Mateusz Haladaj has done Seleccio Natural 9a in Santa Linya, which was his sixth route of the grade in the gigantic cave. "So happy to be back in the game after 4 months brake caused by pulley rupture. One of the best routes ever! Seems to be my anti-style as I had to struggle a lot at the upper section including falling 10 times at the last move. Considering two more holds are missing at the crux part, quite solid for the grade…"

Anna Liina Laitinen (26), who is doing University studies in Finland, has done her first 8c+, Southern Smoke in Red River Gorge. This spring she also did her first 8b+ and first 8c. (c) Matty Hong What is your climbing background? I started climbing 2007 immediately when I saw a climbing wall. I've always dreamed about climbing but I didn't know that was possible in Finland. The climbing gym where I started was 1,5 hours away from my home but I was happy to take those 3 different buses to get there even I had time to give only couple of burns. How much travelling are you doing nowadays? This year has been crazy! I've never traveled this much! I guess I've done 10-12 trips this year including the competitions? I'm lost on track. But I'd love to be able to do it even more in the future or stay abroad a little longer. How can you explain your fast progress in the last year? Travelling, training and the company I've been climbing with. One year ago I started training a lot, more than ever. But the progress is not only explained by training hard but the biggest improvement has been in a mental part of climbing and caused by just climbing a lot in a different places, different routes, and pushing myself to a situations I'm not feeling the most comfortable with. The company I've spent time and traveled have had a huge impact to my climbing as well. When your friends are climbing hard you naturally start trying harder routes. And I'm sure I wouldn't climb this hard without my positive boyfriend Matty Hong who's super psyched as well. Being super motivated and psyched to climb is my secret. And there's no end for it which is scary!

Awesome vol 4 from miniestandar on Vimeo.

Awesome vol 4 from miniestandar on Vimeo.

Anna Liina Laitinen (26), ktorá je momentálne študentkou vo Fínsku, preliezla svoje prvé 8c+, Southern Smoke v Red River Gorge. Len túto jar preliezla svoje prvé 8b+ a 8c. (c) Matty Hong Aká je tvoja lezecká minulosť? Začala som liezť v roku 2007 akonáhle som uvidela lezeckú stenu. Vždy som o lezení snívala, ale nikdy som nevedela, že je to vo Fínsku možné. Hala, kde som začínala, bola 1.5 hodiny od môjho domu, ale napriek trom prestupom pri ceste autobusom som tam chodila s radosťou, i keď niekedy zostával čas len na pár pokusov. Ako často v súčasnosti cestuješ? Tento rok bol šialený! Ešte v živote som toľko necestovala! Odhadom som za tento rok bola možno na 10-12 výjazdoch, vrátane súťaží? Neviem, stratila som niť pri počítaní. Ale rada by som toto číslo ešte zväčšila, alebo ostala v zahraničí na dlhšie. Čím si dosiahla také rýchle zlepšenie za posledný rok? Cestovaním, tréningom, a vďaka partii s ktorou leziem. Pred rokom som začala trénovať viac ako kedy predtým. Ale zlepšenie sa nedá podložiť len tréningom, najviac som sa posunula po psychickej stránke a to tým, že som liezla vo viacerých oblastiach mnoho rozličných typov ciest a dotlačila som sa aj do situácií, kde som sa necítila komfortne. Takisto partia, s ktorou leziem, mala obrovský vplyv na moje lezenie. Keď všetci okolo teba lezú ťažké cesty, tak prirodzene začneš aj ty skúšať niečo ťažšie. A som si istá, že by som takto dobre neliezla bez podpory môjho vždy pozitívneho priateľa Mattyho Honga, ktorý je takisto veľmi motivovaný lezec. Jednoducho byť motivovaný a užívať si lezenie, to je moje tajomstvo. A nemá to konca, čo je celkom strašidelné!