Anna Stöhr: The Evolution of a Four-Time World Cup Champion

For me climbing is a way of life. I love being outside and I respect nature. Yeah, climbing is my life at the moment. Innsbruck is my home base. I was born here, I went to school here and having the mountains as my background has always been ideal. Innsbruck is set in the middle of the mountains, therefore you can play around with all kinds of sports like mountain biking, skiing, climbing. Climbing played a big part of my childhood but at the age of eight I joined the kids climbing group. Ruby has been my coach for the last 21 years. He always respected my way of living and my way of climbing. I've always had a specific style and he was the one who told me that I should keep it and play with that and be proud of it in a way. Anna was all the time a really friendly, happy kid who loved always the nature and being outdoors. Anna has got a really natural kind of moving. She doesn't think too much about the moves, they come from inside, the feeling is coming from inside. On the other hand, we had to work on a more controlled style of climbing without losing this natural feeling. Her technique is almost brilliant let's say. You have to think about your technique and you have to see your good side and your side you have to work on. My style of climbing is very dynamic and very powerful. I didn't decide to become a boulderer, I was always climbing lots outside when I was in my teenage years. In 2004 at the European Championship in Lekko I actually wanted to start in the elite category but the federation said that there are too many women. Since I was youngest I had to start in the bouldering. When I was winning comp after comp let's say, I thought I was unbeatable. I just felt so strong and I knew that if I would enter the competition I would be able to climb strong and nowadays I'm definitely lacking that because I know that I have grown up in a way and life is not a candy store and I can't just pick all the gold medals. Well since we're in Innsbruck there are a lot of climbers around and I feel very fortunate to have such a strong community. Nick is a very fun guy, he's awesome to be around with because he's always wants to solve boulders. It's good to have a motivating partner, someone who feels the same about climbing. The good thing about training with Anna is that it's not that strict, it's rather open. You don't have to do some certain amounts of exercises, you're just building new problems and getting the right solution for that. With Nicky I can't share the same beta because he's a lot taller than I am and therefore there's always a different solution for me. Usually when I go to the gym I try to make up boulders and if I feel weak at certain movements or certain things then I try to make up boulders that would get my weaknesses into a strength. I think we both get something out of the training together. When you're climbing with someone else you just learn different moves. I kind of try to tell her that she's good enough for the competitions, which she is of course, but sometimes you need someone to tell you. Testing myself or proving myself is definitely not my main motivation. I just want to have fun and I want to enjoy the moment and I want to have good days outside or inside. The area is called Silvretta, it's high up in the mountains that's why it's a perfect summer spot because it's obviously not as warm as down in Innsbruck. A beautiful line is a boulder that doesn't have hundreds of other lines on it. Usually it's one pure, one boulder with one pure line going up in the middle. If the boulder has some amazing movements that you haven't done before or that are challenging for yourself then that's even better. When I'm bouldering outside I usually look for an aesthetic line. I really like beautiful boulders that inspire me in a way. If you find that one boulder or that one route that really motivates you and that's challenging for yourself it doesn't even have to be that hard. But if you find that then that's really motivating and then it's really worth giving it a try. I've tried the boulder Memento one time but I think it was 10 years ago. My expectations for today is actually just to get a feel of the boulder, to see if I really like it, if I'd be motivated to come back and yeah to climb as many moves as possible. Hard I have to say, especially the last move which is a dyno gives me some troubles. But I'm really psyched to come back and work on it a lot more.