Catherine Destivelle

"When I’m free soloing, I feel O.K. I always have a big safety margin, I’m not struggling. You feel quite powerful and calm. If I ever felt afraid, I wouldn’t go. I don’t like to bet. That goes for everything. I don’t run after luck. With my publishing company, it’s exactly the same. I go step by step and build something."

"I did the American Direct (ED1 5.10+ A0, 1,100m) on the Dru when I was 17. I was just an amateur. I was climbing because I liked climbing, but I didn’t know I would be able to do what I did after. It was just pleasure. I was still a child."

"I realized I don’t like aid climbing. It was boring. But I learned a lot about myself: [It was] long, four days of bad weather, couldn’t go out of my portaledge."

"I didn’t want people to say it was the first female ascent, I wanted to be the first person to climb the Eiger onsight and solo in winter (though I don’t know for sure that I was!)."

"Concentration is the biggest thing I learned through my career. You can’t succeed if you are not focused. Climbing taught me that. You never let it go. Concentration in each instant, each minute, each second."