Nina Caprez is one of the most colorful girls at the climbing scene that successfully has tried out most disciplines being #7 and #8 in her two last Boulder WC's in 2008. In Lead she has, as a senior, participated in 11 events being Top-21 in all but one. In the only Speed WC she tried she was #15. Later she has focused on rock and done several 8c's including the one in Oliana she gave a personal grade of 8b. But what has been most important lately are her multi pitch climbing and travelling around the world.

How do you sum up 2011 what did you learn?
Exactly one year ago, I took the decision to climb five pitches Délicatessen, 8b in Corsika, the six pitches Silbergeier, 8b+ in the Rätikon, to be in a good shape on the Petzl Roc Trip in China and to climb an 8c. I've had this goals clearly in my mind and to realize them, was a big big satisfaction. Beside this lines, I climbed other really cool things like Tom et je ris, 8b+ in the Verdon or a couple of routes in St. Léger and Oliana.

To Redpoint Silbergeier, has always been 'the' big dream in my climbing live. I trained specially for this kind of little holds, everything I did, was for Silbergeier. The progression, the trys and the redpoint at least, costs me all the mentally and physical energy I've had. I felt in a big climbing-emptiness; normal after such a dream...

In short, after each realisation, I was unable to climb for a little while after. Specially after Silbergeier, I was off from climbing for one month and still the next four weeks, I climbed only 7a's. This was stressful sometimes because it's hard to manage this violent highs and downs, but in another way, this kind of lifestyle gives me the permission to practise a lot of other hobbies beside climbing: I did some crazy cave expeditions, I've had the time to do some mountaineering, to ski, to work in my garden, to do some route setting and to make some presentations.


What are your plan and hopes for 2012?
For 2012, I have no special line in my head. I have some good New Year's resolutions, to getting stronger and to avoid my big ups and downs. Transformation in a machine in 5 steps:

Step 1: Minimize my red wine level from one bottle per day in one glass
Step 2: Stop to be such a good cooker
Step 3: Push my 10 pull ups limit up to 20
Step 4: Replace my bunt into a peace of wood
Step 5: Crush everything...;-)


How do you train to accomplish this?
See step 5 programme...;-) Well, what  I need to train is the simply force: So I do a lot of pull ups, a lot of exercises on a bar ( whole body) and thinks like mantels etc... In fact this is really easy to train and together with my know how about climbing and my technique, I should crush everything!;-)

What are the changing trends on the climbing scene?
Today, all is about film and videos. It's easier to be followed in sport climbing and bouldering then in multi pitch climbing. I would like to express more my climbing, my style, my technique and my motivation. I would like to find a dream line in sport climbing and to work hard on it. I never focused on sport climbing, in my eyes, this kind of climbing was just a training to getting stronger on multi pitch climbing. The ascent from Sasha on 'pure imagination' gave me a big motivation to go into this direction. So we will see how I will manage to push my limits!;-)

And what about the grade dilemma?
It's not easy to find good words to explain the huge difference between some routes with the same grade. Everything that I learned in the last years is that everyone should do a honest publication about ascents. That means, when I climb routes, where the difficulty is soft, I will not do a big communication about this ascent. In contrast when I climb an old style 8b+ or 8c, I will speak about it. With this method, I will not bless people with downgrading and I can be honest at the same time.


Also a merry x-mas to you and don't forget that I have always a good portion of humor and sarcasm in my responses!;-)

cheers Nina the rider

Static vs Dynamic or both

The benefit from moving static, which often the best Lead competition climbers do, is that this increases the possibility to relax one hand at the time, reducing the forearm pump. A static technique challenges more the bicep and triceps compared to when you swing dynamic between the holds. It might be a good idea to actually climb the start static and once the moves gets harder you are hopefully less pumped and can continue in a more dynamic style, just as some World Cup climbers do.

Niccolo Ceria - Scorecard

The never ending story, 8B+

HOW DID YOU START CLIMBING?
I tried climbing for the first time nine years ago in Val D’Isere (France). In the square of this quiet mountain village there was a small climbing structure, free for all. For me it was like a game and I enjoyed my self every time that I climbed there. When I came back to Italy I wanted to continue this activity so I decided to start seriously in a gym close to my home and I have never stopped climbing since then.

