Biographie | 9a+ Sport route at Céüse

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Bolted and named by Céüse pioneer and Alpine legend Jean-Christophe Lafaille in 1988, Arnaud Petit climbed the pitch to a half-height anchor in 1996 at a grade of 8c+. Chris Sharma climbed the the full pitch in 2001, after working it on-and-off for a few years and taking over 30 falls from the crux. In keeping with his style at the time, he did not grade the route [4], but it became widely credited as the first 9a+ in the world for a period; Open Air from 1996 was later upgraded to 9a+ to take that title.

The full line was initially named Realization by Sharma, to differentiate it from the half-height version. However, in line with the French custom of routes being named by their equipper, it is now known as Biographie, and the half-height version's lower-offs have been removed.

The route became famous as one of Chris Sharma's first big new routes. His extended efforts were documented in the film Dosage Volume 1.

Josh Lowell:

At one point Chris wanted to call it Get a Life, thankfully he changed his mind! [3]

The route is entirely natural and considered to be one of the best hard sport climbs in the world. [5]

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVH2BuFEh0

[3] https://open.spotify.com/episode/14eXBiZUrV7LetCF132iNS?

[4] https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/chris-sharma-climbs-biographie-at-ceuse.html

[5] https://www.camptocamp.org/routes/943937/fr/ceuse-biographie-biographie