700 Climbs...And Counting | The Incredible Story Of Charlotte Durif's Life In Climbing

My name is Charlotte Durif and I've been climbing for about 25 years. This is me on top of a route called 700 and counting, an elite plus that I climbed this summer in Kyparissi, Greece. Topping this route represented an achievement that I've been working on most of my life and that I never thought would become a reality. This story starts 20 years ago. I first started climbing with my brother and my father when I was really young and we would climb everything from roots, boulder, alpine climb and multi pitch. I didn't particularly have any big ambition, I just loved climbing and being out there on the rocks and yet when I was 13 years old I climbed my first 8a which was Little Big Boss in the Gorge du Tarn and that year was really a breakthrough in my climbing because I realized that I was pretty good at it. From then on I started taking climbing a bit more seriously, going more places, trying new routes, experiencing new styles, just pushing the limits of what I was able to climb. Seven years later and after having climbed 390 routes in the 8th grade, I climbed my first 9a, Les Trois Pays in the Gorge du Berdon. This route fitted me perfectly, 50 meters long, very steep, on pockets, all in endurance and after 11 tries I sent it and became the second woman in the world to climb this grade. While it was a big moment in my career and in climbing history, it was also the epitome of me pushing my limits as I preferred going back to my true motivations which were to sample as many routes as possible and not spend days and weeks trying the same ones. And then something huge happened in 2016. I started bolting and that gave a brand new perspective to my passion for climbing. That's a skill that really added up to my climbing journey allowing me to not only climb the coolest routes existing out there but also having the vision to create new ones and help develop new areas. Although I'm not instinctively looking into harder routes anymore, there are always a few that stands out and catch my attention. One in particular is an 8c that I bolted in Pictoumarca, Peru called the Sheep Row and that climbs at an elevation of 4200 meters. 683, that's the amount of routes between 8a and 9a that have come in my life as of the end of 2021. That gave me a great project for 2022 which is to reach the anecdotic number of 700. Each time I went out at the beginning of the year, I got a step closer to getting to 700. I wanted it to be special in some ways so a trip to Kiparasi where I was planning to go with my family and friends this summer was the perfect opportunity. By the time I got to Greece, I had three left. In the first few days, I climbed some already established routes in the 8th grade and then it was time to go for the 700. I picked a route that I've bolted in the past and lucky for me, my dad was also around and he was able to relay me like he did for my first one. Nice. You can take. 700. 700. That's cool. What a sick one for 700. And you bolted it. And I bolted it. That's cool. Cherry on the cake. I've been asked if it was more pressure to climb it because of the meaning of this route but it was not. It just felt very special. Well, I guess 1000 is next. See you then.