27 year-old Swiss climber Nina Caprez has done her first 5.14c with a repeat of Hélix au pays des merveilles at France’s Pic Saint Loup:
“I fell in love”, Nina raves about the line. “This huge limestone cave was one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life. The quality of rock is unbelievable: beside pure tufas you have perfect crimps, pockets…” From the moment she abseiled down into the cave ‘Pic de Saint Loup’ north of Montpellier, France, she wanted to climb on the huge fat tufa in the middle of the wall. “And I was a lucky girl – there was a route that was topping out on this huge tufa – the Hélix.
There is some footage of her on the route that can be seen here.