In 2005 I did my first comp and in 2008 my bouldering outdoor activity began. In the first years I did many competitions and I climbed a lot in the gym, while in the last period I’m climbing more on the rock. Now my training is dedicated to increase my bouldering performance outdoor because for me now it is the best way to represent the climbing.

HOW DOES A NORMAL CLIMBING WEEK LOOK LIKE?
It depends on the week and the period. When I am in a week where I have something to do for the school I have just two session of training, while when I’m more free I train 3-4 times. I alternate climbing session in the gym, where I do 2 hours of boulder, with pan gullich and fingerboard session in my home. In the gym I look for inventing some boulders similar to rock boulders with different style of climbing, holds and movements in order to be a bit complete. In fact, many times I create boulder problems with my friends to have a wide gem of quality.

When I am at home I do pan gullich and different exercises at the fingerboard to grow up my pure force. In the weekend I climb on the rock, a lot of areas are near my city. In the radius of 200km there is a big quantity of good rock. I often go to Ticino in Switzerland, where I have a lot of projects to do and I use one or both days in the weekend to try them. Sometime, but rarely, I rest during the week or I do just a soft session on the wall to get ready for the weekend with a good skin and rested muscles but this usually happens when I’am very tired.

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN/HOPE FOR 2012?
For the 2012 season I have not particular plans because I’m at the last year of the lyceum and I think that I should dedicate a bit of time at the school during the spring. Beside this, in the first six months I would like to train more times per week and climb in the same spot at the weekend, because I have many boulders that I would like to try. I hope to have a free week in February or march to go to fontainebleau or other destinations so I would be super psyched to have a climbing holiday somewhere.

Probably this year I won’t do many competitions and I’ll do more rock climbing. In the summer, or autumn I hope to have a trip of three weeks or one month in a cool spot to have bouldering time every day. In the autumn I hope to spend some time in Fontainebleau, to take feeling with the sandstone and climb some gems in the forest.

(c) Lars Ole Gudevang

(c) Lars Ole Gudevang

http://www.magnusmidtboe.com/

Magnus Midtbö has been an active and succesfull competition climber for ten years. He ended 2010 by being #5 in the European Championship and started 2011, by being #3 and #5 in the World Cup, followed by being #4 in the World Champion.

He did his first 9a in 2007 and he has done another four up to 9b. In 2011, he did Nordic Flower in Flatanger giving it a personal grade of 8c+.

How would you summarize 2011 and what did you learn?
2011 has surely been a year with a lot of ups and downs for me. At the start of the year I was not sure whether I wanted to do any big international comps or not. I have been competing for quite some years now, and played with the thought of having a year off just to climb outside. But instead I decided to do the complete opposite. I wanted to train really hard, to see how well I could do in the World Cup and in the World Championships.
 
The first few comps went better than ever before, which made me really confident. Too confident. After some success I thought I had the shape needed, and not had to train that hard for the rest of the season. That was my big mistake. My focus was elsewhere, and the second part of the season did not go well at all.

Training in Norway it is sometimes really hard to know if I'm in shape or not. I can do all the hard routes at the gym without any problems, but that is really not enough to do well in the World Cup, where the level is so much higher than here in Scandinavia. I really like living in Norway, but climbing-competition wise it's not very good.
 
I would love to say that I learn from my mistakes, but that would be a straight up lie. I do the same mistakes over and over again. Impulsive and restless are probably the two best words to describe my personality. When I really want something I will work really hard for it, but the psyche never last for a very long time. Staying psyched for something over a long period of time is a big problem of mine. That's probably why climbing is the only sport for me. When you get tired of a route or a place you can move on to a new one. That's the beauty of our sport.

