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Alpinist, climber and book editor Catherine Destivelle will receive the WOP Mendi Film Award 2025
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The WOP Mendi Film 2025 Award goes to Catherine Destivelle. With the 18th edition of the Mendi Film Festival in full swing, she will receive recognition from the organizers and, above all, the public in Bilbao. The event will take place on Friday, December 12th the Euskalduna Bilbao, starting at 7:45 p.m. It will undoubtedly be one of the festival's highlights, as it will conclude with the premiere of the film ‘Champions of the Golden Valley’, from the Official Section, presented by its director Ben Sturgulewski.
The WOP Mendi Film Award is awarded by The Walk On Project Foundation and the Mendi Film, and this year marks its 12th edition. Various personalities and organizations have been recognized for their contribution to mountain culture and for being leaders in the values they convey.
Catherine Destivelle (1960, Oran)
Climber, mountaineer, writer, editor and conference speaker. Catherine Destivelle probably never imagined where her first steps climbing the boulders of Fontainebleau, where her parents took her to play as a child, would lead her. At 16, she was already climbing in the Verdon. Her victory in the first world climbing championship in Bardonechia (1985) propelled her into the professional world. Then came the leap into mountaineering: the first solo female winter ascent of the north face of the Eiger, the first absolute repeat of the Bonatti route on the north face of the Matterhorn, the Trango Tower, the ascent of the south-west face of Shisha Pangma... all of which forged her path. In 2020 she was awarded the Piolet d'Or for her career.
She founded the publishing house Les éditions du Mont-Blanc with the aim of transforming the mountain itself into an educational tool. The books she publishes reveal incredible mountaineering stories and share a love of the mountains. “My goal is to build a bridge between cultural history, sporting heritage and the ecological and scientific concerns of the times we live in”, she says. Her publishing team is deliberately made up entirely of women.
Catherine Destivelle has a direct connection with Mendi Film. She is revered as the protagonist of the film ‘Au de la des cimes’ directed by Rémy Tezier, and winner of the Grand Prize in 2009. In 2017, she actively participated in Mendi Film's tenth anniversary, participating in the panel talk ‘Women at the Top’ alongside Lynn Hill, Edurne Pasaban, Josune Bereziartu, Bernadette McDonald, and Katie Ives; in the presentation on mountain literature alongside Bernadette McDonald, Katie Ives, Lara Izagirre, and Luisa Alonso Cires; and finally, with a solo lecture: ‘From Bouldering to High Mountains Ascent’.
Edurne Pasaban, Lynn Hill, Catherine Destivelle, Josune Bereziartu, Katie Ives and Bernadette McDonald, at the Mendi Film 2017
WOP Mendi Film Award
18. BBK Mendi Film Bilbao Bizkaia
December 12, at 19.45 pm
Euskalduna Bilbao - hall 0B
WOP Mendi Film Award:
· 2024: Basque and Navarre mountain federations
· 2023: Edurne Pasaban
· 2022: Eduardo Martínez de Pisón
· 2021: Sebastián Álvaro
· 2020: Fundación Baltistán Fundazioa
· 2019: Nives Meroi e Romano Benet
· 2018: Juanjo San Sebastián
· 2017: Peter Habeler
· 2016: Sir Chris Bonington
· 2015: Josep Manuel Anglada
· 2014: Drawn film by Jeremy Collins
The Basque Mountain Federation and Mendi Film renew their collaboration agreement until 2028
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Zigor Egia (EMF-FVM vice president), Jabier Baraiazarra (Mendi Film president and director) and Ricardo Hernani (EMF-FVM president)
Bilbao, October 24, 2025. The Basque Mountain Federation (EMF-FVM) and the Mendi Film Festival Association will continue to work together for the next four years. Meeting in Bilbao, the current leaders of both organizations, Ricardo Hernani and Zigor Egia (president and vice president of EMF-FVM), and Jabier Baraiazarra (president and director of Mendi Film), have signed the agreement that unites them.
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