Starlight and Storms: Tom Ballard's Solo Winter Hexalogy of the Alps

In the history of alpine mountaineering, the Six Great North Faces of the European Alps—the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, Piz Badile, Petit Dru, Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses, and Eiger—represent the ultimate classic testing grounds of technical mastery, cold tolerance, and psychological fortitude. First popularized by French guide Gaston Rébuffat in his 1954 classic Starlight and Storms, climbing all six north faces in a lifetime was long considered the hallmark of an elite mountaineer. To climb all six solo was extraordinary. To climb all six solo in a single calendar winter season had never been achieved by any human being.

In late 2014, 26-year-old British climber Tom Ballard—the son of legendary mountaineer Alison Hargreaves—embarked on this exact quest. Operating with virtually no commercial sponsorship, living out of a modest white camper van driven by his father Jim, Ballard relied on speed, minimalism, and a profound, quiet intimacy with vertical winter rock and ice.

From the Dolomites to the Oberland

Ballard opened his campaign on December 21, 2014, in the Italian Dolomites, soloing the overhanging, frozen limestone of the North Face of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo via the classic Comici Route. Moving west into Switzerland, he struck next on January 5–6, 2015, ascending the icy granite slabs of the Northeast Face of Piz Badile (Cassin Route) through biting sub-zero drafts.

In mid-January, Ballard entered the Chamonix valley. On January 16, he soloed the Allain-Leininger route on the North Face of the Petit Dru. Less than a month later, on February 5, he climbed the Schmidt Route on the sheer North Face of the Matterhorn in a rapid, daylight sprint. Turning to the fearsome ‘Murder Wall’ of the Bernese Oberland, Ballard climbed the legendary Heckmair Route on the North Face of the Eiger on March 2, negotiating the White Spider and the Traverse of the Gods with unflinching precision.

The Grand Finale on the Grandes Jorasses

With astronomical winter drawing to a close, only the formidable 1,200-metre North Face of the Grandes Jorasses remained. On March 19, 2015, Ballard stepped onto the frozen bergschrund beneath the Walker Spur. Carrying a light rack, a single rope, and ice tools, he navigated the 75-metre crux dihedral and chimney systems in bitter cold, racing against gathering evening clouds.

At dusk on March 19, 2015, Tom Ballard pulled himself over the final cornice onto Pointe Walker at 4,208 metres. He had completed all Six Great North Faces of the Alps solo, entirely within astronomical winter, in eighty-eight days. The achievement was heralded as one of the purest, most astonishing solo alpine endurance feats of the twenty-first century.