Location Céüse, France Route Type Sport Climb Grade I | Climbing Area Montagne de Céüse Rating Number of pitches 1 | |
Route Setter Jean-Christophe Lafaille, 1989. | ||
Biographie, or Realization, is a sport climbing route on a crag on the southern face of the 2,016-metre (6,614 ft) Montagne de Céüse near Gap and Céüse, France.
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The first person to successfully climb Biographie was Chris Sharma, who did not grade the climb. It is generally considered to be 9a+ (5.15a). Among the routes that have been repeated by anyone else except the author, Biographie is the first ascent to be recognized with a 9a+ rating making it the most difficult at that time. However, in 1996 Fred Rouhling proposed even harder grade 9b (5.15b) for his unrepeated climb Akira. Since 2001 there have been ascents of other routes which are recognized and rated to be more difficult.
Name disputeEdit
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 person to successfully climb the route. 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. Around 2007 the anchor chains marking the end of the route which Arnaud Petit climbed were removed from the wall. In July 2001 Sharma became the first person to climb the full route and gave it the name "Realization", following the American way. Since then, Sharma has said that "most of the time I actually call the route Biographie".
Subsequent ascentsEdit
Biographie has been repeated by: