Green light

After two months of pure indoor training, it was really time for me to go rock climbing!

One of my favourite destination for wintertime is Oliana. I love the routes there and the climbing style. Really quickly I was able to climb the famous tufa ‘Humildes pa casa’, a super long 8b+.

Cédirc is closer then ever to redpoint his project ‘Chaxi’, a 9a+ which has been only climbed by Adam and Chris.

I love Spain, the peoples, the countrysides…venga!

This weekend I will be on the Ice climbing festival in l’Argentière la Bessé and after that back to Oliana!

Little error…

Hi everybody, we got a little error on the subtitles of Silbergeier: The first ascent of Silbergeier was made by Beat Kammerlander for shure and not by Piedro del Pra. It’s only a little mistake on the translation, sorry for that! I wish you all a happy new year and all the best for 2013…cheers

Silbergeier en France!

Voilà, le grand moment est là: le film ‘Silbergeier’ va être présenté au film festival d’Autrans,
samedi prochain le 8. décembre à 16:00.
J’ai hate de partager cette aventure avec vous!

Welcome to my new website!

I will invide you to go and have a look on all the new pictures, gallerys, articles and enjoy the new and much more open outfit!

But not only my page got a new outfit, also my climbing projects were changing a lot their style. After my send of the really steep and physical 8b+ on ‘la Saumme’ I was super psyched to finish my last open project of this year, the ‘spécialistes’.

The spécialistes is situaded in the really beginning of the gorges of Verdon and I’ve had already the chance to climb on this route with Jonathan Sigrist while our Arcteryx trip this spring.

This unique route is placed in a 45 degree overhanging wall and the climbing style is juste awesome! Unfortunalety every hold in the route is really sharp and after two runs, you’re out of skin and you got bad and bloody holds everywhere…

I was there for a little week with Mike Fuselier because he wanted to try the new version of ‘les spé direct, 8c+’. Mike is my really best friend and it’s fantastic to travel together with him because he’s always kidding, we are laughing all the time.

First day I was super close to send but the days after, it was getting really hot and our ‘taped’ fingers were slippering on every hold! Even my climb-on cream was useless…

Here’s a little video of my ‘almost’ send…I have to go back with a good skin and probably with a stronger bizeps…

After 4 days we gave up and we decided to join two friends of us, Gerome Pouvreau and Florence Pinet for a boulder session in the beautiful forest of Annot.

I really appreciaded these two days because it was the first time since two years I was bouldering outside and the landscape, the problems and the cool ambiance was the perfect challenge I needed after trying so hard the spécialistes….Enjoy the nice pictures from Mike Fuselier and a big thank’s to Gerome and Flo for the privet Annot local guide tour!;-)

And in the end I would like to tell you a fantastic news:

I’m officially in the Scarpa team since one month. I’m really proud to be part of the New Rock family in Switzerland because we have the same imagination about what climbing should be and we are folloing the same ideas. At this place I would also like to say a big thank you to Five Ten for their support for the last three years.

Quelques nouvelles

Ben ça fesait longtemps où j’ai plus trop donné des nouvelles sur mon Blog…il y a plus que six semaines, je me suis fait une déchirure partielle d’une de mes poulies, aille, la blessure classique des grimpeurs. Pas de raison pour déprimer, j’étais presque contente d’avoir finalement la tête et le temps pour faire autre chose. J’ai pas mal bossé en Suisse; j’ai fait des visites d’écoles avec ‘école bouge‘, un peu d’ouverture dans la salle d’escalade à Küblis et des conférences bien sympa comme par exemple pour la ville de St.Galle.

Côté sport, je me suis pas mal mis à la spéléo. Avec Cédric et Mike Fuselier on est en train de monter un super projet de film pour la télé Suisse. L’équipe de Hals und Beinbruch va venir filmer avec nous dans notre trou en exploration, le 118 218. Pour tout bien préparer, on a du faire plusieurs portages de matos pour bien équiper le trou et pour monter un bivouac cinq étoiles (merci encore à Seb Richard, Anaise Verbrugge et bien sur Mike Fuselier pour leur grand investissement). Ce trou est particulièrement petit et plutôt sale, du coup c’est assez difficile à filmer. Les images disent tout…


Après un mois de pause en escalade complète, j’ai repris à grimper et olàlà, c’était dur! Pendant deux semaines j’ai penduillé comme une grosse vache sur des prises (sans pouvoir les arquer), pas des super sensations.

