Caro North
Alpinist
After making her name as a 16-year-old climbing the almost 7,000-metre Aconcagua, Caro North has established herself as one of Europe’s most renowned alpinists. One look at her history of unique expeditions reveals that she’s also one of the most versatile. From first ascents in Armenia and Iran to sailing the North Atlantic and climbing big walls in Greenland with an all-female crew, she is a source of inspiration to adventurers around the world.
Quick Facts
Hometown
La Tzoumaz, Switzerland
Homebase
Switzerland / Patagonia
Biggest dream
To still be climbing and skiing at 70.
How do I focus
Take a quiet moment.
Best advice
Turning around is part of the game.
What inspires you?
People who give it all to live their passion.
Words to live by
Follow your dreams, no matter what it takes.
Favourite other fitness exercise
Paragliding, hike and flys.
I don’t leave home without my...
My down jacket.
Top 6 career highlights
- Via Sedna, Greenland – Sailed from La Rochelle, France to the eastern fjords to open up a big wall route on the unclimbed East Face of Northern Sun Spire. All with an all-female team. (2022)
- Second one-day winter ascent of the Walker Pilar of the North face of the Grandes Jorasses with Carlos Molina.
- Opened the 500m mixed line (5.10b M5+ 85°) on the South Duke East Face, Alaska. Plus Crouching Tiger, a bigwall rock route (500m 5.12b+) on the Chinese Puzzle Wall, BC, Canada with Brette Harrington. (2018)
- Monte Iñaki, India 5370m – First ascent, via the west face, of a previously unclimbed and unnamed peak with Chilean climbers Cristobal Señoret and Max Didier. (2016)
- Astroman, Yosemite Valley – Completed an onsight ascent of the Washington Column, 303 metres + 10 pitches. (2015)
- Aconcagua, Argentina 6961m – On a stay abroad and aged just 16, got to within 100m of the highest peak in the Americas. First step into the world of expeditions. (2008)
Biography
She might have been born in Switzerland, but Caro is at home anywhere in the world, just so long as there are mountains. Just three years old she learned to ski and in summer her parents would take her from hut to hut with the whole family on early trips into the high mountains.
Caro always enjoyed the scrambling sections the most and by the age of 10 she joined a junior climbing group of the Alpine Club and started climbing and going into the mountains.
Aged just 16, Caro lived for one year in Argentina which opened the opportunity for her first expedition: she set out to climb Aconcagua (6961m), the highest peak in the Americas. Though she had to turn back 100 metres from the summit, the experience left her keen for more summits and more expeditions. Since then, Caro has been on countless trips including to the Himalayas, Iran, Armenia, Alaska, Antartica, Greenland and Patagonia among others. In Albania, aged 19, she established a new route on the 800-metre Arapi south face with a team of young girls.
Whether on rock, ice or mixed terrain, Caro loves three things above all on her first ascents: it has to be steep, far away from any civilization and very long, preferably a bigwall where she must spend the night halfway up. For an alpine all-rounder like Caro, these things are what makes extreme mountaineering so fascinating.
She has climbed, skied, sailed, biked and flown her paraglider in countries around the world. And when she’s not in the mountains for herself, she enjoys guiding others.
Having completed the difficult Swiss course, Caro qualified as an IFMGA guide in 2019 to add to her studies in geosciences at Lausanne University. Unsurprisingly, given all that she has going on, Caro spends little time at home. But when she is home, she divides her time between her native Switzerland and her adopted home of Patagonia where she fulfilled her long-held dream to buy a house.
All Skiers
Sam Anthamatten
Markus Eder
Leo Slemett
Evelina Nilsson
Arianna Tricomi
Dennis Ranalter
