Hannes Puman talks about flashing 8c and training in Japan

Hannes Puman has been in Tokyo since the end of December training for the Olympic qualification series by bouldering with a group of international and local climbers. On Instagram video Hannes recently published a video of an 8c flash he completed Pain makes me feel stronger 8c in Frankenjura that also went previously unreported. It was put up by Markus Bock in 2006 as an 8c+ but it has been recorded lately at 8c and even 8b+ with the aid of knee pads.

Can you tell us more about the flashing Pain?
I climbed it at the beginning of August when I was on my way to Innsbruck for training. We stopped for a few days in Frankenjura on the way. I was on my way to try Action Directe but as someone was trying it and I was motivated to climb, instead of waiting, I decided to try this one instead. My friend Jakob climbed it before me and we went through the beta and he gave me some tricks. He told me the style is similar to our local crags (short and crimpy) and that it is very friendly for the grade.

I didn’t struggle and had a good feeling when I was climbing. The route is so short running beta wasn’t necessary. I haven’t climbed a lot in Frankenjura so I’m not well acquainted with the style and grades there, but comparing with Wallstreet (8c), which I did the in the morning the same day, Pain felt a lot easier.

You made the Finals at the Briancon World Cup last year. Do you have anything special planned competition-wise this year?
At the moment I’m in Japan preparing for the Olympic qualification series. The focus here is bouldering, when I get back to Europe I will start getting into lead training

I came to Japan the 29th of December and I’m staying until the 12th of March. I usually climb 4 or 5 times a week here and [also] do 2 strength sessions. The main plan is to have 2 long bouldering sessions, 1 short and 1 endurance session. I try to keep the plan simple when being here and take the opportunity to climb with a lot of different and great climbers in climbing gyms with good and difficult setting.

I have been climbing with a lot of different people [from different nations]. Danes, French, Swiss, Korean and of course Japanese. Because the setting is so hard and there are so many great climbers here it’s very interesting to see differences in styles and strengths.

What makes the Japanese training scene special?
There are a lot of Japanese athletes and everyone is of course not doing the same training but if I would generalise and compare with Europe it’s more normal to try really hard, have longer sessions and more rest days.

My best training partner nowadays is Matsura Hiiro [pictured]. He is phenomenal. He is just 16 but in the last session he sent boulders which Sorato Anraku could not do. On slopers, he is in another league 😀 I think he never trains two days in a row and I do not think he has ever climbed outdoors. And he did not make it to their Youth National.