Catherine Destivelle

With Bruno Dupety since 2011, she recently became a publisher at Les Editions du Mont Blanc, specialized in books about mountaineering and alpinism.

With Érik Decamp, a mountain guide and experienced himalayist, Destivelle climbed the southwest face of Shishapangma (Tibet, 1994), the south face of Annapurna (Nepal, 1994), and the Losar icefall near Namche Bazaar (Khumbu, Nepal) in 1997. During their 1996 expedition to Antarctica, they made the first ascent of "Peak 4111" in the Ellsworth Mountains before the expedition was cut short after Destivelle fell 20 meters (66 ft) from the summit and received a compound fracture of her leg. The couple married in 1996 and their son, Victor, was born the following year. She began to cut back on solo climbs in the late 1990s and developed a career as a lecturer and writer.

1990 was the year Destivelle stopped competition climbing, and came back to alpinism, her genuine passion. Meeting Jeff Lowe at this time of her career was a decisive move, because Lowe was one of the most inventive, innovative and best all-around climbers of the time. Preparing new climbing and expedition projects with him, training and climbing with him, made her reach yet another giant step of her mountaineering capabilities, technique and level. One of her greatest achievements, her solo ascent of the north face of the Eiger, was made possible thanks to a combination of her own constant evolution and the inspiration she got from Lowe's brilliance and talent in his career and his teachings. During the 90s, Destivelle went on performing her most beautiful, most challenging and most mediatized classic climbs as well as her most innovative projects, climbing either solo or with the best alpinists and mountain guides of the time.

In 1985, she started entering rock climbing competitions, winning Sportroccia, the very first international competition (held in Bardonecchia and Arco, Italy), which later became the Rock Master annual competition. In 1986, along with her compatriot climber Patrick Edlinger, she won again the combined final ranking of the Arco and Bardonecchia climbing championships. During the late 80s, she was the main and most media-followed rival to fellow climber Lynn Hill, alternating with her in winning various competitions, such as Grenoble and Snowbird in 1988 and 1989, the first International competition ever held in the US, that Jeff Lowe organized. In 1990, together with Christine Janin, she participated at the ski mountaineering event Pierra Menta. They placed third.

At the same time, Destivelle was studying physiotherapy at the Ecole de kinésithérapie de Paris, and she began to work as a physiotherapist from 1981 to 1985, losing touch with her climbing activities. It was only in 1985 that she started a full-time career in rock and mountain climbing, after coming back to rock climbing through some occasional stunts she was performing in the movie industry and for some TV programs, and after meeting Lothar Mauch during the shooting of E Pericoloso Sporgersi, who persuaded her to think again about her opposition to competition in rock climbing. Mauch became her sport climbing coach, her sponsoring agent, her regular belayer, and her partner in travelling and in life.

From 1976 as she was only 16, she went spending most holiday time with them in the Verdon Gorge, climbing frenetically with Pierre Richard all the biggest and most difficult routes, both leading in turns, sometimes simul climbing. Destivelle and Richard also started to climb in the Alps some high mountaineering, more and more difficult, classic alpinism. During four years they climbed, generally at a very fast pace, a lot of prestigious routes. At barely 17, Destivelle had already climbed, leading, the Cousy-Desmaison Route (ED, 800m), north face of l'Olan (3564m), the Devies-Gervasutti Route (TD+, 1050m), northwest face of l'Ailefroide (3848m), and the American Direct (ED1: 5.10+ A0, 1100m), west face of le Petit Dru (3732m).

Catherine Monique Suzanne Destivelle (born 24 July 1960) is a French rock climber and mountaineer. In 1992 she became the first woman to complete a solo ascent of the Eiger's north face. She completed the climb in winter in 17 hours. Her other notable climbs include the Bonatti Route on the north face of the Matterhorn and the southwest pillar of the Aiguille du Dru (the Bonatti Pillar). Destivelle has been the subject of several documentaries, including French director Rémy Tezier's, Beyond the Summits (Au-delà des cimes), which won the award for best feature-length mountain film at the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival.