12 Year Old Girl Climbs F8a+/b

Zhenja Kazbekova – F8a+/b at 12 years oldUKC News, 02 Jul 2009© Anna PiunovaYesterday Ukranian climber Zhenja Kazbekova redpointed New Kenigsberg (F8a+/8b) at Red Stone, Crimea. Zhenja is 12 years old.Talking to UKClimbing.com, Russian climbing journalist and photographer Anna Piunova explained how the young girl had progressed to such high grades at an early age:”Zhenja (Jack in English) is the daughter of the very strong Ukranian climbers Natalia Perlova and Serik Kazbekov, who have been active competition climbers themselves until just a few years ago.They introduced Zhenja to their local crags at 7 monthsold and she started climbing regularly aged 5, combining both climbing and gymnastics, then when she turned 8 she started concentrating purely on climbing.”Zhenja climbed her first F8a last year aged 11 with an ascent ofVremja Ch (pictured below).

Zhenja Kazbekova climbing her first F8a aged 11 – Vremja ChUKC News, 02 Jul 2009© Anna Piunova
Another view of Zhenja Kazbekova climbing Vremja ChUKC News, 02 Jul 2009© Anna Piunova
Zhenja Kazbekova on the classic F7c+, CatapultUKC News, 02 Jul 2009© Anna Piunova
Zhenja Kazbekova catapulted from the classic F7c+ – Catapult!UKC News, 02 Jul 2009© Anna Piunova

Thanks go to Anna Piunova of Mountain.Ru for these photographs and help with this report.You can read a full interview (in Russian) with the Kazbekov family here: Mountain.ru Article Diesen Artikel inkl. Bilder auf UKClimbing.com anschauen

QuelleUKClimbing