On 23rd May 2019 at 01.54am, Catherine’s husband Eric transmitted a message that included her GPS coordinates. She was at 8848m, on the summit of Everest, the highest point in the world, the summit of her dreams.
Green Boots. That’s how so many people fondly refer to my dear friend Catherine Vulliez and she is nothing short of a local living legend. Catherine has an adoration, respect and need for the mountains like no one else I know. Always insisting you don’t need to go far to have a great experience, you just need to open your eyes and heart, get outside and get walking.
Catherine’s motivations are pure. Quite simply the mountains are her passion, her oxygen, her purpose. If it weren’t for the fact that Everest is such an attention-grabbing summit, most people still wouldn’t know the half of what she gets up to; I am honoured to have the opportunity to tell her tale.
Catherine relocated from her home in the north of France to the Alps, having had respiratory problems as a teenager. She settled quickly into her new mountain environment and fondly tells of times when she would take off on a solo adventure with just a tin of sardines and a chunk of bread. She’d never felt so happy, connected and at home. While studying Alpine Geology and Geophysics at Grenoble University, her love for the mountains grew deeper still. During this time she regularly explored the surrounding peaks of the Belledonne, Chartreuse and the Vercours. Little did she know that these years of study would come in handy years later in her expeditions to the world’s highest peaks.
“It’s always a morally hard decision to make, but allows you to come back and try again another day.”
Very few women were embarking on a career at Avoriaz lift operating company La Serma when Catherine joined the team. She settled in the Vallee d’Aulps and continued exploring but it wasn’t long before she’d set the roof of Europe in her sights. Mont Blanc became an obsession; she worked opposite it every day, examining it regularly from the heights of Tête Rouss and le Buet. L’Aguille du Midi it was staring back at her, calling her. In 2004 her dream was realised. With her guide they ascended by Trois Monts, reaching the summit with quite a lot of wind, but made it all the same, and came down by Gouter. Since then Catherine has summited Mont Blanc no fewer than 42 times.
One morning she text me at 9am to say “Coucou de sommet de Mt Blanc”. Not so strange, you might think, for a woman who goes up and down Europe’s highest hill so frequently. Yet we’d just had 36 consecutive days of rain and the night before there’d been a brief clearing with the promise of good weather the next morning. Catherine had jumped in her car, driven to Chamonix, parked up and off she climbed. She later told me that she’d kept her gear in the car all summer, ready to jump on any opportunity to hike.
Don’t ever mistake this enthusiasm for risk taking. Catherine’s strength and longevity in this game is due to her ability to turn back. Many times she has abandoned missions due to weather conditions, “pas de jambes”; one time due to an alpinist dying in front of her eyes. She has driven two hours to Switzerland and started a climb on her touring skis, only to turn back. “It’s always a morally hard decision to make, but allows you to come back and try again another day” she explains. Through her studies, career at La Serma, voluntary work with Secours en Montagne and her personal exploits, Catherine has amassed an impressive depth of knowledge and understanding of our hills.
With nowhere higher to go in Europe, it wasn’t long before Catherine started to set her sights on more sizeable peaks. With children Alexi and Edith both grown up and carving their own paths in life, it was time to start turning these dreams of bigger expeditions into a reality. “Altitude has a magnetic attraction to me, always making me dream, inspired by tales of the characters from my mountaineering books,” she tells me. First up was the highest peak in Russia, the Elbrouz, standing at a lofty 5642m. Then she headed to Ecuador to climb the Cotopaxi in the Andes at 5897m. The next summit would be the first of many trips to Nepal for the Mera Peak, standing at a towering 6476m. With the Himalayan giants shadowing over them on the ascension of Mera Peak, a tiny seed was planted and it flourished. The decision was made to embark on an expedition to attempt the sixth highest summit in the world.
On the 28th of September 2018 Catherine reached the summit of Cho Oyu which, at 8201m, makes it the sixth highest mountain in the world. It was on this expedition in particular that Catherine truly realised her capacity. She was sleeping soundly at 7000m, physically and mentally on form for the duration and she didn’t suffer once during the entire expedition. Compared to the other members of the group, her endurance and stamina were well advanced. The Sherpas soon realised that she marches to the beat of her own drum and was best left to it.
