9 September 2008

Anna Stöhr

Anna Stöhr, the best female boulderer in the world!

The first time I met Anna was at the bouldering world cup in 2005. She was the youngest competitor in the field and very pretty. As a youngster myself I took my chance to have a chat with her. Only 17 years old she showed a laid back attitude towards climbing and competitions. This competition she reached the final but seemed to run out of steam. This was just the early days in her climbing career and as we all know much more has happened since then, and probably much more will happen in the future :D

 

A few years have passed and I met Anna again at the Petzl Roctrip in Zillertal. By now Anna is a superstar and has won everything lately, but still when I ask for an interview, the answer is: "absolutely, anytime!"

We had a talk later that evening and the big question was, what makes her going? I mean Anna has won everything since 2007, when she won the World championship. This year she has been totally superior and after 6 competitions of 7 she was already the winner of the world cup. As 8a.nu (as" lifestyle-climbers the answer was just great. It´s not the competitions that keeps Anna going it´s the climbing. She has boulder projects all over the world and longs to be able to take them down one by one. The competitions are just a small part of her climbing life.

Picture by Zlu Haller. Anna doing Cave bitch, 8A+ in

 

Anna has spent the last few years traveling the world, competing and doing hard boulders. The motivation is to be able to climb and it seems that there are no problems for her to find projects that she really wants to do. She doesn't look back at old results or old accents, she doesn't brag about what she has done, she is simply just looking forward to meet new challenges!

Picture by Zlu Haller. Anna on the Petzl Roc trip in zillertal 2008.

She was talking warmly about places she had visited and boulders she was working on. One of the places which has made a big impression was Castle hill in New Zeeland, a place were she felt like a total beginner again and a place that she would love to go back to.

Picture by Zlu Haller. Anna climbing "something easy but totally impossible" in Castle Hill, New Zeeland

On Annas website which she is frequently updating you can follow her adventures and also see that climbing is not all her life.

Later this fall the European championship will take place in . This is a title that Anna still doesn't have. For now...

Picture by Zlu Haller. Anna doing Cave Bitch in

PS. I was of course also asking about the hard boulders she had done during 2008, in the interview but instead she was talking adventures. It was not until I checked her website we found the eight 8A's and we come up with the 'silly' headline :) 

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