Who's the man behind GlobalClimbing?

My name is Armin. I started climbing around my hometown Graz in Austria in the late 90ies, as a logical consequence of my dad being a mountain guide. In the beginning I was so fascinated by the diversity of that sport that I just couldn't focus on any "specific" kind of climbing. I wanted to do everything: Ice climbing, mountaineering, skiing, alpine, mixed- and aid-climbing, bouldering... just everything! And I still do. I'v realized though, that at some point you have to focus. In my case this focus would be sports climbing and bouldering.

Motivation for this site:

Travelling has always kept climbers open-minded towards the different styles and I can be just as fascinated by a 2 move problem as a bigwall - as long as the line and it's setting is right! And that's the point: You just HAVE TO travel in order to experience all the amazing different spots. If you get the chance, do so all over the world. One day you will look back in satisfaction at all those beautiful adventures.

For me, sharing these experiences and moments has always been an important part which is also why I wanted to put up my own climbing website. When I started with the first layout of the site, I was wondering which language to write the content in. Well, a lot of information is related to my home crags around Graz, so why not write in German? Then, I thought of all our friends from Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, even the USA and who knows where and decided to keep it in English. Furthermore, all the climbers in Graz speak English pretty well anyway.

I hope to be contributing to the exchange of useful information for climbers or maybe just provide some entertainment by uploading a few videos and image galleries every now and then. If you have any questions or comments, please just drop me an email!

I hope you enjoy GlobalClimbing.net!

Memorable and successful trips / sends:

Routes

• Modeselector, 8c+. What a great climb! Definitely one of my proudest first ascents!
• Lovebox, 8c+. It's short but definitely not easy. There are a lot of good memories linked to my friend Christian who passed away in 2006
• Public Enemy, 8c. The first 8c that I put up, was the first one in the Grazer Bergland. An old project that was finally freed.
• The Battle Rages On, 8c. An on-and-off project that I tried twice a year and then forgot about it. In 2011 the friction was right and I did it on my first attempt after not having tried it for 9 months!
• Dirty Thirty, 8c. That one went quick! 6 tries in total - another first ascent, which I consider among the best climbs in this style around Graz!
• Radicales Libres, 8a+, On Sight. After only having bouldered for quite a long time, I really considered this pumpy 32m-line a personal highlight! Never been so pumped in my life!

...and close to 170 climbs 8a and harder.

Boulders

• Pluto auf der Jagd, 8b. I call it an 8b because I climbed it in the original version in 2000 (3rd ascent). Later, people dug out the start so now you can place a toehook underneath the boulder.
• Schule des Lebens, 8b. Amazing!
• The Crusher, 8b. Too bad it's been chipped... there is a video of the original version in this website!
• The night everything went wrong, 8a+. My first hard bouldering first ascent in 1999. I was still in high school!
• No Mistery, 8a+, Flash. What can I say. The first solution I tried, just worked...
• Bubby Butt Buster, 8a Flash. One of the coolest pocket problems on earth!
• Zwiderwurzen, 8a, Flash. Oh man, what a setting! Silvretta rocks!
• Le vent nous portera, 8a, Flash. A superb Fred Nicole Classic! Thanx Stefan for the beta!

...and around 300 problems fb 7b and up.

Trips

• Tessin Trip February 2010. Ten days of bouldering in Ticino, where I was able to stick to the motto "every day an 8a". (one or two of them flash by the way.)
• Spain Exchange Semester 2009. Thank god the classes in Valencia weren't that hard and there was enough time to send 86 routes 8a and harder during my stay.
• Tessin Trip February 2008. I have to be thankful for the great conditions: 30 problems between 7b and 8b within 8 days of climbing!
• USA bouodering Trip 2007. 70 problems between 7b and 8a+/8b and even more fun with good friends at amazing locations.
• Nepal Kartographic Expedition 2006. Climing Imja Tse, (6189m) with my dad after a severe snowstorm in one push really pushed my to my physical limits.
• Crossing the Lines 2004. The most amazing roadtrip from Canada to Mexico! Parallel to making a great movie about this trip we still climbed several of the superbe american classic in Yosemite, Indian Creek, the City of Rocks, Shelf road, Smith Rocks...
• The Trip 2002. Graz - Nordkapp - Tarifa. A 20.000 km Roadtrip from Europe's most northern to it's most southern point. Sweet!
• Andes Film Expedition 2001. An impressive exploration through the Atacama, the world's driest desert. I was also luck enough to climb the world's highest volcano, Ojos del Salado, 6893m.

...and many other trips to the USA, central Asia, Africa, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and more!

Many thanks to:

Please also check out:

www.styleofgravity.com