700 and Counting — From Hard Routes to Bolting New Lines with Charlotte Durif

On August 30, 2022, Charlotte Durif clipped the chains of "700 and Counting", 8a+ in Kyparissi, Greece. "Not outstanding nowadays" you might remark, but with the story behind it, it’s nothing short of inspiring. Sending this route marks the accomplishment of Charlotte’s goal for this year; she has now climbed 700 routes in the range of 8a to 9a in her life, so far.

Last February, while checking my personal website, chadurif.fr, where I log in all my ascents, I realized my list of routes "8a or harder" was at 683. It made me think: let's try to climb 17 routes in this grade range this year, so I can reach 700! While some years ago I would have climbed that over summer holidays, my ascents have been more sparse over the last few years due to the pandemic, so it seemed like a real challenge. It was a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it pushed me to climb around my home in Salt Lake City a lot more than I used to. It allowed me to discover some nice little gems around the valley during afternoon trips. On the other hand, it made me stay in the 8a or 8a+ range so I was sure to climb it in a day. Sometimes this caused me to miss out on the most attractive lines (either easier or harder), which is really what I'm inspired by when I climb nowadays.
 
I was 13 years old when I climbed my first 8a, “Little Big Boss”, in the Gorges du Tarn in France. That was in 2004, a breakthrough year in my climbing. 18 years later, I'm so content and proud of where climbing has taken me, literally and figuratively! And I couldn't be more thrilled for my anecdotal 700th "hard route" to be one that I bolted in late 2021 on a trip with my favorite human and climbing partner, Josh. Plus, I sent while my dad was belaying me. He’s the one who introduced me to climbing more than 20 years ago and has supported me all these years!

"700 and Counting" is a 30-meter route located in the middle of the Tragana Sector in beautiful Kyparissi, Greece. It starts by following a mega tufa that climbs like a chimney. A precarious move to exit that tufa leads you to a few slabby moves before attacking the second part of the route, which is much steeper and more physical. The last 10 meters are what attracted my eyes to bolt this route: a single, beautiful tufa, 20 to 30 cm wide, sticking out up to 50 cm, surrounded by slick rock and wrapping along the overhang.
 
I started climbing in the French Alps with my dad and brother when I was very young. At the time, we spent a lot of time outdoors and in the mountains. I usually tell people that climbing became “my thing” at the age of 9, when I started climbing at an indoor climbing club, following my brother, who’d been doing it for a few years. Back then, I had no idea climbing would become the biggest part of my life and would teach me so much. Now looking back, it seems like I quickly entered an environment that nurtured the idea of “let’s see what happens”, which could also be translated as “anything is possible, just go for it”. An event that fueled this mindset was in July 2001, when my brother, dad, and I were hiking out from the blue cliffs of Céüse, France. We noticed some ropes with photographers hanging from them, so we stopped to see what was happening. My brother realized it was Chris Sharma tying in to climb. Little did we know, we were about to witness the historic first ascent of Biographie/Realization, 9a+.

The next 15 years of my life were spent balancing school time (I got an Engineering degree, did an internship at MIT, and completed a PhD) and climbing time. I fulfilled my passion for climbing with outdoor climbing, visiting many areas and reaching for new levels as the years passed. I also enjoyed the challenge of competition and was pretty successful. After having won 6 World Championships (5 in Youth), a World Cup, a European Championship, 16 French National Championships (8 in Youth), in 2016, I decided to end my career as a competitor and focus on outdoor climbing. That same year, I got the opportunity to go on a bolting and climbing trip to Kyparissi, Greece with the FFCAM’s Excellence Group, and it was a turning point in my life: I discovered the art of bolting and fell deeply in love with it.

When climbing, I am first attracted by beautiful lines that catch my eye from the bottom of the cliff. With bolting, it's the same thing, except I have the responsibility to define the route and create an attractive and safe line. I like this creative freedom and the internal reflection: "Where do I go? Where do I put my bolts? Can I clip easily, how do I go about it? Will it work if I go this way? I hope this hold doesn’t break. Have I tightened my bolt above enough?” The list goes on. As for the physical side of bolting, I have to admit that I really like it despite the difficulty of hanging in a harness for hours, drilling in positions that are not necessarily comfortable, hammering the bolts in the rock, tightening the nut to the max, cleaning again and again... it's not a great sales pitch! But the whole thing is very satisfying, especially experiencing the evolution from an unexplored piece of rock to a route that’s ready to be climbed. 

 
These days, I really intend my climbing trips to be bolting trips to locations that need help developing or that are somewhat remote and have potential for new sectors and lines. A great example is Pitumarca, Peru, which is a favorite place of mine. The high altitude, yet super accessible area is a gem in and of itself, with valleys lined with perfect limestone cliffs and so much potential for route development. In 2019, Josh Larson and I, with approval from the local communities and climbers, bolted the first line on the Kuntur Sayana wall, which we called Vuelo del Condor (230m, 7 pitches, 8a+ max). The rock was just stellar and impeccable, reminding me of the perfect blue walls of the Gorges du Verdon. With an ever-growing number of climbers going to popular areas, I believe it will become essential to develop new places and promote them so that the popular ones don’t end up loved to death.