13 February 2017

Christof Rauch does two 8A's or harder every week

For the last three years Christof Rauch has been doing almost two 8A or harder Boulders every week, including 10 8B+'s just last year. To make it even more impressive, he works full time as an electrician and building technician on a water plant where he always has Fridays off. What is your drive going for so many hard Boulders instead of just projecting 8C's? Actually I try a lot of hard boulders at the 8B+ and 8C range but most of the time I try some slightly "easier" climbs as well. It's just frustrating for me when I climb nothing for a while. I would say that I have some really good substance. When I am on the rock I mostly climb for about 8h with a few breaks around 20-30 min. Basically I train 1 or 2 times a week in the gym after work and on the weekend I always climb outdoors for 2 times. For example the whole last year i had less than 10 gym sessions on the weekend. If you have no problem with a lot of driving and you're motivated enough you always find a dry spot. I have no specific way to choose my projects. I just try what looks cool and could suite me at least a little bit, then I decide if I keep trying it or put it to rest till I get stronger. Sometimes I do some specific preparation for my projects. For example when I have a project with a lot of underclings I try to built some similar boulders in the gym. But most of the time I just do some basic training with a little bit of fingerboarding and campusing. What about your stretching exercises? I do a lot of stretching for my arms and my legs every day but beside that I do some massage on my forearms and fingers cause of some chronical tendinitis/inflammation. After that I do a few stretching exercises for my fingers and wrist as well. Interview by Stefan Koechel from last December.
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