Catherine really could take all of this in her stride. She had been training for this her entire adult life, the competence and skill she had accumulated over the years were a happy by-product of a passion and infatuation for the mountains. No one is better equipped with the skills, intelligence and mindset to tackle these giants.
“Altitude has a magnetic attraction to me, always making me dream, inspired by tales of the characters from my mountaineering books”
When Catherine returned from Cho Oyu elated, she said to me with that famous glint in her eye, “je suis pas guérir de haute montagne Ash.” In other words, she had the bug and this would not be the end of such adventures. She quickly returned to her usual rhythm of work, enjoying the surrounding hills whenever she could, ski touring to work every day in the winter and patiently waiting for the next opportunity to arise. It didn’t take long. With the blessing and support of her husband Eric and her children, the decision was made. The flight was booked, direction Kathmandu. She was going to tackle the mighty Mount Everest.
Everest was never a summit that had attracted Catherine before. Numerous times she’d told me about so many other peaks that interested her; less commercial, less dangerous with no need for oxygen and just as beautiful. While climbing the Cho Oyu she was face to face with Everest every day and just like Mont Blanc all those years ago, it became an infatuation. An obsession that wouldn’t let up. She thought about it every single day and night and before long she gave in.
“The Sherpas soon realised that she marches to the beat of her own drum and was best left to it. ”
On 23rd May 2019 at 01.54am, Catherine’s husband Eric transmitted a message that included her GPS coordinates. She was at 8848m, on the summit of Everest, the highest point in the world, the summit of her dreams.
The descent, often the most complicated part of any expedition, was done in true Catherine fashion. She managed the entire return in just one go, but not without some hair-raising moments. The wind had picked up as she arrived at camp 3, with the snow settling. She still felt on form, so decided to push on to the next camp. The storm really started to take pick at this stage and conditions were closing in on her. She was forced to take shelter near some rocks with a Sherpa, but knowing they couldn’t rest there for the night, they forced themselves to keep going. On arrival at camp 2 it soon became clear that resting there was out of the question. The storm had destroyed the camp and there was no guarantee the remaining tents would survive. Onwards to camp 1, where the kitchen boy was waiting to serve her a well-earned cup of tea. Determined to make it to basecamp by nightfall, the rising temperatures were making the snow melt and it became increasingly harder to follow the track before she lost it altogether. Sitting on a rock, Catherine started to ruminate.“Did this really happen? Was I really at the top of the world this morning? It’s not really that impossible after all. A magnetic attraction and good physical condition can make it happen, for others there were moments of suffering, never for me, I enjoyed every single moment” she concluded. With this in mind she kept trucking, eventually finding the track again, with everything starting to feel heavy. She tells me she was in pure ecstasy as, bit-by-bit, basecamp came into view.
At 8.30pm a message to Eric confirmed her safe return to basecamp. Catherine had done it; she was down, delirious with happiness and exhaustion, but well and drinking tea.
When Catherine recounts her expedition she talks in equal measures of the technicalities of the trek, the beauty she saw and about each and every person that helped her along the way; the Sherpas, the kitchen boys, the porters, each person who she refers to fondly by name. I am convinced that the singsongs at camp with her Tibetan friends and the image of the kitchen boy waiting for her in the depths of the stormy were equally as important to her as reaching the summit. Similarly, for her friends and family waiting for news at a much lower altitude, it felt like she’d taken us to the top of the world with her. When you climb a mountain you leave your ego behind and this couldn’t be truer of Catherine. That is her beauty. There was no personal gain, no box ticked, no ego. Catherine’s summiting of Everest was for the sheer unadulterated joy of the mountains. As George Mallory said of his Everest climb, “it is of no use… we shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, not any coal or iron… what we get from adventure is sheer joy.”
“the mountains are her passion, her oxygen, her purpose.”
Catherine Vuillez. A colleague, friend and mountain guru, always ready with a warm smile, a cup of tea and good advice. I for one am excited to see what the future holds as her story up until now is nothing short of amazing.
