UKC

Seemingly out of nowhere, Swedish climber Matilda Söderlund has been hitting the headlines recently with a string of hard sport ascents, including flashing 8b+ and redpointing 8c in just a few goes.

We caught up with the young Swede in Germany, whilst she was spending some time in the Frankenjura climbing and sightseeing, to find out more about her, her climbing background, and her future plans.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=4706

In reply to UKC Articles:

Fixed that for you.

In reply to Eagle River: Is that really all you can offer from an in depth interview with one of the best climbers in Europe?

She sounds like she's progressing really rather quickly. If she's an endurance-fiend and has flashed an F8b+ boulder route, then F9a seems perfectly plausible. Exciting!

It's a fair comment, I heard that Eagle River said that James Pearson was also smoking hot anyhow so he's not being prejudice.

Matilda S looks like she's really going places, amazing achievements and never even heard of her before.

In reply to Eagle River:

Pretty, impressive

Points more and more that sport climbing is fast becoming dominated by ladies .Certainly it has opened the door to more girls taking up climbing.....now chaps do not take these comments too seriously !

In reply to USBRIT:

Why not take your comments seriously!?

I love the way that climbing allows the contrasting styles and qualities of traditionally Yin/female and Yang/male to be expressed so well, and so effectively. The rise of women's standards does, I feel, make the question or debate over which style is "better" more relevant than ever.

For me, the question of relative performance between men/women is predicated on chosen modes of expression rather than physical prowess.

How many women choose to establish hard new sport climbs? Is it considered a "male" attribute to be "forcing new ground"? Is it a choice of mindset, to be playing catch up (of course, this question applies to both sexes)?

Perhaps if these questions can be addressed, there is no physical reason why the "current worlds hardest climb" can't be one established by a woman.

So.. come on girls!

Dave.

In reply to DAVETHOMAS90:Agree Dave. Even the kids too small to belay are knocking off some of these top sport routes.Once danger is eliminated from a climb its wide open. I think most likely the only reason women are not "forcing new ground" (sport routes) is they don't own a Bosch drill . Its a piece of cake drilling a line of bolts from the top down or with aid ground up.....PS.I will soon have a top of the line Bosch drill for sale..but ladies shipping from the US is wee a bit expensive!!!

In reply to USBRIT:

Ha! So we've sorted it. The gender gap can be attributed to the stereotypically male affinity with power tools. It's strange, my mother was always pretty handy with the Magimix, but it was my dad who had to put up the shelves.

The last time I used a Bosch drill, my lycra tights got ripped off when they snagged in the drill bit. I'm sticking to the bread-maker.

In reply to DAVETHOMAS90:

Taking tongue out of cheek, I've been thinking a lot about the differing approach between men and women, to hard sport climbs. This is what's really exciting; it's not simply "the numbers". We've moved a long way from simply saying that men have stronger upper bodies, but women have better balance, smaller fingers etc!

I was hoping there'd be a little more about Matilda's approach to training, as I'm sure this is another area where men and women have tended to operate differently.

With more women climbing at the top end, perhaps there's more chance of the sport being better represented and understood?

Dave.

Matilda Soderlund - 8c Climber.................What a terrible tittle.

In reply to DAVETHOMAS90:

Having said all that one of the things I love about climbing the most is it's multifactorial nature which contributes to performance and seemingly makes it a sport with a small gap between the genders at the elite level. I wonder how you compare between the relative gap between 9a (best female) and 9b (best male) and say male and female world marathon records!?