Thursday 11 March 2010 - 06.48
The Toni Gobbi Grolla d’Or
For the finest international alpinist achievement by an alpine guide with a client.
CHRISTOPHE PROFIT
For his tenth ascent on 9th April 2007 of the Eiger’s North Face along the Heckmair route with a client. The importance of this ascent derives from the ability to interpret and transmit, as an Alpine Guide, the significance of mountain ideals and alpinism using his own experience as a man of the mountains and expert alpinist.
Christophe Profit
“I had wanted to become a guide ever since I was a child… It is a means to make my passion go further, to make use of my experience and to transmit and share everything that the mountains can give us.”
Christophe Profit
Born in the vast lands of Normandy, characterised by the Atlantic cliffs and gentle meadows, Christophe fell in love with high mountains at an early age. He started climbing when he was 16 and did his military service in Chamonix in 1980 in the elite High Mountain Army Group (GMHM). He became an alpine guide in 1986. This was an ideal choice as it exploited his experience as an alpinist and climber to the highest degree. Profit was one of the most ambitious and avant-garde alpinists in the 1980s. His ascents, highly individual, usually solo and fast on the great Alpine walls were a first and visionary for the times. Even though he became famous for his exploits it didn’t stop him from continuing his profession as a guide. This is a different approach to his former model of alpinism but it is based on experience, passion and the aim of transmitting it to others.
His tenth ascent of the Eiger’s North Face is a good example of this attitude and it has won him the Toni Gobbi Award of the First Edition of the Saint-Vincent Awards. The 47 year old Profit has once again discovered and relived the enormous wall, enjoying the rhythm and natural environment with a client. This route is a classic for alpinists and alpine guides as is explained in the following article taken from Planet Mountain.com on occasion of Profit’s latest ascent of the Eiger with a client.
“Ten times up the North Face of the Eiger as a mountain guide with a client. In times like these in which everything seems "normal" (not only in mountaineering), including the ascent of the legendary north face could seem to be a non-news item. But give the mountain guide a name and you'll immediately understand that there's much that can be said. Yes, because we're talking about Christophe Profit. The same Profit who as protagonist and inventor carried out ascents hitherto unheard of, both for their speed and their conception, during the 1980's up all the "problems" of the Alps.
Profit's climbs were supersonic, solo, multiple. They contained the mountaineering's maximum difficulties - in short, this was the birth of speed ascents and enchainments. And naturally the North Face of the Eiger was the "playground" par excellence for Profit's raids. In 1985 it was he who carried out the first solo ascent in winter and in a day (in just 10 hours) of this North Face in the Bernese Oberland, an unheard of feat at the time.
1985 was also the year in which he enchained the trilogy of North Faces: Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses (up the Linceul), naturally in just 24 hours. He repeated this feat in March 1987 with a tour du force up the Croz Spur on the Grandes Jorasses, the Heckmair route on the Eiger North Face and the Schmid route on the Matterhorn solo in winter in a record 42 hours...
We could go on and mention the incredible and elegant solo dance (without ropes) up the Direct American on the SW Face of the Petit Dru, climbed in just 3 hours and 10 minutes in 1982. Or recount the integral solo ascent of the Peuterey crest. And talk about his Himalayan work of art in 1991 when, together with Pierre Béghin, he traced a new line along the NW crest of K2.
We could talk for ages about the great ascents of this fantastic mountaineer. But the real news is that last Monday the 47 year old French Mountain Guide Christophe Profit accompanied a client, in this particular case Mr. Valery Guillebon, for the tenth time to the summit of the Eiger via the N. Face. This is the news! Because it would be wrong to think that ascents like this one are in no way related to great mountaineering, which is measured in all seasons of life and goes well beyond speed ascents.”
From PlanetMountain.com
