Jo Nesbø, 64, does Helios (8a)

Jo Nesbø, a global bestselling crime writer, who has sold 80+ million books in 50+ languages, has sent Helios (8a) in Kalymnos. At age 17, Jo made his first appearance in the Premier Soccer League in Norway but an injury stopped his professional dreams. He has a Master's in Economics and worked as a stockbroker prior to becoming a writer. He is also a singer, songwriter and musician. In 2013, he wrote a long novel as his 8a comment after flashing a 6a+ in Kalymnos.

Can you tell us more about your climbing background and sending your second 8a at age 64?
I started climbing for real when I was 50 and for me that was like going back to being a kid again, going to the playground with other kids. Being no more than a moderately talented climber, progress came slowly but steadily. Still, just before turning 60 I decided to train to climb an 8a in two years and write about the process, the process being the focus, not so much the eventual achievement which seemed like a long shot at the time. And sure enough, after two years, I still hadn’t done my 8a. But I so much enjoyed the struggle, the fight, the hope, the failing and then failing better, that I kept on going, and after three years I sent my 8a, Elephant at Ton Sai, Thailand. In an interview for one of my novels I was asked about my climbing and what now, after the 8a. I answered that now I was ready for my descend; to get fat, older, top rope easy stuff while bragging about my one big send.

But it turned out I was wrong; I wasn’t quite ready. When interviewing Lynn Hill for my book I had asked her why she decided on trying to be the first person to freeclimb The Nose, which she famously did in 1993. One reason she gave was that she had just quit competition climbing while still being arguably the best female climber in the world. “So what to do with all this fitness?” she asked me rhetorically. I asked myself the same question and I turned my attention to a classic 8a close to the apartment I had bought at Kalymnos. Like Elephant, Helios is steep and short, 15 meters. But while Elephant is all about two consecutive moves at the crux, Helios is about power endurance. I could quite quickly do all the moves but putting them together proved tough and required a different training from Elephant, more endurance and less training for a specific move. To me diversity in training is important, because at age 64 if you’re injured, you are pretty much sure to carry that injury to your grave. So when at Kalymnos I went to Helios only once or twice a week and in between did easier, more vertical climbing and general physical training and stretching.

At the day of the send, I did something I usually don’t do, I told Hanna who belayed me, that’s this attempt would be my best chance this year since we had a window with good conditions and my chronic bad finger was quite well. I decided to experiment with putting that pressure on myself because I’ve always been curious about our mental reactions to certain situations, that was actually what drew me into climbing; how would I react given my own fear of heights which is well above average. I also gave myself a piece of advice while strapping on the gear for my first go of the day: if some minor details ruin the perfect go that you’ve envisioned - which it probably will - don’t let that get to you, just keep going. I have no idea in what way – if any - the pressure experiment influenced the climbing, but the piece of advice did for sure. Because of worn out Velcro, my kneepad almost came off after a few moves and while re-attaching it I almost missed a clip. Also, I couldn’t see the holds that well and realized I had on not my normal glasses but reading glasses! Well, that’s the kind of things that starts happening when your 64 … Luckily I knew the holds by heart and maybe the fact that this wasn’t a perfect run even relaxed me a bit.

When I clipped the anchor, I was so, so happy. Two days later, I still am. And what’s more – I´ve being able to suppress the question that pops up in all climber’s heads way too soon after having clipped an anchor they’ve worked for so hard: “So, what’s next?”