Last Saturday, Katherine Choong managed to climb the La Ligne Claire (8c +) route in the French climbing area of St-Léger.
As Katherine writes to LACRUX, she felt pretty drained physically and mentally after the European Championships at the end of 2020. For this reason, she looked for a route to find the fun of climbing again and to get in shape. “Of course I didn't want to climb just any route, I wanted to climb a difficult one,” says Katherine with a wink.
St-Léger as the only option
Due to the corona-related travel restrictions, the French climbing area St-Léger was one of the few destinations that Katherine was able to visit outside of Switzerland.
After seeing Nolwen Berthier's video, I was totally motivated to plan the La Ligne Claire route.
Katherine Choong
Said and done. Without any expectations, Katherine began designing the La Ligne Claire sport climbing route. Katherine quickly got into shape and her motivation increased with every day on the route. The passage did not come quite so quickly. Katherine even fell three times shortly before getting off the route, which was not easy morally.
Nolwen Berthier inspecting La Ligne Claire (8c +)
Katherine Choong is writing Swiss climbing history
Katherine Choong is one of the strongest Swiss climbers. In 2018 she was the first Swiss woman to score a 9a route with Cabane au Canada in Rawyl. A little more than a year later, she doubled the route with the Jungfrau Marathon near Gimmelwald, also 9a.
In the current season, Katherine wants to tackle other difficult sport climbing routes as well as multi-pitch routes in the Gorges du Verdon and in Switzerland.
That might interest you
- Katherine Choong and Mathilde Becerra climb with children in Lebanon
- Alexander Rohr scores Jungfrau Marathon (9a)
- Alfredo Webber climbs the 8c route free solo
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Credits: Picture material Hugo Vincent