The 33-year-old Frenchwoman has repeated Antonin Rhodes's orange tufa line high above the Verdon. It took her two seasons and a beta she had to invent for herself.

Hématome Crochu climbs a single orange tufa through a steeply overhanging wall at the Baume de la Ramirole, right in the heart of the Verdon and some 200 metres above the river. Antonin Rhodes, Berthier's partner and a prolific bolter in the south of France, equipped it in 2020. Romaric Geffroy made the first ascent in 2022 and graded it 9a. Now the route has its second ascent. "What a line. What a fight. So psyched to take the second ascent of this absolute gem," Nolwen Berthier wrote.

The line caught her eye as soon as it was bolted, but she only started trying it last summer. At that point it had seen one ascent, the holds were still almost untouched and nobody her size had been on it. So she had to work out her own beta and fit every sequence to her height. "With its super graphic single-tufa line, 200 meters above the river, « Hématome Crochu » is one of the most beautiful routes I've ever climbed. But also one of the most intimidating," she told Vertical-Life.

She walked Fanatic Climbing through the route. It opens with varied moves on a blue wall, then traverses a white wall with a proper boulder problem. Next comes an unusual rest where you can sit in a hole and let go with both hands. Above it the tufa turns very physical and leads onto a wall of small grey knobs, where you have to stay precise with hands and feet all the way to the last rest. The final section is less sustained but still needs a steady head.

It is her first 9a on record. In 2022 she skipped the grade and went straight to 9a+ with Supercrackinette at Saint-Léger, and the same year she onsighted Omaha Beach (8b+) at the Red River Gorge, only the third woman to do so. At La Ramirole she had already climbed La Flûte en chantier (8c+). The crag is having quite an autumn. On 10 October Jakob Schubert made the first ever repeat of a 9c there, on Seb Bouin's DNA, as we reported here.

Sources: 8a.nu, Fanatic Climbing, GrimpActu, Gripped, Climbing History

Photo: Nolwen Berthier on Hématome Crochu, © Hans Radetzki / GrimpActu