Didier Berthod

Berthod gives a homily in 2020
Personal information
Born	1981 (age 42–43)[1] Bramois, Valais, Switzerland
Occupation(s)	Rock climber, priest
Climbing career
Type of climber	Sport climbing Traditional climbing
Highest grade	Redpoint: 8c (5.14b)
Known for	FFAs of hard traditional routes Attempts on Cobra Crack
First ascents	Greenspit (8b+, 2003) Crack of Destiny (5.14b/c, 2023)
Updated on 16 September 2023

Didier Berthod (born 1981)^[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 8b+ (5.14a) in the Orco Valley in Italy, as a traditional climbing route.^[3] 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.^[6]

The 2006 cult climbing film First Ascent,^[7] followed Berthod's unsuccessful efforts to make the first free ascent of Cobra Crack, a 5.14b (8c)-graded traditional climbing route in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada;^[8] 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 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 5.14a (8b+).^[9][10][11] 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".^[12]

After completing First Ascent, Berthod, then aged 25 and carrying a serious knee injury, decided to completely abandon rock climbing and joined Nicolas Buttet [fr]'s Franciscan-community, the Eucharistein [fr] fraternity, in Saint-Maurice, Switzerland (close to where Berthod was born),^[6] as a monk.^[5][13][14] In 2016, Berthod was ordained as a priest, and shortly afterward began 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".^[6] By 2020, Berthod had completed a new 8c (5.14b) bolted route on Petit Clocher du Portalet.^[6]

• Documentary featuring Berthod on Cobra Crack in Squamish, British Columbia: Peter Mortimer (2006). First Ascent (Motion picture). Sender Films.
• Documentary on Berthod: Christophe Margot (2018). Fissure (Motion picture). Cine Margot. Retrieved 4 January 2023.

• Dave MacLeod, Scottish traditional climber

• Didier Berthod at IMDb
• FISSURE: The story of Didier Berthod, "Alp & Ism" Trento Film Festival (2020)
• VIDEO: Didier Berthod, Swiss crack climbing legend, PlanetMountain (2021)