Catherine Destivelle, born on July 24, 1960, in Oran, France, is a renowned French climber and mountaineer. Introduced to climbing at a very young age in the Fontainebleau forest, she was already scaling the most challenging climbing routes in the French Alps by the age of twenty.
As a teenager, Catherine spent her weekends climbing the highest peaks in the Alps, and by the age of fifteen, she had mastered the hardest rocks. After completing her education, she pursued a career as a physiotherapist, but her passion for climbing eventually led her to compete in international climbing competitions.
Between 1985 and 1988, Catherine was considered the world's best female climber, and her impressive feats earned her numerous records, trophies, and honorary distinctions. In the 1990s, she shifted her focus towards mountaineering, taking part in expeditions to the Himalayas and becoming the first woman to climb the three great north faces of the Alps alone in winter.
Throughout her illustrious career, Catherine has been the subject of numerous reports and documentary films, and her remarkable achievements have solidified her position as the greatest female climber of all time. Notable accomplishments include solo winter ascents of the Eiger, the Grandes Jorasses, and the Matterhorn, as well as soloing the Bonatti Pillar on Les Drus and opening a new route on the west face of the Drus.
In addition to her mountain activities, Catherine is a lecturer and director of Éditions du Mont-Blanc. Her notable achievements also include climbing the Nameless Tower in Pakistan, soloing the north face of the Eiger, and winter soloing the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses.
In 1992, Catherine soloed the north face of the Eiger in just 17 hours, and in 1994, she soloed the Bonatti route on the north face of the Matterhorn in winter. Her other notable climbs include the southwest face of Shishapangma in Tibet, the south face of Annapurna, and the direct north face of the Cima Grande di Lavaredo in the Italian Dolomites.
Catherine's impressive career was recognized with a Piolet d'Or in 2020, a distinction awarded for her entire career. Despite a brief hiatus due to an accident in Antarctica in 1996, Catherine recovered quickly and continued to push the boundaries of climbing and mountaineering.
