D’André

Des heures, des heures, depuis ce dimanche matin 8h30, pourquoi, mais pourquoi donc ? Impossible de me défaire de l’image de sa joie, si communicative, qu’elle nous a fait partager le 13 juillet à Cham. Spitante et émerveillée, mais sans excès, elle nous racontait à Jean-Louis et moi sa dernière “petite” course ( Le Peigne!!).

Elle s’installait rieuse avec ses copains pour regarder d’un oeil distrait la coupe du monde de difficulté à Cham. Elle nous disait partir pour Arco le lendemain. Elle reviendrait pour d’autres courses aux aiguilles et au Mont-Blanc. J’ai mis ce souvenir au fond de moi. S’il vous plait, autorisez-moi à le garder pour toujours !

Mais que d’autres moments inoubliables, vous avez eu la grande gentillesse de m’offrir en me permettant de lui parler, de l’embrasser pour lui souhaiter le meilleur. L’écouter était pour moi (et toute la communauté grimpante, j’en suis persuadé) une thérapie contre le mal être, les jours où le gris domine les couleurs. Son enthousiasme communiquait la force d’entreprendre avec des objectifs bien cernés. Mëme à mon âge, j’en tirais un grand bénéfice. La joie de se trouver le lendemain au pied de l’effort à accomplir pour viser et pourquoi pas atteindre le rêve tant imaginé.

From Marc

I know you do not know me, but I wanted to send you an e-mail to let you know that Chloé touched others all voer the world. I competed with her at the World Ice Competitions this last year at all the events. She was very helpful since she spoke the best English and I could not speak any other languages besides Spanish. So, I leaned on her pretty hard to help me figure out how to get around in Europe since it was my furst IWC. Chloé was also a very vibrant personality and I loved to spend timpe with her watching other athletes compete and eating meals with her. I danced with her in Busteni all night long at the athlete’s party. I can tell you that she was definitively the life of the party and I will miss her a great deal. I’m not sure why great people like Chloé are struck down, but I do know that she lived her life to the absolute fullest. In fact, she lived more in her life than most people do in 80 years. She still inspires me, and I will severely miss watching her climb, sharing a smile, and listening to her wonderfull laugh.

2013 “Chloe Graftiaux Passion Together” grant funding

Chloé is of course still in our hearts, so we are running the « Chloé Graftiaux Passion Together » programme for a second year.
When the « Once upon a time… » book about Chloé came out, we promised to translate into something lasting Chloé’s passion for all forms of climbing, for mountains and all the sports that go with them. She enjoyed quite a few : mountaineering, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, ice climbing, hill walking, rock climbing…

We are convinced she would have loved the idea of the fund, but probably hated the project submission process we concocted in 2012 ! So you’ll be glad to hear we’ve simplified the procedure this year.

All sorts of grants are available : some will favour the performance aspect, others an achievement, others will enable people to go further afield. But we have also chosen another direction. We want to highlight a youth project which puts the emphasis on sharing climbing, mountain sports, or mountian rescue, with young people in difficult circumstances. Their difficulties can be very diverse (illness, handicap, social or economic problems). The young people who are targetted by the project may be from here or elsewhere. Be creative !

Please bear with us if there is still room for improvement in the project submission procedure…

Here is how how to apply in 2013 and the the rules 2013 . Please print them off, fill them out and send them back by email or by post (in which case please provide TWO copies of your project submission)
If you are in the Brabant area, please put the evening of April 25 in your diary. The Brabant club will be showing the flim that was made in Albania (the project that won the grant in 2012) last summer. The film will be commented live by the team that carried the project. More on that soon !

PS : If any of you still wish to buy or distribute Chloé’s book, there are still a few copies available in English, and you can order them via info@chloegraftiaux-passion-together . If we manage to sell all remaining stock, we will be able to fund more grants
for the coming years.