Fotos: © Reini Fichtinger
KATHARINA SAURWEIN Born in 1987, lives in Innsbruck. It all began on a saturday in June 1995, at the sports science campus of the University of Innsbruck. She saw a climbing wall for the first time. And because you should always try everything, she put the harness on and started upwards. Once on top, all she wanted was do another route, and she was hooked on climbing ever since.
She began training with Reinhold Scherer and Rupert Messner and competed soon after. She won the youth world championships in Imst in 2006. Two years later, she won her first Bouldering World Cup. In recent years, she has been doing more more and more climbing outside, and is particularly adept in highball bouldering. “I go outside to discover new rocks. I try to develop as a climber and find new challenges.” Other hobbies are her sports studies, mandalas, reading and learning Dutch.