Realization (climb)

"Realization", also known as Biographie, is a sport climbing route on a crag on the southern face of the 2016-meter (6614-foot) Montagne de Céüse near Gap and Céüse, France. [ [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1504021 [e-mail] ] ] coord|44.514196|5.943432|display=title|type:mountain

The route is unusually difficult. While not having been graded by its first ascensionist Chris Sharma, it is generally considered to be 9a+ (French grade) or 5.15a (Yosemite Decimal System) . [ [http://www.freakclimbing.com/modules.php?name=People&rop=showcontent&pid=7 FreakClimbing.com People - Sylvain Millet Interview] ]

Name dispute

The name of the route is disputed: routes in France are named by the person who first bolted the route, while in the U.S. they are typically named by the first ascensionist. In 1989, Jean-Christophe Lafaille bolted the whole "pitch" and named it "Biographie". In 1996, Arnaud Petit added an anchor in the middle of the route, and did the first ascent of the first half in that year (The anchor chains are now no longer present where the first part of the route used to end). In July 2001 Chris Sharma became the first person to climb the full route and gave it the name "Realization", following the American way.

Many Americans consider "Biographie" to be the first half Arnaud Petit climbed in 1996; and "Realization" to be the extension. Local climbers such as Sylvain Millet refer to the entire route as "Biographie". [ [http://www.freakclimbing.com/modules.php?name=People&rop=showcontent&pid=7 FreakClimbing.com People - Sylvain Millet Interview ] ]

Other ascensions

"Realization" has been repeated by Sylvain Millet [ [http://www.lasportiva.com/Magazine/Inglese/realizzazioni/SylvainMilletBiographie.htm Sylvain Millet Biographie ] ] (May 2004), Patxi Usobiaga (July 29, 2004), Dave Graham [ [http://bigupproductions.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post.html big UP blog: Realization ] ] (July 30 2007), Ethan Pringle (September 2 2007) and Ramón Julián Puigblanque (July, 2008)

References