Barbara Zangerl

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 (happend 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.