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The trendy European city leading a hipster climbing revolution

Traditional buildings line the river in Innsbruck - Gergo Kazsimer
Traditional buildings line the river in Innsbruck - Gergo Kazsimer

Ah, Innsbruck. Young Austrians tumble through its medieval streets decked in beer-stained Lederhosen as alpine adventurers retire with steins in the foothills. It’s a city cradled by sugar-topped alpine crags that resonate with yodels from goat-herding farmhands.

Close your eyes and picture “Austria”. You’re almost certainly picturing Innsbruck. It’s quaint and traditional, some would say predictable – the type of town you’d bring home to meet your parents but wouldn’t brag about to your mates. Drive 10 minutes north, however, and you’ll reach a complex of abstract concrete megaliths, as bold in their ambition as the Olympic team which calls them home. Welcome to Austria’s first national climbing centre, Kletterzentrum Innsbruck.

Climbing has soared in popularity in recent years, fuelled by anticipation of Tokyo 2020 where it will make its Olympic debut. On home shores, walls are sprouting from the ground as a new breed of social climbers chalk up. According to ukclimbing.com, there are more than 650 walls for Brits to get their legs over and almost 1,500 of us on average are attempting to do so every day. 

Welcome to Austria’s first national climbing centre - Credit: liebhabermoritz.com photography st.veit/goelsen austria/Moritz Liebhaber
Welcome to Austria’s first national climbing centre Credit: liebhabermoritz.com photography st.veit/goelsen austria/Moritz Liebhaber

Bleak though it sounds, it’s also fun, requires minimal kit and is becoming cool, as I – a complete novice – realised upon being invited to the Youth World Climbing Championships at Kletterzentrum Innsbruck.

It took a decade of battling with government bureaucrats and investors to build the €12 million (£10.6 million), 6,000 sq ft facility, says Reini Scherer, the centre’s manager and former coach of the Austrian climbing team. For years, the town struggled to supply demand for indoor climbs as Tyrolean fitness obsessives swapped dumbbells for harnesses.  

“People don’t want to go to a fitness studio packed with gorillas on steroids anymore,” says Scherer, “they want a workout for mind and body.” From 6ft hurdles to 56ft back-breakers, Kletterzentrum has a total of 600 routes across the centre, which are rearranged every two months to sate their grapplers’ voracious appetites. 

Innsbruck is the pretty gateway to the Alps - Credit: Getty
Innsbruck is the pretty gateway to the Alps Credit: Getty

Innsbruck has always been Europe’s go-to destination for climbers, but with their new gym just a stone’s throw from the well-trodden Martinswand mountain, the city is making an effort to establish itself as a modern leader in the sporting world. 

I’d expected to dislike climbing – to find it dull and monotonous – but, a few steins deep into the Youth World Climbing Championships hosted by Kletterzentrum, I found my prejudices were quickly debunked. 

Picture the scene. Beer-chugging crowds are mingling like worshippers at the feet of synthetic mountains that dance with contorted bodies and graphic light shows. I turn to my left and find Ryoei Nukui from Japan struggling with a small “bouldering wall”. Cheers ebb and soar from the hazy crowd below as he writhes to reach his next foothold before tumbling to the crash mat below. Meanwhile, a French contestant eyes up one of the centre’s many speed walls – a vertical concrete tower scarcely speckled with fluorescent pimples. I can’t confirm whether she ever made it up the wall as I blinked, and apparently missed it. 

Amid the crowds of supporters I spot some youngsters with Union flags buzzed into the sides of their heads, their English accents barely audible over the thumping bass. It’s team GB. For a group of teenagers whose heads reside mainly in the clouds, they seem more sociable than most their age.

A post shared by Eugenie Lee (@eugenie_lee) on Jan 10, 2018 at 5:18am PST

“A lot of my friends are starting to climb,” says 17-year-old Eugenie Lee, part-time model, student and full-time member of the GB youth climbing team. She refers to her local climbing centre in Stoke Newington: “It has a yoga studio, a café…” Fellow grappler, 17-year-old Gwyneth Uttley, interrupts: “In Bristol, my centre is attached to a coffee roastery.” Eugenie nods knowingly and I perhaps too enthusiastically, while team-mate Severin Domela rolls his eyes. “It’s become a lifestyle now,” he says begrudgingly, and not without reason. 