Unfortunately it's not the same with comps. Though they are being held at different places they feel very much alike to me. Besides, titles and trophies have personally never been a great motivation. Do you become a World Champion, you are really just the world champion that exact day. Next day you might not be the strongest although you are the World Champion. That being said, I do like competitions. For me the goal is always to make finals. I like climbing in front of a big crowd knowing they want to see me climb. That to me is a privilege.

But when I don't feel strong competitions feel like a waste of time. Competition climbers are there to entertain, but if you haven't done what it takes to be entertaining to watch there is not really any point of going at all. For me the result is just a number, that alway will change and be forgotten. Sounds like a dumb cliché, but I find it to be true.

What is your plan and hope for 2012?
In a week I'm leaving for Spain. My plan over this winter is to spend a lot of time there. Travelling back and forth from Norway. If I win the lottery I might even buy myself a house somewhere around Lleida. I love the place and the atmosphere! As I'm sure everyone having spend time in that region knows, it's the place to be if you want to climb hard routes all year around.
From April my plan is to devote my time to Flatanger. Still a lot of work to be done and routes to be climbed. Then in end of June the comp season begins. I hope to do well at at least a couple of comps. And if I'm not in shape I hope to be smart enough not to show up at all. Hopefully, ultimately I will learn from my mistakes.

What do you mean by training hard?
Periodization is my most important tool when it comes to training. My restless personality makes it impossible for me to follow any training program that looks too much alike from week to week. When I train hard for something I usually do 10 days on and 10 days off. During my hard 10 days I will train so hard that I feel more tired each day. In a hard period I do two sessions some days. Despite experts advise I usually do endurance in the morning and power (bouldering) in the evening. In the morning I always feel a lot more tired and I need to have an exact execution plan. If I try to boulder in the morning I will just end up leaving the gym within half an hour.

By 10 days off I mean normal climbing. During those 10 days I will feel stronger each day. Between the 10 days periods I usually take 2 rest days.

I'm one of those people who really likes other kinds of training as well, such as weight training. I try to do the weight training long before I have to be in shape as it makes me gain unnecessary muscle wight. Though I think that has helped me stay away from injuries. Being all over strong I think has a huge long term benefit.

Could you please give me some background on your early days in climbing and how you got into the competition scene?
I first began sport climbing when I was 12. My parents like mountains and hiking and my two older brothers (Jaha, Jabee) are sport climbers too, so I was influenced by my family the most and naturally started climbing walls with my brothers.
I felt passionate in this sport and my brothers started going to sport climbing competitions as professional climbers, so I wanted to follow their steps and travel around the world to all kinds of different cities and compete with other climbers.

How do you train?
I train five days a week, five or six hours per day. I usually challenge myself and try to grab holds that are far away from my normal reach so that I can overcome my abilities and get used to the far holds in competition routes.

What is your plan for the winter and for 2012?
Now that the season is over, I will have some rest for two or three weeks (eat as much as I want!!). After that, I'll go back to my daily routine and practice climbing again and do some weight training. I'm currently a senior at Korea University and this is my last semester so I have to study hard for the final exams. I will graduate in February and attend graduate school in March to study more about sports psychology. I always say my goal is to complete all routes in a competition so in 2012 I'll train very hard to climb well and accomplish my goal.

Any thoughts on improving the competition format?
I know this is not easy, but I wish the route setters set the routes so that they match the relative difficulty level of each round (easy qualifications, medium-difficulty semi-final, hard final round) because climbers train rally hard to complete challenging routes. Also, I think it would be fun to see the superfinals come back so that not only myself but other climbers can get an extra chance to challenge themselves with the wall.

Anthony Gullsten

What is the most important thing you have learnt this year and what do you plan and hope for 2012?
The most important thing I've learned this year is to enjoy climbing and being with friends. Not taking too much pressure. For 2012 I plan to do some of the worldcups, maybe go to Hueco in january and maybe south africa in the summer.

How do you select projects and what is your approach taking them down?
My approach for choosing projects is pretty simple. If I see a stunning line, I want to climb it. Doesn't really matter how hard it is. And if it is in my maximum level, then it's even better.  I just try to do all the moves first and when I think that I'm able to link them I'll start trying from the beginning. Pretty simple I guess. The most important thing is motivation!

