Malik Schirawski does the 9a’s La Reina Mora and Era Vella

Malik Schirawski, with six 9a’s under his belt has done Era Vella (9a) in Margalef and La Reina Mora (9a) in Siurana. The 20-year-old needed only six respectively four sessions sending the two classics. (c) Abainmp

Can you tell us more about the ascents?
The process starts a little while back, already in spring, I was in kind of in a hole questioning a lot of my to date goals (if they where "mine" etc) and a friend, who I was in Spain with at the time, spoke about the idea of "The BIG four", the challenge felt appealing, as its at least a little bit, out of the pattern of logic progression. One of the main factors of this challenge was, as the name is suggesting, to tackle the long and striking lines in Catalunya. So this autumn I set off, originally planning to try only two and then return home and come back, but some misfortunate events in the beginning of my trip made me staying for a bit longer.

I first did "Era Vella", which was alot of fun, as it felt quite intimidating in the beginning, and after that, I tried Seleccio Natural (9a) and La Reina Mora, kind of at the same time, always training in between to keep some sort of shape. And on my last day I did La Reina Mora, it felt really epic to stick the last jump move... For Seleccio I will need to return someother time, and also for the fourth one ;) [Esclatamasters (9a)].

What is your climbing background?
Well, I started in comp climbing, but got pulled outside fairly quick (thanks to my old coach Isabelle Kautz) and was then driving it a little bit on two roads for a while, until I decided to stop competing around the age of 14/15. Ever since I fully focus on outdoor climbing, and really using climbing as a tool to see and experience life, so its great.

What are your winter plans?
As I will attend my A-Level exams in spring, I will just train and study, and also boulder a bit which I’m excited about as I have not been bouldering much seriously so far :))