There doesn’t seem to be much that can stop Laura Pineau’s rise. A climber, adventurer and record-breaker, Mademoiselle Fissure is joining the RGENtec team. Meet an extraordinary athlete whose authenticity and commitment are bringing a breath of fresh air to even the steepest cliffs.
Photo credit: Thibaut Marot
Laura Pineau and RGENtec: A Story of Shared Values
“I strongly believe that I only want to climb and work with people and brands that are positive and inspiring,” says Laura Pineau, a climber also known as Mademoiselle Fissure.
Indeed, Laura and RGENtec’s paths were bound to cross. On one side, a tireless adventurer who faces her fears head-on and is well on her way to shaking up the world of women’s extreme sports. On the other, a brand committed to making physical activity, above all, a source of enjoyment and personal achievement that is accessible to everyone. And bringing the two together: a few tubes of regenerating cream.
“A few months ago, I completed the 100 most beautiful climbing routes in Provence. I climbed between 500 and 1,000 metres a day for 43 days. It was the perfect opportunity to test the products in particularly intense conditions and see whether they were right for me. And the green one, Bye Bye Burn, really helped me take care of my hands. So joining the RGENtec team felt like a natural choice.”
Working with Laura Pineau means sharing her values, and they are impossible to miss, as she holds them so close to her heart. For the young woman, nothing seems to matter more than authenticity, passion, simplicity and self-acceptance.
“I’ve always been passionate about sport. I played competitive tennis for seven years, then boxed for two years before discovering climbing at the age of 17. I have a huge amount of energy, and sport helps me channel it. After two hours of physical activity, you feel lighter. Climbing has really helped me refocus and is essential to my well-being. Climbing outdoors means focusing on yourself, the rock face and the present moment. And climbing is also a very social sport. It’s a huge community. Like all communities, it isn’t perfect, but it’s incredibly supportive and welcoming. That’s precious, especially when our adult lives no longer allow us to connect with people as easily as we did when we were children! When you climb, wherever you go, you’re always surrounded by people.”
Finding Meaning in Your Sport Through Enjoyment
For Laura, climbing has two sides. She sees it as a meditative practice, while at the same time constantly challenging herself and reinventing the way she approaches it to get as much joy as possible from what she does.
“I’m someone who loves challenges, and they inevitably come with a certain amount of discomfort. But whenever I set myself a challenge, I always try to approach it with a sense of lightness. When I take on a difficult route, what I want most is to share the experience with people I like and who inspire me. I’m convinced that you have to find the fun in everything you do, even though some days are easier than others. If you focus solely on performance, you just move from one project to another, each one harder than the last. It stops making sense. My goal isn’t to keep completing increasingly difficult grades. What I want is to forge my own path in a discipline that has been established for quite some time.”
And Laura Pineau’s journey is already spectacular. In 2025, together with Kate Kelleghan, she climbed 2,200 metres of rock face across three iconic peaks in Yosemite, in the United States. A dizzying achievement that became a film she produced herself, The Queen Swing.
And during the summer of 2026, she led a team of female climbers on the first all-female ascent of a Big Wall in Brazil. An adventure she will bring to the screen in 2027.
Opening Doors for Women in Climbing and Extreme Sports
Laura Pineau wants to put her passion for climbing and her joy for life towards something meaningful. That is exactly how she describes herself in her Instagram bio: she wants to open doors for women around the world.
“Indoor climbing is becoming increasingly accessible, and I feel that today there are almost as many women as men taking part. Outdoors, however, men still make up a large majority. And when it comes to big wall climbing — climbing a rock face that can take several days to complete — there are even fewer of us.”
According to the climber, one of the reasons so few women take on extreme sports is the lack of representation. “Most climbing films are about men. In 2020, I watched Pretty Strong, by Julie Ellison, Leslie Hittmeier and Colette McInerney, and it moved me so much that I ended up in tears. It was a revelation for me. I thought: that’s what I want to do — be up there with them. With Queen Swing, I wanted to highlight why climbing with another woman is so special. This project isn’t particularly activist in nature: above all, I wanted to tell the story of the sisterhood that brought Kate and me together. I’m not making any major demands; I’d simply like what I do to encourage other women to pursue their own projects, even if they seem crazy.”
Laura Pineau adds: “If we, as women, had more confidence in ourselves, we would be incredibly powerful! But there is still a lot of work to do. That’s why I’m training so that I can supervise outdoor climbing and take as many people as possible with me. I really want to work with teenage girls. Many of them stop playing sports before reaching adulthood, and to me, that’s a real problem.”
Photo credit: Pedro Paulo
Taming Fear to Redefine Performance
When she can officially take on the role of instructor, there is little doubt that she will help her future students tame their fears and push beyond their limits.
“I would tell them that, despite my experience, I’m the first person to feel afraid on a cliff. The whole challenge is finding a space where you feel comfortable and where you can accept that everything won’t always be perfect. I’ve worked a lot on that myself. I used to want to be positive and optimistic all the time. Today, I accept my emotions and how I feel. It allows me to be at peace with my limits and to become increasingly authentic. I’m not perfect; nobody is. I get scared too. But fear doesn’t stop you from doing great things.”
Playing with fear may be precisely what inspires Laura Pineau. “For me, fear and performance are connected. If my goals weren’t scary, they would be too easy to achieve. Fear is the compass that helps me choose the next challenges I want to take on. I like variety, moving from a big wall to a very difficult crack climb, then to a multi-pitch sport climbing route. It doesn’t matter whether the project attracts media attention or sponsors. What I want is to follow my heart, enjoy myself as much as possible and work with people who inspire me.”
