Nina Caprez Sends 350-Metre 5.14a
This is her first 5.14 since becoming a mom last year and she climbed it with a younger climber who experienced their first multi-pitch
Top Swiss climber Nina Caprez, 36, has climbed Yeah Man, a 350-metre 5.14a on Gran Pfad in Switzerland’s Gastlosen Mountains. Caprez, who recently became a mother, has repeated several multi-pitch test-piece routes over the years.
Caprez teamed up with 19-year-old Pauline Maheo for the send and Maheo’s first real multi-pitch. Caprez freed it on her fifth day, while Maheo came close but didn’t link all of the moves on the crux pitch. After sending the crux, Caprez said, “I’ve not been able to send a 5.14a for years… Maybe it’s because I feel so damn good while being high up on a wall, or maybe it’s because my entire family was supporting me, or maybe it’s because of the delicious dinner we had the day before, or maybe there’s nothing miraculous other than crimping strong on those tinny holds.”
The route was opened in 1999 by local guides Francoise Studemann and Guy Scherrer, and it was first freed in 2004 by Josune Bereziartu and Rikar Otegi. The nine-pitch 300-metre line boasts several crux pitches, with the eighth being the only 5.14. The route breakdown is 5.12, 5.12, 5.12, 5.13, 5.13, 5.13, 5.13, 5.14a and finally a final 5.12 pitch.
Caprez has climbed some of the world’s most classic hard big wall free routes, with repeats of lines like Silbergeier 5.14a in the Ratikon and El Nino 5.13c A0 in Yosemite. In 2019, she onsighted The Shadow 5.13 on University Wall above Squamish.
Caprez in Squamish
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