Catherine Destivelle

Lore & Background

Catherine Destivelle was born in Oran, in French Algeria, to French parents, Serge and Annie Destivelle. She was the eldest of six children. Her father was an amateur climber and mountaineer. As a young teenager, her family moved to Paris, France, where she attended the Lycée Corot in Savigny-sur-Orge. At age 12, she became a member of the Club alpin français and started bouldering in Fontainebleau, multi-pitch big wall climbing in Burgundy, and alpine climbing in the Massif des Écrins. By 1976, aged 16, she was spending her summer in the Verdon Gorge with climbing-partner Pierre Richard. From 1980 to 1985, Destivelle focused on studying physiotherapy at the Ecole de kinésithérapie de Paris, and then working full-time as a physiotherapist.

In 1985, Destivelle became a professional climber after being asked to do a climbing film, E pericoloso sporgersi, that captured her making the first female ascent of the 1,000-foot multi-pitch sport route Pichenibule in Verdon. That same year she made what was thought to be the first female breakthrough into the 8a (5.13b) grade with Fleur de Rocaille, though its grade was subsequently softened to 7c+/8a. She initially rejected competition climbing, co-signing the 1985 Manifeste des 19, but then changed her mind and won at Sportroccia in 1985, the first international climbing competition. Later that year, she fractured her pelvis in a fall in Chamonix. She recovered and in 1986 set new records by becoming the first female to climb an 8a (5.13b) route with Fleur de Rocaille (later downgraded to 7c+/8a), and winning again at Sportroccia, beating her main rival Lynn Hill. 1988 would be the pinnacle of Destivelle's sport climbing career when she redpointed Choucas in Buoux, the first female ascent of an 8a+ (5.13c) graded route. In 1990, Destivelle finished third at the annual Snowbird international competition and decided to retire from competition climbing to focus on mountaineering and alpine climbing.

Reader's Guide

Catherine Destivelle is widely considered one of the greatest all-around female climbers in the history of the sport. In 2014, the former editor of the Alpine Journal, Ed Douglas, called her 'the world's most famous woman alpinist during the 1990s'. Her significance lies in her pioneering achievements across multiple disciplines: sport climbing, competition climbing, alpine climbing, free soloing, and high-altitude mountaineering. She was the first woman to redpoint routes at the 7c+/8a and 8a+ grades, and she won the first major female climbing competitions. In alpine climbing, she made the first female ascent of the Bonatti Pillar on the Petit Dru in 1990, and in 1991 became the first woman to create a new extreme alpine route, also on the Petit Dru, named Voie Destivelle in her honor. From 1992 to 1994, she became the first female to complete the winter alpine solo attempts of the 'north face trilogy' of the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Matterhorn. She also made notable free solos, such as the Devils Tower in 1992, and the Old Man of Hoy in 1997. Her legacy includes being the subject of several documentaries, including Rémy Tezier's Beyond the Summits, which won the best feature-length film award at the 2009 Banff Film Festival. In 2007, she was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and in 2020, became the first female recipient of the Piolet d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award.

Did You Know?

• Destivelle was the first woman to redpoint an 8a+ (5.13c) route, Choucas, in 1988.
• She completed the first female winter solo of the north face trilogy: Eiger (1992), Grandes Jorasses (1993), and Matterhorn (1994).
• In 1996, while climbing in Antarctica, she fell 20 meters through a cornice and suffered a severe compound leg fracture, then undertook a 15-hour self-rescue.
• She free soloed the Old Man of Hoy in Scotland in 1997 while four months pregnant.