Sylvain Millet repeats Biographie, 9a+, the world’s hardest sport route.

Photo Samuël Bié©

Late afternoon of Monday, May 24, 2004, crag of Ceüse (France), the world’s most famous limestone wall. Sylvain Millet has just succeeded in the first repetition of Biographie, 60 moves for 40 meters, rated 9a+ by American Chris Sharma, the first one who redpointed it.
This is the world’s highest difficulty of sport climbing and, anyway, this one is the world’s best-known extreme line.
A few days later Sylvain is on the route again, for a photo session. Hanging in the air, a few meters away from him, his friend Fred Ripert collects the images of the event and the impressions of the climb.
After about two months, on July 29, 2004, Spanish Patxi Usobiaga makes the third ascent of the route. The extremely strong Spanish specialist needed less than thirty tries, spread over two years, to master the micro holds of Biographie.
Oscar Durbiano

Biographie: the realization of a dream.

Can you tell us about the story of this route?
Biographie has been equipped at the end of the Eighties by Jean-Christophe Lafaille. In that period there wasn’t the intermediate belay. Arnaud Petit, a few years later, divided the route in two sections, redpointing the first part in 1996 and rating it 8c+. In that moment the route became famous in the media. The following year American Chris Sharma manages to repeat the first part and starts to try the combination. From the beginning the project appears to be very hard and it requires a lot of time and energy. Several sojourns of one-two months, spread over a few years, will be necessary to Sharma to redpoint the line in 2001. Sharma, loyal to the American ethic, for which the first free ascensionist is the one who names the route, has renamed it Realization, and rated it 9a+, but for everybody else it has remained Biographie.

Which is its place in the history?
I have been climbing a lot in Ceüse for a dozen years. That means, when I started, the route was already there. I had a few friends trying it now and then, but at that time I was more fascinated by the crag in general, than by a special route. With the time I began to work on always-harder routes and in this context I started to try the magic line Biographie.

Tell us about the first contact.
It was in 1996, at the time of Arnaud Petit’s tries. In that period I hadn’t such a level to seriously try such difficulties. Anyway I remember the engagement of the single moves, and particularly the start. I can say, without being ashamed, that I was very impressed by the complexity of those movements and at the same time, also fascinated, so that my first reaction was kind of “Well, the route isn’t easy, I will have to go back to training.”

Speaking about training, give us an idea of the commitment required by the repetition of Biographie.
When I spoke about “training” I referred specially to the mental investment, because I am not very fond of indoor training, and I prefer much more the activity outside, may be oriented to my objective of the period. I trained in that way, particularly on rock, and I came back to the route now and then, to verify my level compared to the difficulties of the line I was interested into. In 1998 I started to try it more seriously and in 1999 I redpointed the first section. I continued to work on it until 2001, when I realized that I had concrete possibilities to enchain both sections. The bad thing was that from that moment started my concentration problems, which were caused by the tension of the result. Luckily I have an optimistic character and I maintained a positive mental approach.

Let’s go to the realization’s day.
In effect that day I was surprised. The reason was that in the spring, with the arrival of the good season, I had had a remarkable loss of shape, and I didn’t think I could recover so fast. For that reason I worked on it with utmost commitment. In about one month I had recovered my fitness, and one week before the climb I felt that I was competitive again. Only then I started with the serious tries. The first ones were average, and then always better.
On Monday, May 24, the conditions were ideal: I felt full of energy and the climate was cool and windy. I climbed the first section feeling well, and without forcing anything. At the rest position after the first part I felt much better than usual, but I didn’t think that it would be the decisive try.

Tell us about the hard section, and how you experienced it.
The hard section of the route consists of seven/eight moves, two of them really intense. You start with a three-finger undercling for your right hand, and you must reach with your left another three-finger pocket, very far away. Then, from this three-finger pocket, you must cross on a kind of edge and avoid an dreadful flag.
I was making so many tries that in the evening it became a kind of routine, to climb up to the crux. Then there were those two hard moves, directly depending on my power.
But this time it was different. I felt well and I was in control of the situation. I remember a few mental impressions, like “Attention, also if I feel well I must give all my best and remain concentrated. I can’t relax. I must give the maximum, more than the maximum.”
A few seconds later, like a wonder, I had automatically climbed the two moves. I found myself with the two holds after the crux, thinking: “Shit, it’s crazy ... what is happening? Usually, at this point, I am hanging in my harness ten meters lower and now, instead, I am still here!” Only in that moment I realized the situation and felt a lot of stress. Then I reached a good hold and breathed deeply, trying to stay calm, not to lose my head in the last meters.

How did you feel just afterwards?
The minutes just after the climb have been really strange. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t fall. Then I believed it and the first thought was “All the same, it wasn’t that hard!” and I was almost sad that the game was over, that the challenge of that fabulous line was finished. A regret shared with my friends, who told me only later that they were sad too, not to be able to continue what had become almost a rite, full of atmosphere and emotion.

When did you realize that you are one of the very few climbers who climbed such a difficulty?
At the beginning it hadn’t even come to my mind, particularly because I don’t have a lot of experience on high difficulty and therefore I didn’t feel that I had done such a great exploit. Nevertheless, the fact that many other famous climbers came to try it and the congratulations coming from the stars of world climbing, made me realize that may be it was one of the hardest route in the world, also if I am not so sure, after all. My rational side suggests me that it would be necessary to try other top routes, to be definitely sure of the value of Biographie.

Biographie is the route of your life?
For the moment yes. But I hope that there will be other ones, otherwise I will stop climbing. Just kidding, I think that there will be other extreme routes in my climbing career. Surely Biographie will always have a special place in my heart, and that apart from the fact that it’s so hard, because it is a fantastic line on best quality rock, a wonderful route and unique in its kind.

Fred Ripert