Roc Vergés Solé has done Fish eye (8c) in Oliana in five sessions. "The process was very fast and I managed to get to the top part of the route in a few tries where I fell. Finally, after letting the route rest for a few days I managed to overcome that steepness." (c) Toni Mas Buchaca

Could you please say something about your climbing background?
I started climbing when I was 6-years-old because my parents are climbers and they told me to try it and I fell in love with climbing. I started to climb in Siurana and in Cornudella’s climbing gym. Later I started to train in Monobloc at Reus with a group of kids and when I entered the sports climbing technical centre of Catalonia I started to train with the CCT*21 a Private group. I was the Spanish champion in the MY category in 2021.

“The pressure was INSANE. EVERYONE was expecting me to win … I was training so hard for this moment, giving everything I had. I couldn’t just throw that away.” – Janja Garnbret, Tokyo, 2021

The much-anticipated Olympic climbing documentary The Wall – Climb for Gold is out NOW. Prepare to shed a tear, punch the air, and then immediately reach for your chalk bag.

What does it take to be an Olympic athlete at the very pinnacle of your sport?

Determination?
Fixation?
Insanity?

The Wall – Climb for Gold follows Janja Garnbret, Shauna Coxsey, Miho Nonaka, and Brooke Raboutou through two grueling years as they prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Games.

It reveals never-seen-before moments in the lives of these extraordinary athletes as they shed SKIN, SWEAT and TEARS to make it on to the world’s biggest sporting stage. Each athlete has their story away from The Wall which offers a fascinating glimpse in to the world of the pro-climber.

Battling career ending injuries, feeling the crushing weight of expectation, dealing with the pressure of performing to a home crowd, and carrying on a family legacy, they each have their story. They are super-human, yet ultimately still super human.

Follow this link to see where you can stream the film in your area.

Geila Macia has done in Santa Linya. The 13-year-old is daughter to famous spanish climbers Berta Martin and Israel Gacia. Berta has won the Spanish Championship several times and eleven times made World Cup semis mainly in Boulder. Her best result was anyhow #9 in Speed. (c) Israel Macia

How was the process taking it down?
I was very tired of the long season of competitions but I wanted to look for a high project for the next season. So I found out that I could do every single move on Fabelita quite easily and I enjoyed the climbing. After some days on my holiday, I realized that I was getting stronger and on the route, I felt more confident. Yesterday I could make all the hardest parts from the beginning and then just climb concentrated from rest to rest till the chain. It was a nice time, lot of sunny and nice days with the family and good friends.

How much and does she train?
Berta: She trains at least 4 days a week sometimes 5. I’m her trainer and she trains with 2 guys of her age aprox. Arround 3h each day. Power, power/endurance and endurance, we increase the number of sessions and selections depending on the competitions. All training usually is focoused on comp style bouldering or when it's time for lead we do more endurance climbing routes in gyms. But if she has a rock project I try to reduce trains or adjust them for it.

What are the plans and ambitions for 2022?
Berta: We expect Geila being selected for international comps as she has won all under 14 in Spain last year. If the Spanish coach take her to Europe Cup, would be the focus on trainings for sure.

Angie Scarth-Johnson made the first 8a headline at age 9 by doing an 8b in Red River Gorge (KY). Amazingly, her parents did not climb but supported her big interest by doing nine 1 - 3 months trips to Europe and the USA until she was 16. At age eleven, she did her first 8c and we made an interview. "I don’t have a trainer, I tried for a couple of months having an online trainer but it didn’t work out, so I just went back to training myself. I write my own programs and have done this since I was 8. I find that this really works for me."

Last September, the Australian did her first 9a, Victimes del Future in Margalef where she has spent the last year. We asked Angie if she describe how it was being a lifestyle globetrotter since age 9. (c) Jan Novak

"I started climbing when I was 7 years old, not long after I began climbing outside in the local crags after school with my dad. When I started climbing, competitions weren’t really a massive thing and I wasn't really interested in it anyways. I enjoy the challenges that came with climbing rocks and the process of projecting. When I was 9 years old my parents planned our first overseas family trip to the United States. By this point, I was totally in love with climbing and it was mostly all I thought about. My parents suggested we could maybe stop by and visit some outdoor crags in the states to try out the climbing in another country. This was extremely exciting for me, with Australia being pretty far from the rest of the world, climbing in another country was a big deal.

