
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 12, 1992                   TAG: 9203120122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PARIS                                LENGTH: Short

CLIMBER AT SUMMIT OF FRENCH CELEBRITY

A 32-year-old woman who practiced for her solo climb up the Eiger's forbidding North Face by hanging from beams in her Paris apartment was hailed Wednesday as a national heroine.

Catherine Destivelle was anointed "Queen of the Peaks" after becoming the first woman to make the ascent alone up what Baedecker's guide to Switzerland calls "the most dangerous mountain wall in the Alps."

The feat made newspaper front pages Wednesday, and Prime Minister Edith Cresson sent a congratulatory telegram. France's youth and sports minister, Frederique Bredin, lauded the ascent as "the most prestigious feat by a woman" in the history of mountain climbing.

The climb through ice, snow and freezing temperatures to the 13,024-foot summit took 16 1/2 hours. Part of the way Destivelle climbed in the dark. Most of her way she gripped the icy rock with bare hands.

"It was long and it was difficult, but I expected this and everything went exactly as planned," Destivelle said.

by CNB