The competition athlete and partner of James Pearson, Caroline Ciavaldini, set an ambitious goal in the year 2015: the free ascent of the route La Voie Petit (8b) at the Grand Capucin in Chamonix. The project was filmed and shown last weekend at the multimedia festival BergBuchBrig. The climbing movie is available below in full length.
A contribution by Jeannine Zubler
Caroline is a typical competition climber. For them, climbing means competition, discipline and hard training. Until she decides to leave the competition behind and become an alpinist. Together with her climbing partner James she discovers a new world, the beauty and joy of traditional climbing. With La Voie Petit At the Grand Capucin on Mont Blanc du Tacul, she finds a destination, a great dream, worth a visit.
Inspired by Arnaud Petit
She was inspired by her role model Arnaud Petit, who first walked the route in 1997. It is said that he brought the worlds of climbing and mountaineering together. Caroline now also wants to face this challenge. In addition to the difficulty of the route (key length 8b), the altitude at 3 meters is one of the challenges of the high alpine route.
La Voie Petit - a big dream of granite
Caroline benefits from her time as a competitive climber while preparing for the route. She has learned how to approach big projects properly, how to train and, above all, how to endure and not give up even in the case of difficulties. She plans the ascent and prepares herself meticulously for it. Several times she climbs in the route to practice the most difficult moves and key points and to prepare optimally for the route. As a sport climber, Caroline also has to learn how to be alpine on the go, how to hedge the routes herself. She first has to get used to climbing the granite.
The project has demanded everything from Caroline
Together with her husband and climbing partner James Pearson and a local mountain guide, she finally ventures to the big project, which demands everything from her. You are with her on the rock and experienced up close, what great achievement she accomplishes. For Caroline, the visit was a great dream come true, not least she climbed La Voie Petit as the first woman.
Conclusion
A very worth seeing film with impressive pictures from the Mont Blanc massif. The close-ups of the legendary route and the famous granite in the area make climbing hearts beat faster.
Length: about 33 minutes
Actor: Caroline Ciavaldini
Release: November 2016
Shooting time July 2014 until June 2016
Full length climbing movie Shifting Dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqUpxCco3PA
about the author
Jeannine Zubler is a freelance journalist and copywriter. She spends every free minute in the mountains and when climbing. She writes about everything that happens in the vertical. www.jeanninezubler.com
Credits: picture The North Face