DURIF Charlotte

• Born in 1990
• From Demigny, Burgundy, France
• Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• FFME licence: TAG- Tournefeuille Altitude Grimpe
• Sports activities : Climbing, hiking, snowboarding, Ski raid
• Cultural pleasure : Travel, Cooking, Reading
• Tastes : sweet, salty, cheese and dessert
• Beginning of the regular practice : in 1999 (Youth D)
• Outdoor practice : Cliff, multipitch, bigwall, bouldering

Portrait :

I started climbing with alpinism in high mountain with my brother and my father in the Oisans and Mont-Blanc massifs, on multipitch routes with sometimes a bivvy on a glacier. Then, when I was 9 years old, I discovered indoor climbing, and stopped rhythmic gymnastic. At the same time, I never stopped outdoor climbing, but my practice was more shifted towards single pitch route which enriched my motivations, without stopping multipitch climbing. Thus, I spend my 12th birthday following the path of the Ursa Major while bivvying in the Happy Birthday wall, at La Croix des Têtes, a pretty cool « little » big wall in Maurienne, France.

My favorite lines are the 40 to 50m pitches. They are endless journeys. They give me time to climb, enjoy it, and get more of it. Every section of every route is a discovery. I like to decrypt sections, imagine its solution and feel a kind of creativity. Since the beginning, my style is endurance.

If up until 5.13c, climbing was a lot intuitive, I adapted it less spontaneously to the harder routes. I had to accept the principle of spending time to work the routes, including most of the time more physical moves. As a woman, it needs a serious will to go against my feline nature. I had the opportunity to test that investment in the Tarn and Dourbie, with a good friend, whose climbing style lit up the attention that I needed to go further. Nowadays, the intensity and the richness of any route is so excessive that it leaves me with a strong feeling, enough for my commitment and my sensibility.

So I am not a addict of the difficulty for the difficulty. I take opportunities from a line that distinguishes, my shape and motivation, the suggestion from a friend, or a situation that doesn’t need much more thoughts. Thus, like a way back to the roots, I liked to share a bivouac on the wall of Hotel Supramonte in Sardinia, it was a simple and necessary experience in my life. It leaves a singular and long lasting souvenir, like are my envy of climbing.

More than grades that we just consume, I prefer memories of a well lived moment. Even if now, nothing brings my envy of major routes away, I take time to appreciate them. Maybe I will never be able to do something better, but at least I will have a big quantity of great souvenirs. Exploring all the dimensions of the rock with the manner, from bouldering to big walls, is a globality that teases me.

Accomplishments :

Cliff

• 206 area visited
• 1085 routes 5.12d and above
• 708 routes 5.13a and above (5.13b/c regularly onsight)
• 24 routes 5.13d onsight and 166 routes 5.13d and above
• 1 route 5.14b onsight and 27 routes 5.14b and above
• 1 route 5.14d

Max in multipitch

• Happy birthday , Croix des têtes, France -17 pitches – 5.11c min, 5.12d max, at 12 years old (and a bivvy in the wall)
• Hotel Supramonte, Sardaigne – 12 longueurs – 5.12a min, 5.13d max, at 16 years old (pitches sent, not linked up… and a bivvy on the wall)
• La Ramirole, Verdon, France – 5.12a min, 5.13d max at 19years old (with 3 pitches 5.13c/d, 5.13b/c, 5.13d onsight)

Boulders

• Dirty Epic, Rocklands, South Africa - 8a
• Royksopp, Rocklands, South Africa - 8a
• Xavier’s roof, Bishop, USA – V11
• When we were kings, Grampians, Australia - V11
• Smile for the blade, RMNP, USA – V10 flash
• Tactical error, RMNP, USA – V10 flash

Sponsors

• Petzl : Climbing Gear
• Mountain Hardwear : Clothing, bags and tents
• EB : Climbing shoes
• Volx holds : Climbing holds
• Luxov : Digital system for bright and connected holds

Education, employment and activities

• Since January 2018 : I worked as a photographer and filmmaker as an independent, for Cold House Media and for Camp 4 Collective. I'm also a contractor in different fields of the climbing World.
• September 2017 until January 2019 : A World Less Traveled World Tour with my partner Josh Larson. Gone on the East ... before bearing full South, then West, then full North.. then South -East... then, then, then...

• June 2017 : graduation of Doctor in Chemistry and Physical-Chemistry of Materials

• Education and employement : 2014- 2017

Preparation of a PhD in the AREVA Technical Center in Montpellier, in the section New materials chemistry. This PhD is realized with teh partnership of AREVA, IEM (European Institute of Membranes), the Montpellier University and the doctoral school ED459. My PhD work is entitled :

Development of a membrane process for the mastering of the contamination in pressurized water reactors.

• Education 2010-2013 : ENSMM (Mecanics and microtechnics) Engineer school in Besançon, France– Internship in the MIT in Boston (MA, USA) - Engineer graduation.
• Education 2008-2010 : Intensive classes to enter the Engineer school, in Chalon sur Saône, France
• Education 2006-2008 : Scientific bachelor in Chalon sur Saône, France