| Didier Berthod | |
| Birth Date: | [1] |
| Birth Place: | Bramois, Valais, Switzerland |
| Occupation: | Rock climber and priest |
| Updated: | 16 September, 2023 |
Didier Berthod (born 1981, in Bramois, Valais),[1] is a Swiss rock climber and priest. He specializes in traditional climbing, and crack climbing in particular.[2]
In 2003, Berthod came to international prominence when he pinkpointed the unfinished sport climbing route Greenspit in the Orco Valley in Italy, as a traditional climbing route. Converting a sport route to a traditional route is known as "greenpointing" (although the route's name came from its green colored sport bolts).[3] In 2005, Berthold returned to do the route without any pre-placed protection,[3] and Greenspit was recognized as one of the hardest traditional crack climbs in the world.[2] [4] [5]
Berthod then made trips to America where he put up new traditional climbing routes such as Learning to Fly and From Switzerland with Love, both at grade 5.13+ in Indian Creek in Utah.
The 2006 cult climbing film First Ascent,[6] followed Berthod's unsuccessful efforts to make the first free ascent of Cobra Crack, a -graded traditional climbing route in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada;[7] which was at the time considered the world's hardest traditional crack climb (it was later free climbed by Sonnie Trotter).[2] [5] The film also documented Berthod’s other climbs in Europe (including Greenpoint) and also his frugal lifestyle such as working in a hostel between attempts.[5]
After quitting climbing for over a decade, Berthod returned to international climbing attention in June 2023, when he went back to Squamish where he completed the first pinkpoint of a long-standing open project called The Crack of Destiny that he graded as being harder than .[8] [9] [10] In May 2024, Berthod returned to Cobra Crack to make the 20th ascent of the route saying "It is more so the end of a book, than a chapter".[11]
After completing First Ascent, Berthod, then aged 25 and carrying a serious knee injury, decided to completely abandon rock climbing and joined 's Franciscan-community, the fraternity, in Saint-Maurice, Switzerland (close to where Berthod was born),[12] as a monk.[5] [13] [14] In 2016, Berthod was ordained as a priest, shortly afterward had started some climbing again.[2] [5]
In a 2018 documentary on Berthod called Fissure, he explained his reasons for leaving climbing: "I felt like a junkie, someone who craved a daily dose of climbing. If I didn't get it, I got angry. I hated that feeling because it kept me from being truly free. I needed to be free, and that’s what my faith gave me – that and spiritual healing".[5] On his return to climbing, he told German TV: "In recent years I quit this [monastic] way of being Christian and I embraced a way more humanistic way of being Christian".[12] By 2020, Berthod had completed a new bolted route on Petit Clocher du Portalet.[12]