Joe-Cita 9a by Martina Demmel (19)

Martina Demmel, who started climbing in 2017, is about to set another new standard for fast progress by sending Joe-Cita 9a in Oliana. The 50-meter test piece, with some 130 moves, was put up by Adam Ondra and it is a link-up of Joe Blau 8c+ and La Morenita 8c+. (c) Julia Cassou

"Still struggling to find the right words to describe what this means to me especially when you haven't even started to dream about it because it felt soo far away! What a crazy too perfect to be true dream;) 5 more tries after the straight lines to clip the chains of this combi beast with the help of low expectations, prime conditions and most important the very best crew around! Muchas gracias y'all for sharing this special moment:) more Infos on my Insta!”.

Amazingly, the 19-year-old began climbing only four years ago and during the last three years, she has almost only climbed outdoors with a focus on onsight and fast sends. Her indoor climbing during the last six months has basically been limited to some competition-style bouldering sessions with the German national team. Otherwise, almost no indoor training, hang boarding or other physical training. Her only physical exercise except for climbing is quick stretching.

During the last three weeks, the 157-cm-tall has done 20 routes 7c+ to 9a, out of which ten onsight. Based on the Top-50 hardest onsights during the last year, she is #1 in the world including all male.

So how are you challenged by being 157 cm tall?
Mostly by having to be a little bit extra creative by finding my own betas or not losing the patience if it's not working directly with the obvious beta😉 but that's the cool thing in climbing that some other sections might feel easier for me when there are lots of footholds to choose from and therefor looking at whole routes it doesn't make a big difference how tall you're because it gets balanced by itself🙈🙃 still there are morpho moves sometimes but most of the time it's still possible the find a solution even if it's way harder but being to do the move, in the end, is even more satisfying no matter what grade you get for it😊

How come you avoid physical training etc.?
Physical training, just like repeating the same exercises, seems to be pretty boring. Maybe the physical progress by just climbing is slower but it is way more fun. Regarding hang- and campus boarding and stuff like this I am pretty happy that my fingers are rather stronger so I do not need it. Stretching is the only thing I do but just a few minutes and like five seconds in each position. Just climbing, also helps to not expect too much because you don't think you have trained so much so, "now you have to be strong". Instead, you can climb more relaxed and free at the wall, I would say. Maybe in the future, I want to push my limits more and also start doing physical training.