"Fear is a safety factor"

Kilian Fischhuber has a headstrong success strategy: he rarely wins contests but never places worse than fifth – which has already brought him two Boulder overall World Cup victories. In Hall on the other hand he did away with tradition and immediately began the new season with a victory. What else he has planned for this year, Kilian discloses in an interview.

You’ve just returned from two outdoor training days in Italy. A welcome change to the stuffy climbing halls?

Yes, it was a very good change from the normal training day-to-day. I was in Arco on Lake Garda for two days and climbed a 600-meter route and a 200-meter route there. It wasn’t really suitable for training because in bouldering I need more speed and strength. But now I can go to the next competition with top motivation.

Particularly because the opening to the season in Hall went perfectly. How hard was it to keep your nerve at your home event?

Generally before every contest I’m very nervous, so it can sometime happen that I have to run to the toilet every ten minutes. At the home event the psychological stress is much higher than usual because you put more pressure on yourself. In Hall, until the qualification for the finals, I was particularly nervous. Afterwards it wasn’t so bad because I reached my goal. In the finals I was an outsider against World Champion Dmitry Sharafutdinof (RUS) and the French Jerome Meyer and was surprised myself that it was good enough to win.

With your victory you’ve extended an impressive run: in the last 24 contests you’ve constantly been among the top five. Are you so strong, or do you simply lack competition?

Perhaps I’m more diverse than my rivals and can adapt myself to various profiles and climb further ahead. This consistency is my recipe to success. In the year 2005 for example, I didn’t win any individual contests – but despite that I still won the overall World Cup.


In June you’ll be competing in the Red Bull Steinkönig. What are further season highlights?

The European Championship for I’ve never been successful there. Of course the ideal thing would be a victory in the overall World Cup and at the EC. But in recent years it’s seldom happened that the one who won the first contest then bagged the overall World Cup.

You’re studying to become a sport and English teacher. Can you compare the World Cup with school, and rock climbing in the off-season with vacation?

Yes, it’s kind of like that. At the contests everything has order, not much time for spontaneity. I catch up on that in the vacation after the season. This year I’m going to Africa and Majorca and will be going climbing with a few colleagues. It’s going to be very relaxed. We’ll be living the lives of vagabonds, be living in the car and not in a hotel – if we don’t like a particular place any more we’ll just pack up our stuff and change locations.

Are there characteristics that you need in climbing and for studying?

It definitely wouldn’t hurt if I could let some of the ambition and consistency from sports flow into studying. I’d probably be much further along than I am now. But maybe everything will work out better after I’ve done my military service.

One of your quotes goes: “In sports climbing you make headway fast in the beginning. But to learn to deal with fear takes some time.” How do you learn to deal with this fear?

Humans are creatures of habit. The more we try things, the more courageous we get. In climbing you always have to be able to rely on your partner, and when you’re warming up, to also let yourself fall into the rope. Despite this, fear in climbing is important and a safety factor: rational fear stops you from being cocky.