It seems everyone now wants a slice of the action whether they have any intention of alighting from their sofa or not. J D Sports Fashion, owner of Blacks, Millets and Go Outdoors, reported a 33 per cent rise in profits in the first half of 2017. British teens who might have once splurged the innards of their piggy banks on a label-emblazoned garment from West Coast lifestyle brand, Abercrombie & Fitch, are cashing in on “performance wear” now instead. Myself included.  

Upon Domela’s prompting I look down, shamefully, at my North Face jacket and Eastpak bag – their closest scrape with mountaineering thus far had amounted to a sticky run-in with a fun-sized Toblerone. His words resonated with me. And so, motivated in equal measure by the millennial angst that I might be missing out (FOMO) and by the need for Domela’s validation, I vow to try my hand at climbing the next morning. Not indoor climbing, but the real thing: messy, dirty, outdoor climbing. 

Kletterzentrum Innsbruck - Credit: Getty
There is more serious climbing available in the mountains above the city Credit: Getty

Within half an hour of leaving my lodge I’m face-to-rock face, strapped up and ready to try my hand at top-rope climbing. Unlike bouldering – which requires no equipment – top-rope climbing comes with a kit list. 

Not only is climbing a solo sport, but it’s supported by a burgeoning industry of shiny metal gadgets, clips and accessories: more useful as quick-fix solutions for birthday and Christmas presents than they are for increasing technical performance. 

But the essentials – climbing shoes, a strong rope, harness, carabiner, belay and helmet – are few. Shorts, I now know, are not essential. My view was panoramic and, judging by his grimaces, so too was that of Franz, my alpine instructor.

After a brief introduction – Franz didn’t speak English and nor do I German – he leaves his life in my hands and picks his way up the rock, dancing on its surface. About 65ft (20m) up, Franz loops the rope through a carabiner and beckons me to start lowering him back to Earth – which, despite my jumpy hand, he completes with style. Still alive, Franz knots me into his place. “Off you go,” he says abruptly.

Robbie Hodges gets to grips with the mountain
Robbie Hodges gets to grips with the mountain

Gulp. As my eyes scan the rock face, lizards emerge and scuttle upwards at a patronising pace. In imitation of the world champions I’d met earlier I perform the professional ritual of “chalking up” – dusting one’s hands in chalk to ensure maximum grip and, in my case, delaying the inevitable climb.

If Franz glided on the rock’s surface like Fred Astaire, I initially felt like Mr Blobby: unwieldy and an inhuman shade of pink. Unlike Mr Blobby however, I’m blessed with the ability to learn from my mistakes and within minutes had bolted to more than 2,000ft above sea-level. While the view from the top was a reward in itself, as I started a long and wobbly descent down the cliff-face, I couldn’t help but feel that taking a spin on Kletterzentrum’s speckled wall would have been a good idea beforehand.

For where better to learn the ropes than in the cushioned haven of Kletterzentrum, which is surrounded by historic crags that have provided centuries of footfall to climbers? Japan, perhaps? At the championships, Laura Stockler – Austria’s answer to the human monkey – had clinched top spot in the women’s category and Japan’s Meichi Narasaki first place in men’s. It seems obvious. Why else would a country introduce a sport to the Olympic stage other than to make a symbolic stab at international domination? 

solo travel adventures
solo travel adventures

Japan isn’t short of muscle-tearing mountains, but tectonic greatness is a double-edged sword. “In Tokyo alone they have 600 bouldering gyms,” explains Scherer, “but earthquake preventive measures mean that the Japanese aren’t able to build climbing walls that are any higher than 39ft. For the Olympics, they’ll build a temporary structure and then bury it into the Earth.” With a barely concealed smirk, he cranes his neck to marvel at the towering height of his life-defining passion project. “They can build down of course, but they can’t build up”. 

Scherer’s words strike a discord with the vibe in Kletterzentrum where people of all abilities are aimlessly clambering, competing against nobody except themselves. It’s one of climbing’s main selling points. “New mountain climbers should look into hiring a guide, but anyone can turn up to a gym and climb now,” says Scherer. 

Essentials

A day ticket at Kletterzentrum Innsbruck ranges from €7 for children to €13.50 for adults. Robbie’s equipment was provided by Black Diamond (blackdiamondequipment.com). For more information on climbing in Innsbruck, visit innsbruck.info/en.