Barbara Zangerl (Austria) – big-wall climber
Presentation day – 24th September, Saturday, 19:30h, Big Hall, Culture Center “Nikola Vapcarov”, Bansko city
Barbara Zangerl (Austria) – big-wall climber, boulder climber, one of the best all-around female climber in the world, “Adventurer of the Year” by National Geographic for 2019
Highlights:
“National Geographic” adventurer of the year 2019
3 Free climbs on El Capitan (2015 FFA El Nino, 2016 FFA Zodiac, 2017 FFA Magic Mushroom)
FFA “free Odyssee” hardest free climb on the Eiger
Sportclimbs up to 9a
FFA “Alpine Trilogy” (Kaisers neue Kleider, Silbergeier, End of Silence)
FA Gondo Crack 8c/r, Switzerland (trad)
FFA Muy Caliente E9/E10, Pembroke/Wales
FFA “Prinzip Hoffnung” E9, 8b (tradroute, Vorarlberg)
2008-first female bouldering 8b (pura vida/Switzerland)
Professional climbers Jacopo Larcher and Barbara Zangerl climbing Odyssee on Eiger North Face. This was the first repetition of the route.
“I got into climbing when my brother took me along climbing when I was 14 years old. That’s how I started. Together we went to the bouldering gym in Flirsch. I enjoyed climbing from the very first minute. After my first visit to the gym, I went climbing regularly. Later I climbed a lot with my sister Claudia and Bernd Zangerl-(no relation :-)). He took us to a rock face for the first time. Together we checked out the various boulder regions in Switzerland. I can very well remember my first rock face experience. Back then I could hardly imagine that climbing on a natural surface could be so much better than what I did before. It was an incisive experience for me. I was just focused on bouldering for six years and travelled to the different bouldering areas around the world. The next key moment, was my backinjury, a herniated vertebral disc (happenеd in 2009), which made me to change my attitude towards climbing a bit. I wasn’t allowed to do bouldering for a long time, which was my focus up until then. There was too much strain on my disc, especially when jumped down from a boulder. Therefore, I started with easy sport climbs, which at the same time was a kind of therapy for my injury. That’s how I discovered a new passion. I thoroughly enjoyed trying something new. Today I can say that it is more motivating for me to combine everything and enjoy and explore the different styles of climbing. I love being outdoors, travel to various regions to try out cool alpine routes, sport multipitches, trad climbs or sportclimbs. Climbing and the lifestyle involved are important to me. And I like to rise to a challenge and master it. Whenever I manage something that is at my personal limit, it’s an incredible feeling that encourages me to carry on and to explore new boundaries. Over the winter months I train indoors. In the summer I try to spend most of my time outdoors on the rock face. At the moment i also work parttime in a hospital as radiology assistant.”
