Interview with Oriane Bertone

Oriane Bertone, in 2018, at age 12, sent Golden Shadow (8B+) and has since been one of the best female outdoor boulderers. In 2019, she started doing IFSC Youth Comps and she won eight out of nine, and in the ninth, she was runner-up. In her World Cup debut, at age 16, she won the silver and during the last two World Cup seasons, she was on five occasions in the Top-5. Two weeks ago, the 18-year-old won the French Championship and she is a strong contender looking the boulder WC in 2023. We were able to get some thoughts from her following the French championships.

What were the French Championships like?
The Nationals went super well for me actually. It had been a while since I last climbed on « competition style » boulders, since I have mainly been doing spray wall and climbing gyms boulders (which are not the exact same setting style of course). I had loads of fun and it felt amazing being back on comp boulders again !! Good start to the season for me, I’m pretty excited for the rest :)

What does a normal climbing day look like for you?
I’m actually a lot in habits. I have a routine that’s pretty much my everyday plan and I stick to it !! I usually train in the middle of the day, from around 9 a.m. to mid/end-afternoon. I like not waking up too early and not going to sleep too late so this schedule is pretty much the perfect one for me! I like the life that I have in Paris a lot, as I’m finally getting used to it :)

A normal training day isn’t really something actually. It depends a lot on how I’m feeling, where we are in the season and also the cycle we are in (with Nicolas Januel, my coach). But a « normal » training day is gonna be 2 to 3 hours of physical work and fingerboarding, and a few more hours of climbing in the spray wall or wherever my training is.

Have you been able to climb outdoors lately?
I didn’t get the chance to climb much outside but still managed to go a few times!! At the end of my training cycles, I have a week where I climb pretty freely with not so many training plans. I can sometimes go outside climbing in the forest around that time :)

Do you have the rest of your comp season planned out?
I’ll be doing the three first bouldering WCs and trying my best there! Probably a bit of Lead too :) The goal is mainly to get stronger and gain experience as I still have a lot of weaknesses and things to progress in. Getting stronger will probably lead the walk. We’ll then see what the season and the comps bring me. I’m pretty excited to try what I’ve learned these past few months and to see if I have made any progress in what we’ve worked on lately!!