Barbara Zangerl - The world's best female rock climber

Ten years ago, Barbara Zangerl was one of the very best female boulderers in the world. In 2009, she got an herniated vertebral disc which made her stop bouldering. Including two 8c+'s and several 8c's she is also nowadays among the best in sportclimbing and the same goes for trad, where she recently did an 8c FA, Gondo Crack. Even so, multi-pitches should be her best discipline and here she the #1 female, here the full very impressive tick list. The good news is that she is now fully recovered from her back injury and last week she was a superior winner in the Melloblocco. "The injury is still there. It is a broken disc. On the MRI pictures it looks still bad but I think I am totally recovered which means I have no more pain. But of course if do a lot of bouldering, jumping down from the blocs---then it comes back, I feel pain and I have to rest. I'm always doing a lot of bouldering in our home gym, especially in winter. There we have extra soft pads where I can train without any risk of hurting my back--- while jumping off the wall." What is your plan and ambition for 2017? My focus will be on bigger walls....I love alpine and big wall climbing....and maybe I can push my sport climbing limit a bit further--we will see. But in general I get the best out of climbing if i combine all styles of climbing....that is my way to stay motivated all over the years and I love it to do trad alpine and sport....and a bit of bouldering... This summer I want to climb in Chamonix....I never have been there before....or I would be also interested to climb a route on Eiger, if the weather is good this summer.....In Autumn we will go to Yosemite again.... 8a interview from 2015. (c) Thomas Senf & Klaus Dell'Orto