Why do you think you and many top climbers do not need to do any complimentory training?
I have no straight answer for that. But what I think about that is that if you want to climb well you have to train climbing. You won't climb 8b by running. Of course it might help a little bit but the most important thing is climbing itself.

I would like to go try Memento and Golden gate in Silvretta because we're in Austria now.

Professional climbing lifestyle a la Joe Kinder 
 

Ready to bolt some new nice lines.

Screen shoot for making the videos

Joe Kinder has had a great impact for many years in the climbing community putting up many routes, making video films and spreading his positive vibe in the climbing community. The last five years he has been a fully professional globetrotter. Joe is actually one of the first 8a members and here is an old interview by Dave Graham. Here are some actual life style thoughts from Joe.


"As time has gone on and my life as a professional climber has changed I can only say that the game as a pro has evolved as well. The difficulty isn't what gets you paid and that is hardly what brings marketing to the sponsors. In essence a "life-style" climber may be an actual term. My life is totally consumed with climbing via travel, film, bolting, camaraderie, my living and everything in between. My eggs are simply all in one basket and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The best way to excel and enjoy something this much is to invest yourself entirely and that is what I do. I love rock climbing. I love it just as much as the next guy only I am able to immerse myself 100% as this is my living, my life and my passion. I have learned a lot from my good friend Dave Graham in terms of living this way. Dave prefers the solo gypsy lifestyle, I prefer the same only I have a partner in this endeavor. I live in 12 different places throughout the year, I have traveled to 8 countries in the past year, I never own anything large other than my cars, and I wake up everyday wondering where the hell I am. I love it.

I am a very fortunate person to live this way and I recognize it everyday. This is literally my dream and there is no way you could get bored. The companies I work with are simply and purely the basis of my lifestyle and my ambassadorship is valued greatly to them... so I guess I am doing something right?!!!

My goals each year are to attack as many hard routes as possible, visit as many areas as I humanly can and live a great life. Everything is met except you can really only get to so many places even with 100% freedom.

I love this life and I love rock climbing... WEEEEEEHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

My best routes I have bolted are Bad Girls Club 9a, Flight Of The Concords 8c+, Tiger Blood 8c+, Southern Smoke (only I partially bolted) 8c+, and Waka Flocka 8c."

The great Kazbekovs
by Anna Piunova, mountain.ru

Jenya onsights at Kalymnos

How do the family normally spend a week at home?

 As a whole, we have a very busy week. Jenya as well as all children goes to school 5 times a week till 3 P.Ì. (7-8 lessons). She trains 5 times a week and does 2 and 3 day cycles, about 4 hours per day. Jenya also goes to music school 2 times a week, she is in 7th grade. She plays the piano, and since this year she has 2 lessons more for the guitar. Jenya is a rather musical girl and she does it well. Besides, Jenya is engaged in standing English 4 times a week and, consequently, there is practically no free time.

Serik works, he is engaged in development of climbing in our region, he also collaborates with the sity and region sports committees. He trains children who have reached some level of climbing. I (Natasha) spend time with a younger daughter Rafi, she is 2,8 years. But we go in for trainings too. I also run small equipment shop which is in the Crimea, in this building the second floor is also constructed and rooms for climbers near the famous rock Red Stone are to be rent. http://runa-ua.com/basaredstoun.htm For us the Crimea is the best rock-climbing area of the former Soviet Union. Many sportsmen of the former Soviet space come to train in the Crimea, there are a lot of rocks and the sea is nearby.

 What is the differences on the local climbing scene?

 The level of climbing in Ukraine is various. Because of the difficult economical situation in the country, only very strong sportsmen can support themselves by sports and afford to do it professionally. Only 6 best sportsmen are supported by the sport committee of Ukraine. The sport comittee pays them a small grant and their Championships and sometimes World Cups are paid. All the rest should work to earn, so climbing for them is rather a hobby than a sports.

