Chris Frick, 57, does Gorilas en la Niebla (8b+)

Chris Frick, who three years ago did his fifth 8c, has completed Gorilas en la niebla (8b+) in Oliana. ”Amazing 55m of physical climbing meandering through the central wall up to the ideal finish on a no-hands at the top of the cliff. Great to send something at this level after 13 months of investment in improving climbing skills (and mostly indoors throughout 2024 and beginning of 2025 due to bad conditions on my projects at home). It’s far from over even at age of 57! An excellent physical shape is still possible :) Psyched to see what’s coming next! Thanks for best support Tina and Loulou!” (c) Augustine Fort

What can you tell us about your journey?
Although in climbing I value the process and in a project the small steps forward the most, it is always nice to clip a chain from time to time. As an intermediate stop, so to speak. Quasi to check how far the process has progressed and what the result might look like. The last send was 13 months ago and in that time I was nothing more than searching for a dry project. Due to the remarkably bad weather in 2024/2025, I was slowed down several times by the constant wetness. This mainly has to do with the fact that I'm not the fastest when it comes to sending a project at the personal limit. Before I'm even ready for a send, an otherwise dry route is already wet again. So I realized that I could change something in my climbing once again. I wanted to be able to climb routes at the limit a little faster and not be solely dependent on good conditions. I mean, I've been climbing for 43 years and to make it interesting and enjoyable, it always makes sense to question yourself and work on your own skills. That's how I stay motivated. Climbing has never been boring for me. I would also like to continue my lifetime project that I’ve bolted nearby home, which requires specific strength and technique. So I tackled one of my biggest weaknesses: physically hard lock-offs on small ledges on a forty-degree spray wall.

Of course, it is interesting to see for yourself whether the loss of power is really so dramatic in your mid-fifties (I reckon easier for males as females have also to deal with menopause). I can tell you that training like this is tough and I didn't see a single improvement on the spray wall for six months. Although frustrating, I intuitively carried on anyway. And all of a sudden my power went through the roof. I learned so much. Above all, to still trust my body but also my mind. I could write a lot about this topic and climbing in old age, but that would take up too much space here. However, I very much hope to motivate some of you to realize that there is no reason to let your head hang down in old age. We old(er) people can do so much more than we think. And according to modern scientific research, high intensity loads help to keep cells young (keyword telomeres) :) So let’s go!

How many FA’s have you done? And how much work did you put into rebolting Oliana?
I cannot give you the exact number as I’m not bookkeeping my FA’s. But somewhere in-between 400 to 500, mainly in Switzerland, but also in some other countries (e.g. Flatanger/Norway). My first FA I have put up in my first year of climbing (1982). Since then contributing to the community was always part of my climbing philosophy, that is if you take from you have to give something back. So I’ve rebolted even more. With Oliana I have a special connection as I was helping to rebuild after the wildfire in 2022. It was worth it to spend my holidays. The crag is so good and the climbing community there is so nice and fanatic. This is why I decided to come back for Oliana this spring after a break of few years. By the way, I have worked ’Gorilas…’ a bit already five years ago and haven’t had a chance in its bouldery crux. So this was a good test of my shape and I can say I’m better the older I get. Like an old wine, ha ha.