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 months old 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 of Vremja Ch (pictured below).

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