Nina Caprez

Text and photo: Marietta Kobald, luaga.ch

Nina describes this mighty mountain range as one of the most beautiful climbing areas. "The Rätikon is still one of my favorite areas, here in this landscape with its traditions I am at home, here I can recharge my batteries."

It is also here that she records some highly acclaimed climbing successes. Like the "Silver Vulture" route opened in 1993 by Beat Kammerlander on the Kirchlispitzen. This can look back on only a handful of notable repeaters. Since 2011, Nina Caprez has also been the first woman in the summit book. Silbergeier is still one of the most demanding alpine routes in the world. Or the "Neverending Story" also on the Kirchlispitze, which Nina climbed together with Barbara Zangerl in 2015 as the third after Kammerlander (1991) and Pietro del Pra (2005).

What many dream of

o most: climbing!
And she makes a living from it is a prominent advertiser for her outfitter. To do this, she must climb, she may climb. She climbs to climb, has made her favorite pastime her profession and is extremely happy doing it. "I can't imagine doing anything else. Climbing routes that don't forgive me a single mistake and demand everything of me, that's what fascinates me about climbing," says Nina. But she says it also has to make sense, and to do that she asks herself a lot of questions: "What does my head say, what does my heart say, is my body able to cope with this strain?"

With a sleeping bag and a gas stove

She gets by with very little, and only needs a mat, a sleeping bag and a gas stove when she's on the road. She treats minor injuries herself and always has a cupping glass with her for pulled muscles. "The less I own, the easier it is to travel," is her motto.
Nina first acquired a taste for climbing at the age of thirteen, in 1999 in southern France at a JO-Prättigau climbing camp. Six years later, she was a member of the national team and dominated the Swiss climbing scene in 2006, winning two national championship titles.
At that time, Nina graduated as best of the year from the Diplommittelschule in Schiers, then passed the entrance exam for the preliminary course at the Kunstgewerbeschule and...decided against it. "100 percent school, that would have been nothing," she says. So she got by with various jobs and took part in competitions. As her strength level increased, so did her name recognition and the chance of finding sponsors. But already in 2009 she gave up competitions, preferring to climb on the rock, and that's how it stayed.  "I know myself what is good for me. At the same time I am happy with my "work" and still earn my living".

Handicraft and mountains

Nina loves working with wood, as a balance to climbing and because it runs in the family. Her father Robert - who died in an accident in 1989 - was a carpenter, her brother Arno is a carpenter, and her grandfather Caprez also worked with wood as a wainwright and sledge maker.
The apartment in Grenoble, in which she lives together with her partner Benoit Merlin, she has rebuilt, from the carpentry work to laying tiles to the installation of kitchen, bathroom and electrical, everything has done the handicraft talented herself. She likes living in Grenoble, where everything can be reached by bike, but she is still quickly in the mountains. After all, Mont Blanc is almost in sight and so she climbed it in 2017 together with Benoit on the most difficult route, the Divine Providence, in three days. And once again, Nina is the first woman to climb this huge wall, this route for the first time. In 2018, together with her life partner Benoit, she will travel to Pakistan for six weeks to try to climb a 1000 meter wall, the Trangotower.
Nina wishes for herself to be able to realize many things, to have fun and never stop dreaming. And we wish her the same!