We have two very good rock areas in Ukraine. It is the Crimea near the Black sea. The Rocks are limestone, with a small overhang, there we usually put technics for young sportsmen. We like to leave to the Crimea very much and to train there, especially in the spring before the season beginning.

And there are also Carpathians in the west of Ukraine, the rocks Dovbush. It is sandstone. There are boulder areas which are very similar to Fontainebleau, but the sandstone is softer. There is three-dimensional climbing due to very interesting rocks and beautiful nature. Still a new area of granit in the city of Kamenets – Podolsk closer to the West of Ukraine is developing. Thanks to the sponsors, companies Scarpa, Camp and Milo, it is possible to take Jenya not only to competitions, but also to different rock areas.

Do you do any special training?

  There are no special trainings, but it is important to keep to some systematic way the result will be. Well, we train by the same program, only the level of loadings is individual. Certainly we spend more time on warm-up exercises not to be traumatized and decided to include yoga elements.

What was the best thing being a competition climbers like 10 years ago?

  As it seems to us, to raise it’s a good idea the prize fund because it is very hard for sportsmen to earn at competitions. Perhaps, even more than 10 years ago, the prize fund was higher at World Cups, and someone even told us that for the first place it was possible to win a car. :) 

We very much liked the competitions in bouldering in L`Argentiere la Bessee. There was a very spectacular system. In the final 6 persons had 3 attempts and they took turns to try the boulder. It was very interesting and clear for the fans. We have always liked competitions in Arco, there a special atmosphere, thanks to the organizers. If competitions are organized at high level it’s pleasant to participate in them. Everything depends on organizers, on how much time and energy they put to the preparation.

How do they see the future climbing scene?

 Climbing is a very spectacular and entertaining kind of sport, it can attract strangers by its beauty, extremity and originality. More advertising is probably necessary to this purpose. Getting to the Olympic Games can somehow help promotion of climbing, but all depends on what kinds will get in the Olympic program, it would be good if all kinds were presented there. It is desirable to see climbing in the future as more popular, more impressive and richer sport. We wish professional 
Sportsmen could live and do their favourite sports, instead of thinking where to earn additional money.

Training/Jens: If you had the mentality of a top climber you would most probably immediately improve two grades. But what seems easy to adopt is actually almost impossible to practically accomplish if you not make it your endless mental game. In spite of this, most climbers do not train mentally! Here is where and how you could improve your mental game and the key is to do it actively together with your friend or a coach for a month and you will probably improve one grade. 1. Anxiety: The pressure from others to perform is what normally hinders good result for any athlete but for climbers there is also; 2. Fear of height: Start every session by warming up and slightly challenging your fear. Focus on pushing your comfort zone taking many small falls or just hang-dog instead of taking long falls. 3a. Failure Analyses: Climbers calculate unconsciously the risk for failure encountering hard moves in the beginning, thus spending time, energy and confidence instead of using the "No Thinking" mode like the best climbers. "One more move" or "Hit the wall as high up as possible" is what should go through your mind instead of doing analyses. 3b. A Muerte Pain: Very few climbers move on their absolut maximum as they let go instead of risking the friction pain, even on smooth plastic holds. Fighting to the death means that you hit the holds as hard as you can.

Training/Jens: Most intermediate climbers could improve very quickly just by learning the hang-dog technique, i.e. using quick draws to bypass cruxes. Often, climbers below 7a struggle during their warm up just to reach the top of a route. All 8a climbers use  quick draws frequently as they start working their first 8a+, meanwhile intermediate climbers are often both mentally and physically exhausted as they reach the anchor on their redpoint project.

Here are some basic hang-dog techniques described in order to more easily reach the next bolt:

1. Always make the knot as close to the harness as possible.
2. Clip the quickdraw directly in your harness and see if it is possible to reach up and clip the next bolt. Alternatively, clip the rope in the upper carabiner and continue to climb.
3. The belayer must keep weight on the rope until you have pushed yourself above the bolt and say, "slack".
4. Clip the next quickdraw and use the webbing as a hold to clip in the rope, or clip in more draws so you can clip in the rope more easily.