Esclatamasters (9a) by Angelika Rainer

Angelika Rainer, 3 time Ice World Champion, has sent Esclatamasters (9a) in Perles & Canelles. The 36-year-old did her first 8c+ this January. (c) Grivel/Genis Zapater

"After having admitted to my big dream, the real work started. I decided that I needed some professional help to prepare for this goal, so I started to train according to the workouts created by former World Champion Patxi Usobiaga. Then I choose a route that I thought could suit me, characterized by power endurance. Last October I did my first trip to Spain to find out if the route could be possible for me and more importantly if I would like it. Once arriving at the little hamlet of Perles, one can see from the parking lot a spectacular rock arch and on the right side of this arch the line of Esclatamasters is located. I immediately realized that I loved the place, and the route was amazing. After a few tries, I was able to do all single moves and even if a couple of them were totally on my limit, I felt confident because in the past when I was able to do all moves on a route, I’d always able to link them sooner or later and I was hoping this would be the case also on this route. During this first trip, I decided to focus on trying the first part of the route which is steep, powerful climbing on tufas, slopers and some crimps. At the end of this trip, I was able to do Sin Perdon, an 8b+ that shares all the first part with Esclatamasters before doing a separate exit to the left. The temperatures in October were much warmer than usual and together with the high air humidity, this made it hard to try the upper part of Esclatamasters where the climbing style changes to small crimps that often accommodate less than the first phalanx of the fingers.

But on my return in mid-February, the conditions were totally different: lower temperatures and a nice, fresh breeze allowed me to feel much better on those tiny holds. The improvement was visible from the beginning. After only 4 days on the route, I was able to get to the anchor with 2 rests, on the 6th day I only needed 1 rest. From this moment on I was assisted in a fascinating process of improvements I had never seen on another project of mine. Usually, I would fall various times in the crux sequence, but on this route every day I made it 1, 2 or 3 moves further, until I clipped the anchor with an enormous smile on my face. I would like to thank my partner Marco and my friends Barbara and Gordon for their support, the patient belays, and the warmest cheering, without you this wouldn’t have been possible."

What kind of training advice did you get from Patxi?(An interview with Patxi is coming soon).
I started to train with Patxi in December 2021. That Winter we did 3 months of intensive training with 4-5 days of training and 1-2 of rock climbing a week. The training consisted mainly of bouldering and fingerboard exercises as my weakness is definitely power. Then as the rock climbing season started, we switched to 1-2 days of training and 3-4 of outdoor climbing. Once I had decided that I wanted to try Esclatamasters last autumn, he included specific finger training and power endurance of the kind needed on this route into the training routine. During the 3 weeks, I spent in Spain I would try the route 3-4 times a week and some days in between I trained on Patxi’s home wall in order to maintain my shape.

What are you looking to do next? Do you have any time left in Spain?
For now, I’m happy to go home after 4 weeks in Spain and enjoy the moment for a bit. Then I will think about new projects. I will for sure keep working hard and trying to {re} shape my limits.