Puis poile pour les Natural Games à Millau, ma petite poulie s’est bien réparé et j’ai pu me régaler afont sur la falaise du Boffi et me remetrer la patate dans la grande proue en 8b+, Tête de Gondole. Un grand merci à Frad Labreveux, qui a pris des belles photos. (Il y aura encore des meilleures dans le prochain Grimper)

Pour chercher un peu de fraîcheur, on a bougé avec Cédric dans notre super camion dans le Briançonnais. On a grimpé deux jour dans la vallée d’Entraigles où Cédric a torché un 8c+ bien physique, Sankukai, au 2ème essaie.  Moi j’ai pas fait des miracles. Après un 8a flash dans la partie moins dévers, j’ai essayé un 8b sur physique que j’ai pas pu enchainer, le site est bien dur à grimper pour une fille…

Après une semaine à faire des voies sportives, on sentait que c’était le bon moment pour se lancer dans une nouvelle aventure en grande voie. Il y a deux jours, on a donc attaqué notre projet d’été dans le Rocher du Midi avec la voie ‘Carnet d’adresse’, 250m 8b+. Une paroi superbe juste à côté de la maison!

Premier jour il y a eu beaucoup de brouillard et après une grosse heure de marche, on a cherché longtemps le pied de la voie. Bien motivé on a fait les premiers trois longueurs à vue (7a, 7b+, 7c) et on trouvait ça assez facile.

Mais à partir de la 4ème longueur, la longueur cléf en 8b+, ç’a bien serré la visse! 30 mètres que sur des mauvaises prises plates et sans pieds, j’ai trouvé ça vraiment dur…Cèdr est allé en premier pour metrer de la magnésie et vive la quantité des spits. Il a monté rapidement la corde, moi j’ai trainé bien plus. On s’est arrêté là car on voulait garder de la peau pour pouvoir monter la corde le lendemain.

Jour deux, on a commencé directe au 8b+ (vive la technique spéléo pour la remonté sur cordes). Je me suis fait un grand trou au but de mes doigt au premier mouve, bravo Nina…mon mental m’a lâché totalement avec un doigt qui pisse le sang et Cèdr a fait toutes les longueurs suivants (7a, 7c+, 8a et 8b) en premier.

C’est drôle, j’ai rarement vu Cédric grimper si bien dans ce style super technique et dalleu, sans une trace de magnésie et en mettant les dégaines. Peut être c’est parce qu’il a des Scarpas aux pieds???

Moi en seconds, j’ai essayé de mémoriser tous les mouves mais j’en ai tellement chier, que j’ai pas pu bien travailler. Mon seul but c’était d’arriver à haut. Bien épuisé, Cédric il s’est lancé à cinq heures du soir dans la dernière longueur qui est sensé d’être la plus dure. Et toute à fait, il a mis plus qu’une heure pour trouver une solution pour ce grand pas de bloc. Un peu désespérée je l’ai assuré et je me suis bien rendue compte de la force qu’il a mis dans sa méthode. Après avoir jeté un coup d’oeil sur la suite qui était bien plus facile, il est descendu en me disant qu’il verrait aucune fille à faire ses mouves, c’était un bloc comme en coupe du monde pour lui.

Olàlà, avec peu d’espoirs je me suis encordé pour trouver une autre méthode pour ce pas difficile. Finalement j’ai fait pareil comme Cédric, sauf que moi je poussait plus sur les petits pieds et hop, les mouves se sont fait assez bien, vive la technique des pieds!;-)

C’est trop trop cool, on a trouvé de nouveau un super projet à deux qui demande surtout à moi un grand investisement.

Vive les aventures!!!

Three weeks of amazing moments

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The Arc’teryx, “Verdon Project“ was the brain-child of fellow Arc’teryx ambassadors, Keith Ladzinski and Andy Mann. They wanted to discover this beautiful place with two athletes of the brand. I was super psyched when they asked me to participate in the project, along with Jonathan Siegrist. I felt that with these guys, I was finally able to share all of my love for the Verdon and pack them into 3 weeks of photos and video. The Gorge has always been an important place for me and I have spent some of my most unforgettable moments here!

