Nina Caprez Rocks Voie Petit 5.13d in Alps

Swiss all-rounder Nina Caprez made a quick repeat of the famous Voie Petit 5.13d on Grand Capucin, Mont Blanc, in the Alps. The 450-metre line was freed in 2005 by Alex Huber and first climbed in 1997 by Arnaud Petit and team.

Caprez needed two attempts to tick the alpine mixed face/crack route, the first with Sean Villanueva and the second with Marina Cufar. In the end, it took only 11 hours to get up the 12 difficult pitches.

Slovenia Cufar, who was once the Lead World Champion, supported the Swiss crusher for her leads and seconded everything clean except the 5.13 pitches. Two years ago, Caprez and Arnaud Petit made the first ascent of a big route up the south face of the Grand Capucin called L’or du Temps.

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Martina Cufar, I couldn’t have imagined a better partner on my free ascent of “la voie Petit” on Grand Capucin. Your great attitude inspires so many, me included. It took us 11 hours to climb the 12 pitches with difficulties up to 8b on 4’000m altitude. Martina offered a full day of belaying and climbing on top rope. As I love being on the sharp end, I felt entirely in my element. I surprised myself by climbing that route in only two sessions. Thanks @seanvillanuevaodriscoll for the epic first one a week ago. Thanks again Martina for the endless support and good job on your climbing! @arnaudpetit_climb , your visionary eye for lines is ??? Full story of Nina’s adventures in the mountains soon on my blog. #lovelife #freeascent #mountainclimbs #voiepetit #petzlteam #helmetup @petzl_official @arcteryx @scarpaspa @msr_gear @lyofood

A post shared by Nina Caprez (@ninacaprez) on Jul 19, 2019 at 11:37pm PDT

In 2017 Caprez teamed up with Arnaud Petit to make the first ascent of L’or du temps, up the South Face of Grand Capucin. The new route came 20 years after Petit made the first ascent of Voie Petit and climbs the feature in 12 pitches. It was later freed by Pavel Kratochvíl at 5.13.

Caprez has racked up an impressive resume over the years, including Silbergeier V 5.14a in the Ratikon, Hotel Supramonte 5.13d in Sardinia, El Nino VI 5.13c A0 in Yosemite Valley, Ultime démence IV 5.13c in Verdon Gorge and la Ramirole IV 5.13d in Verdon Gorge.

She was recently attempting to free The Nose 5.14 with help from Lynn Hill, which she’ll be returning to this fall. “There is a reason why today only eight people have climbed the route so far. There is a reason there hasn’t been more people just crushing that thing,” said Caprez.

“It’s a big journey. I spent an entire month with Lynn Hill. And then, at the end of the month that we were together, we went for a three day push, and I freed about 90% of the route, except, precisely, for four metres of Changing Corners. That was way over the expectations I had. Lynn pushed me to give my real best. She believed in me. It was very, very, very precious to me.”

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Working on “the Nose” over the last couple of days has by far been one of the coolest experiences of my life. I have to admit that I’m very impressed by the enormous strength of @_linacolina_ It’s way more then a physical force; she’s simply all in. I don’t know how this story gonna end up, but I can say that I live the dream… #bestteamever #noseproject #yosemite #lovelife @petzl_official @scarpaspa @arcteryx @msr_gear @lyofood @hard.bar @hydroflask

A post shared by Nina Caprez (@ninacaprez) on Oct 14, 2018 at 3:49pm PDT