Relay Caminati vs. Hukkataival
Martina Cufar - Natalija Gros - David Graham - Joe Kinder - Paul Robinson - Michele Caminati - Nalle Hukkataival
Relay interview: Michele Caminati vs. Nalle Hukkataival
This is the fifth relay interview among 8a members and the problem for us at 8a is that the quality increases all the time making any regular old Jens Larssen interview and article looks quite poor. Michele and Nalle have been on the World Cup circuit for some years with #6 respectively #4 as their best. Nalle was #5 in the world championship in 2005 and #2 in the European championship 2007. In the 8a ranking ther are currently #10 and #11.
Hello Nalle, can you tell us about your first experience of climbing? Then why did you start bouldering? Do you ever climb rope?
Picture Heikki Toivanen
Picture Heikki Toivanen
Picture from www.ifsc-climbing.com
Picture Torsten Wenzler
We went climbing with my school class. I
immidiately fell in love with the sport and I joined a youth climbing
group. At first I did mostly rope climbing, but over the years it
just kind of changed to bouldering because I like the way it's more
relaxed and free without anything between you and the rock.
I still do some rope climbing every now and then when I feel like it.
Tell us about the place where you live: how is the climbing community, the climate, and where do you usually go to climb?
Well, I live in . There are actually quite many
climbers here and the bouldering is pretty good. If you're willing to
drive an hour or so, there's plenty of stuff to do. Indoor walls for
training are excellent and come in good use because the weather from November through February is usually rainy or too cold to climb outside.
What's your occupation? Do you have enough time to train and climb? Any plans for the future?
At the moment I'm a professional climber and I aim to keep it that way, so I have all the time I need for training and climbing. I can travel a lot and climb in many great places. It's good!
What are your main interests outside of climbing? How much time do you reserve for them?
I do also snowboard and wakeboard, but I haven't had much time for these lately. Sometimes I'm pretty lazy and like to just lie around, eat a lot and hang around with my friends.
Tell us a thing you do super well and one you suck at.
Things I do super well... That would have to be overhangs with small crimps and dynamic moves. I absolutely suck at crack climbing.
Let's talk about competitions. Which are the main reasons that you compete? Which are the best and the worst moments during a comp?
Competitions are fun because you get to meet many friends and climb great problems. I think the best moments during a comp are figuring out tricky problems and getting support from the audience. The worst would be all the waiting.
What's your favourite kind of rock and boulder problem? Which spot do you like most and what place do you dream to see?
My dream boulder problem would be a tall, 50 degrees overhanging block with tiny crimps and pinches you have to dyno to reach. It would have a beautiful mountain setting and of course a scary top-out high above the ground. I think Magic Wood is the most amazing boulder area I've ever been to and I'm really want to go to Hueco.
Do you usually travel alone or is it easy for you to find some friends to go with? How do you usually organize your trips?
I do travel quite a lot on my own. Sometimes it's very frustrating. In,many of the competitions I do, I'm the only one from the Finnish team. Climbing, trips are different and I usually travel with my friends.
I need to plan my trips well because I spend most of the year travelling. Sometimes when I fly from country to another just a few days in between it's really crazy, because when you wake up in the morning you don't know right away what country you're in.
What do you think about grades? Is it more important how hard a piece of rock is or how beautiful it looks to you? Do the two aspects usually
combine?
I consider grades more like a suggestion of how hard the problem could
be, than the absolute difficulty. Each problem is unique and every climber has their own strenghts, wich means that a grade is always more or less somebody's personal opinion. I think far more important than grades is the beauty of the line. I have no desire to try a problem just because it's hard, but looks terrible.
Is there anything you think could be improved in competitions? And in outside climbing?
In my opinion the bouldering competitions don't measure so much people's
strenght and power, that I think they should. I'm a boulderer and while in a comp I'm often pumped and don't have the time to recover between problems. Of course this is also one aspect of bouldering, but there are comps where I'm pumped pretty much the whole time. I might have as well gone to a lead comp. So if I had the chance to change something, it would be making some of the problems shorter and harder or increasing the rest time.
What comes to climbing outside, I wish people would take out their thrash and behave at the crags. We don't want any more access issues.There has been problems for example in and I can understand well, because the areas are packed on weekends.
Last of all, which is the most important thing you have learnt from climbing?
I would say patience and self-discipline. Sometimes you need a lot of patience while working on a project. Hard training requires good self-discipline to be able to drag yourself to go training even when you don't really feel like it.
Peace out!