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So three weeks ago we met up in Les Salles Sur Verdon at our cute gite and we started to climb on rive gauche. Unfortunately with all the rain, all the tufas were wet, so we changed styles and took to the old school vertical routes.

I was able to flash my first 8a there, Graphique, and did my first 8b, Les Braves Gens, on my second go. What an amazing climb!

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When our feet began hurting too much, we went climbing in the huge cave of Galetas, and the balance between exploding biceps and swollen toes was perfect. I did a super cool 8b+ there and Jonathan finished on the extension (8c) and the whole experience was great! You can access the cave only by canoe, which enriched the long days spent there. Our’s had a hole or two in it, which made things interesting, especially with all the camera gear!

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On rest days, I made the Americans comfortable with French traditions. We visited lots of old villages, tasting local goat and blue cheeses, crèpes, and for most importantly, the good wine of this country.

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Jonathan loves climbing history, and so we had to try Les Spécialistes. A steep, powerful, and mythical 8b+. For me, it was the hardest route I’ve ever tried in my life. There couldn’t exist a more untypical-Nina-style route. A real challenge! Jonathan made an incredible ascent in the final hours of our trip. I was close, but the red-point will take me a little bit more time then only two days. Another good reason to come back!

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The essential climbing in the Verdon is most definitely the huge multi-pitch walls. So to conclude our trip, we did an incredible 180m 8a+ route, called Dame Cookie. For this, I have to say a huge “thank you” to Bruno Clement (aka Graou.) He’s one of the most original people I know and he’s always bolting non-stop in the Gorge.

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It was also Graou who bolted this five star route in 2004 and since then there has only been one more repetition. It was by chance that a good friend of mine, Nico Potard, was working on the route the same day and so everything was well cleaned and tickmarks everywhere. Thank’s Nico!

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Beside this multipitch, I also tried Take it or Leave it, an 4 pitch vertical line with a very bouldery 8a pitch in the end. No chance for me to do the moves, bienvenue dans le Verdon!;-)

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Working with Keith and Andy, and of course climbing with Jonathan, was just great. We were really on the same wave, we decided every morning where we wanted to climb, or do, which made the whole trip perfect. Also it was really easy to handle the rain. The Gorge offers so much climbing that you can climb in any weather condition.

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I’m super psyched about the work we did, the footage, the images, the climbing, and the new relationships…the Gorges of Verdon are always magical for me!

A special thank’s to Arctery’x for their support and for their good spirit!!!

Sadness and happyness

One week ago, I recieved a call from my mom while I  was on the way down to Spain. I had to learn with sadness that a good climber friend of mine, Günther Habersatter, has found his death in a avalanche. I’m really sorry for his wife and his three children; Günthi was my rope partner when I was redpointing ‘Silbergeier’.

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Climbing with a big sadness is hard, but in another way, climbing makes us really happy and I realized once more, how much we have to appreciate every single day.

I was beginning my trip together with Cédric and our lovely home-made camping car. After two days of climbing in the freezy Margalef, we moved to Oliana, our favourite crag of Catalunya.

Cédric choosed a new 9a+, Chaxi, and I starded two new projects: Pappy Mullat and Mind Control. I put a lot of energy in Pappy Mullat, a route with one big move and after 10 trys, I was still not able to redpoint this one. No sent, but a good endurance training for Mind Control.

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For me, Mind Control is a perfect line. The climb is like a voyage and the key to successe is to stay calm and to feel comfortable with all this air unter your ass.

Some days ago, Daila Ojenda sent the route in a perfect style and just after her, Joe Kinder did it in the same way. It was so cool to watch them climbing and I wanted to do the same. The last year I did one work out of Mind Contol, this time I needed 4 more and on my first serious try, I clipped the chain 45 meters high up from the ground. Soooooo nice!;-)

The grade of Mind Control is really not extreme. If somebody will downgread, why not. But honestly, grades are so unimportant. I’ve had the chance to climb such a fantastic line and I feel so alive and my body is full of energy and power. I can realize my dreams, what else counts in live?

The little clip from the ascent will following soon, stay tuned! (We don’t have the best connection)