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In this latest episode of La Sportive Outdoor, we delve into the inspiring journey of professional climber Nina Caprez. Recently the author of an autobiography published by Paulsen, entitled La Voie devant Soi, she opens up with immense sincerity about her personal evolution. On the eve of her 40th birthday, this Swiss-born athlete shares her story, marked by verticality, vulnerability and the quest for deep balance, far beyond pure performance.

From Grisons to the cliffs: freeing yourself from the competition

Growing up in the mountains of Graubünden, Nina Caprez was an early mountaineer, first skiing at the age of two and snowboarding at five. However, it was at the age of 13 that she began climbing, driven by the desire to follow in her brother and sister’s footsteps. On her very first outing, she refused to practice top-roping after getting stuck and crying at the top of a belay. She developed a taste for commitment and the mixture of fear and excitement that climbing brings.

After several years with an Alpine Club group, she was spotted by the regional team, then joined the Swiss team. Her career took her to the four corners of the globe for World Cups, notably in China. However, Nina does not thrive in the rigid world of training in Berne, and rejects the team’s internal rivalry, preferring the “roped spirit”. In 2009, at the age of 22, she put a definitive end to her competitive career. She then turned to cliff climbing and long routes, a terrain where her steely mentality and effort management come into their own.

The intimate battle: breaking the frame and overcoming CAT

In her book, the climber talks openly about her battle with the eating disorders that accompanied her during her adolescence, from the age of 17. Nina Caprez points out that her anorexia was not linked to the search for a power-to-weight ratio for her sport. Rather, the root of the problem lay in a deep-seated malaise in the face of the overly rigid, planned life patterns of German-speaking Switzerland. Feeling misunderstood, she found in this illness a form of rebellion. It was her permanent move to France over 15 years ago that enabled her to lighten this burden by discovering a freer way of life, which today encourages her to encourage young people to speak out.

Nose obsession and forced landing

As she approached her thirties, Nina Caprez’s life revolved exclusively around sponsorship, travel and performance, creating a huge gap with her private life. She became obsessed with El Capitan, a 1,000-metre granite wall in Yosemite, USA, and in particular with its mythical Nose route. Her goal is to free this route by climbing every pitch of it, a historic feat first achieved by Lynn Hill. She sees this project as her ultimate sporting goal, before building a family life similar to that of her brother.

After an artificial attempt in 2017, she teamed up directly with Lynn Hill in 2018 and 2019. Despite intense preparation that pushed her beyond her physical and moral limits, she failed to link the route in free. This failure, which she describes as a real “fall in life” or a necessary landing on real ground, finally forces her to face reality and get out of her “bulldozer” mode of operation.

The Andrea project: climbing for people

The void left by the Nose opens the door to a new cycle of life. Nina met her partner Jeremy, with whom she started a family and had two daughters, Lia and Dune. Together, they came up with the Andrea project to travel differently, far from pure performance.

Here are the milestones of this nomadic adventure of solidarity:

• The purchase of a Unimog: The couple bought this heavy-duty truck and installed a mobile climbing wall to share the values of sport with underprivileged populations.
• Four months in Eastern Europe: They travel through Romania and Greece, climbing with poor children and working in two refugee camps.
• Humanitarian action in Morocco: During a three-month stay, they are surprised by the terrible earthquake. They raise substantial funds for reconstruction, and use their truck to offer a bubble of happiness to orphans.

Having sold the Unimog for a larger truck, suitable for their two children, they are about to set off again for two years to Morocco and then Central Asia. For this long journey ahead, the couple have chosen not to make a film, so as to remain fully anchored in the present moment. Instead, they are preparing a book combining Nina’s adventure story and Jérémy’s photographs.

Renewed practice and future vertical challenges

Motherhood has profoundly softened Nina Caprez’s relationship with her body. Although it took her almost a year to recover physically after her two births, she has learned to be kinder to herself, even going so far as to reconcile herself with the windmill during her pregnancies. Now, her climbing time is precious and optimized to the maximum.

Having regained a powerful, high-performance body, Nina Caprez refuses to return to the obsession of the past, but is preparing to return to the top level with two very specific objectives:

1. The sequence of a cliff project rated 8b/8b+ at Saint-Léger, a physical route in a 45-degree panel.
2. The summer ascent of a major 1000-meter alpine route at Pic de Bure, near Gap, an exposed line with pitches in the 8th degree.

Links

• His book : The Way Ahead (Paulsen ed.)
• Instagram: https: //www.instagram.com/ninacaprez/
• Film Andrea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4k24RCJfKU

Photo credit: Jeremy Bernard