and Mountaineering School (ENSA) and peerless mountaineer, Philippe Batoux is a globetrotter who tests Millet products constantly. He is addicted to verticality, with a special penchant for extreme mixed terrain – a combination of ice and rock that involves all rock, ice and artificial climbing techniques.
Rather than targeting pure difficulty, he picks routes for the aesthetic appeal of summits and lines. In October 2004 he repeated “Reticent Wall”, his sixth route up the El Capitan wall in Yosemite. From 11-21 March 2006, with Lionel Daudet, he made the first ascent of “Little Big Men” up the east face of Les Grandes Jorasses, thus achieving one of the year's finest ascents. A performance of dizzying prowess!
Batoux co-authored the ice climbing guide : « du Leman au Mont Blanc » with Ludovic Seiffert (Editions JME), an exhaustive compilation of icefalls in Haute Savoie. He took part in the Les Amants des Drus a 52-minute documentary about the west face of Les Drus, directed by Bertrand Delapierre and produced by Sevendoc.
Website : http:// www.philippebatoux.com
SPORTS CV
- Three new routes in Les Grandes Jorasses: “A lei” (February 2003), “Heidi” (March 2005) and “Little Big Men” (March 2006).
- Yosemite: six routes up El Capitan: “Reticent Wall” (modern A5!), “Sea of Dreams”, “Pacific Ocean Wall”, “The Nose”, “The Shield”, “West Face”.
- West face of Les Drus, repeated and added to the Lafaille Route (February 2004, with Guillaume Avrisani and Christophe Dumarest).
- Mont Blanc, Hypercouloir du Brouillard, solo, 19 March 2003, in 5 hours.
- First ascent of the north face of Cholatse (6,440m) in the Khumbu Massif, Nepal, in October 1995 (1,500m, ED), with Paul Robach, Marc Chalamel and Christophe Mora.
- Saint-Exupéry Needle in Patagonia, Argentina: opened “Le Petit Prince” (800m, ABO, A4, 6b obligatory) in January 1995 with Gaël Bouquet des Chaux, Benoît Robert and Manu Pellissier.
- Cerro Torre in Patagonia, Argentina: Maestri Route in February 1998 with Christophe Massicard.
- Climbing in Along Bay, Vietnam: exploration and equipping, October 2000.
- Opened “La Guerre Sainte” (400m, 7b+ max) in Wadi Rum, Jordan, with Arnaud Petit, Benoît Robert and Hervé Bouvard.
- First ascent of Le Pas du Roc icefall (300m VI, 6+/7!).
- First ascent of La Sorcière Blanche, Le Fer à Cheval, (V, 6+, 400m).
François Damilano
ACTIVITIES: mountaineering, glacier climbing, dry tooling.
BASE: Chamonix, France.
François Damilano is one of the leading exponents of icefall climbing, a discipline currently experiencing a golden age.
“25 years on ice keep you in shape!” - François Damilano, forever on the look-out for the most beautiful frozen iceforms,, travelling the world with his ice axes and a still or motion camera. What matters to this ice-globetrotter is conveying his craving for exploration through the narratives and pictures he brings back from his expeditions.
Author of: Chemins de Gel; Montagne Passion; Cascades autour du Mont Blanc; Cascades Oisans aux 6 vallées; Mont Blanc 4808 m; Neige, glace et mixte.
Co-director of the films Ice up, and Skippers d’altitude, available on DVD.
First ascents in the Alps, Norway, Canada and China.
A few landmark ascents? “Visa pour l’Amérique” in 1987 with Godefroy Perroux and Philippe Pibarot; “Weeping Pillar” (first time by a Frenchman) in 1988 with Godefroy Perroux and Gérard Momplot; “Répentance Super” in 1989 with Gian Carlo Grassi; “La Massue” (the first to be rated 7 in France, besides “La Lyre“ icefall) and “French Reality” in 1992 with Philippe Pibarot; “The Day After Les Vacances de Mr Hulot” in 1993 with Joe Josephson; the icefalls of Argentière and the gorges of Le Trient; “Liaisons Dangereuses” in 1996 with Françoise Aubert and Jean Annequin… not forgetting the notorious “Cascade de l’Arpenaz” in 2002 with Jean Annequin.
Enchainments: solos on Ben Nevis in March 1987 (“Orion Face Directe”+ “Zero Gully” + “Hadrian Wall” + “Point Five Gully” + “Smith Route”), the great traverse of the peaks in August 1992 (solo unaided traverse of the Mont Blanc massif from Les Grands Montets to Les Contamines via the ridge arete); the Trophy Wall in 1997 with Guy Lacelle (“Replicant” + “Sea of Vapors” + “Terminator”); The Long Day in Norway in 2003 with Steph Husson (“Kjorlifossen” + “Thorfossen” + “Hydnefossen”).
High summits: “Passions Fruits” in 1984 with Serge Moulière (east face of Nelion Peak, 5,198m, Mount Kenya), first solo of the south-west face of Ama Dablan (4,092m, Nepal), first ascent of Urgyenmang (6,001m, Nepal). etc.
A recent expedition: attempt on the north-west ridge of Nemjung (7,200m, a summit on the edge of the Lost Valley, Nepal) with Paul Grobel and eight clients. The film Skippers d’altitude, which aims to show the reality of a high-altitude guide's work, is based on this expedition.
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