We visited Red River Gorge. A very picturesque climbing area, especially in the autumn. I'd say after this trip I was more hooked on climbing than ever before. I sent my first 8b and a bunch of other amazing lines, my eyes were suddenly open to the possibilities within climbing. After this successful trip, I began to seek out other climbing opportunities around the world. We started to do two trips overseas per year. Eventually, the trips got longer and more frequent. With all the travelling, training and climbing going on I needed an alternative to my schooling. This is when I started a homeschooling program and I began to study at the crag, on the planes and at the gyms. My mum would teach me and we’d often visit a lot of historical sites around the world as history was my favourite subject.

A lot of people often ask if I missed out on having friends because I didn’t go to a normal school. Because of the level I climbed at, I was always surrounded by older climbers growing up, so I ended up having a lot of older friends, funnily enough, almost all of those people are still my friends today. I learned a lot through watching these people climb.

I returned back to school in the first year of high school, my parents wanted to allow me to see if I wanted to finish my schooling years back at school and spend time with kids my own age. I actually hated it, I felt lost amongst a bunch of kids, even though I was a kid. I guess I had matured a lot faster, and I was really just interested in finding myself in climbing. So, Back to the outdoors, I went with my books and my pens and I finished high school at the crag.

My schooling years were very unique, to say the least. But it allowed me to continue with my climbing and fully focus on what I loved to do. Now looking back on it I wouldn’t change a thing. At the moment I’m now spending a lot of time living between Spain and Australia. I finished school and I continue to chase my climbing goals wherever it may take me."

Chris Sharma talks about his Golpe de Estado (9b) in Siurana on Insta. "Could it have actually been the worlds first 9b+ ???🤷‍♂️ Either way, it’s such a badass route and would be so cool to see some other top climbers check it out."

Chris says he is surprised that no climber had tried it for a longer period. It is a "powerful and explosive 9a+" that goes into the hard part of Estado Critico 9a. The FA was done in 2008 and then Adam Ondra did the only repeat in 2010 when he was 17 years old.

Ondra: "HUGE relief for me, mission accomplished despite various obstacles - notoriously strong wind, injury, flu and stomach ache just before the second trip (thus I was out of shape). After the first day in the route I did not expect I would have to dedicate so much time, but proved to be really hard and mischievous. 29 tries (mental torture for me!) during 14 days, but some days only go when I found out it is just too windy to climb at 6th bolt. I do not say it is hard 9b after breaking the hold, but 100% it is 9b now (a bit harder than Marina)."

The first 9b+ suggestion was made for Chilam Balam but today it is considered a very hard 9a+. As it stands Ondra's Change (9b+) from 2012 is today considered the first 9b+ in the world. The only repeat was done in 2020 by Stefano Ghisolfi.

Brooke Raboutou, #5 in the Olympics, reports on Insta that she is back in Ticino having done La Proue (8B) and Kings of Sonlerto 8A+ (B). Talking about grades are personal and subjective. The latter was put up by Dave Graham in 2005 as an 8B+ and at that time he thought Fred Nicole’s well confirmed La Proue 8B was 8A+. (c) Finn Stack

The 20-year-old made her first headlines on 8a in 2010 doing her first 8a route as well as her first 7C+. Last year was Brooke’s best ever. In the Boulder World Cup she twice made the podium and in her only Lead events, she was #2 in a World Cup and #5 in the World Championship. Outdoors, she did one 8B+ and flashed her first 8A+.

Max Bertone has done Saruman du bas (8B) in Fontainebleau. "Super classic of the forest. I am so happy to top this one ! A perfect try I think because I was not so easy and holds didn't stick so much today."