2023-07-02 20:25:47
Geneva’s Sophie Lavaud became the first Swiss woman on Monday – and the third woman in the world, according to some rankings – to have climbed the fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters above sea level. The mountaineer gave his very first interview to the RTS program Forum.
From Islamabad, Pakistan, Sophie Lavaud confided not yet to realize that her quest is over. “Climbing big, big peaks over 8,000 meters is not trivial,” she said on Sunday at the microphone of the RTS Forum program. His feat was achieved in 22 expeditions, and if the mountaineer did not suffer from trauma, frostbite or accidents, “we must not tempt the devil for too long”.
His last ascent was the Nanga Parbat, completed last Monday in Pakistan. Possessing three passports, she thus became the first Swiss woman, the first Frenchwoman and the first Canadian – of any gender confused for the last two nationalities – to have climbed the summits of the fourteen highest mountains in the world.
>> Read also: Sophie Lavaud becomes the first Swiss woman to climb all the “8000” on the planet
A late-discovered passion
In 2004, Sophie Lavaud reached the highest peak in Europe, Mont Blanc, which culminates at 4810 meters. Passionate, she then took almost eight years to achieve her first “8000”, the Cho Oyu, a Tibetan summit, before conquering Everest in 2014, where the idea of collecting the Fourteen will germinate.
“From the moment we set off on this great adventure, if health allows it, if the entourage allows it, it is clear that it is interesting to go to the end”, specified the Genevan aged 55 years. However, she did not make an obsession of it.
Having become the third woman in the world to have achieved this sporting feat, according to certain rankings, the mountaineer specified that records have never been her driving force. However, “the figures and the facts are there”, so it is a question of “savoring them as they are”.
An eleven-year adventure
The athlete is above all focused on the adventure itself: she said she loves this world of expeditions, the novelty of peaks and teams, with each time “the objective of going to tick off the summit anyway”. Eleven years of his life were dedicated to this quest.
“The expedition is still part of me now,” replied Sophie Lavaud when it comes to discussing the rest of her sporting career. “I don’t see myself at all stopping overnight,” she said, adding that she already had “a lot of little ideas” for her next trips.
Interview by Thibaut Schaller
Web adaptation: Mérande Gutfreund with afp
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