Realization

Realization
The Montagne de Céüse, site of Realization
Location	Céüse, France
Alternate Name	Biographie
Coordinates	44°30′51″N 5°56′36″E / 44.514196°N 5.943432°E / 44.514196; 5.943432
Climbing Area	Montagne de Céüse
Route Type	Sport Climb
Pitches	1
Rating	5.15a or 9a+
Grade	I
Route Setter	Jean-Christophe Lafaille, 1989.
FFA	Chris Sharma, July 2001.

Realization, or rather Biographie, is a sport climbing route on a crag on the southern face of the 2016-meter (6614-foot) Montagne de Céüse near Gap and Céüse, France.^[1]

While not having been graded by its first ascensionist Chris Sharma, it is generally considered to be 9a+ (French grade) or 5.15a (Yosemite Decimal System.^[2] Realization is the first ascent to be recognized with a 5.15 rating formally making it the most difficult as of 2001. Since 2001 there have been ascents of other routes which are recognized and rated to be more difficult.

Name dispute

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 ascensionist. 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 (The anchor chains are now no longer present where the first part of the route used to end). In July 2001 Chris Sharma became the first person to climb the full route and gave it the name "Realization", following the American way.

Many Americans consider "Biographie" to be the first half Arnaud Petit climbed in 1996; and Realization to be the extension. French climbers such as Sylvain Millet refer to the entire route as Biographie. ^[3]

Other ascensions

Realization has been repeated by Sylvain Millet ^[4] (May 24 2004), Patxi Usobiaga (July 29, 2004), Dave Graham^[5] (July 30 2007), Ethan Pringle (September 2 2007) and Ramón Julián Puigblanque (July 27 2008)

References