Celine Mehouas completes Cosi Fan Tutte (8c+)

Celine Mehouas has sent Cosi Fan Tutte (8c+) in Rodellar. The 34-year-old did her first 8c just 18 months ago.

Can you tell us more about doing your first 8c+?
My awesome friend Caro Minvielle motivated me to come and see her big project with her: Cosi at the Piscineta sector in Rodellar. This superb route is a 55m pitch on a steep overhang above the water; the setting is fabulous. I was immediately hooked, especially since it’s more fun with a partner—we motivate each other! So there I was, off to try the route, which was practically handed to me on a silver platter with all the most optimized techniques Caro had discovered!

I went for the first time during a two-week stay, but it wasn’t long enough to absorb all the effort and techniques needed to send it. A short two-week break followed, due to work and specific training. Back to Rodellar for the All Saints’ Day holidays to climb with friends and return to the route. After a short week of working on the route with Félix, I was finally dialed in perfectly and had rested the day before. Caro and I motivated each other to go up the route together. We thought it was the last day of trials for the season because the conditions were starting to get too wet and cold for me, but on the last attempt of the day, the magic of climbing worked. I felt relaxed and fit, and everything went perfectly all the way to the belay in such an unexpected and magical way that it’s in moments like these that you know why you climb, to achieve these dreamlike sensations!

How can you best explain your great progress the last two years?
I think that in recent years I’ve simply done more cliffs and a little less paragliding, skiing, and other activities. And that my friends motivated me to try harder routes.