Petr Blaha's quantum leap on Abysse at Gorges du Loup

Petr, first of all, can you introduce yourself?
I’m a theoretical physicist by education, a quant (a mixture between mathematics, IT and finance) by trade, 39 years old, and I originally come from cold Silesia far in the north. I moved to the French Riviera in 2003 to work in Sophia Antipolis, a technology park northwest of Antibes. I work there full time, but I can still find enough time to climb. We are quite lucky, the area around Nice and Antibes is one of the best places in the world if you work and climb, all year round you can climb outdoors, both at the weekends and also in the evenings after work, and within just 45 minutes there’s a huge variety of routes up to 9a.

Tell us more about Abyss. What motivated you to try this route?
Abyss is probably the first hard route I laid my eyes on, back in 2007. My personal best at that time was 7c and now there was Cedric Lopicollo trying that impossibly looking roof in the Gorges du Loup. A crazy boulder at the start, then steep physical climbing, a dyno in the middle, a strange rest and a single tufa to the chain. Ever since then there was some kind of strange background process going on in my brain, whispering that one day I could do it, too.

It’s impressive to continue to improve at the age of 39, how did you progress?
Well, your question can be rephrased as "Why were you climbing so badly before that you can still progress aged 39?" Strong guys are all doing at least 9a+ these days, I am not anywhere near that level, and this makes improvement much easier to achieve. If you are looking for a magic recipe though, I’m afraid I cannot give you one. There are no shortcuts for progression. Train hard, rest regularly, stay motivated, avoid injuries. Do that and you will progress. In this particular case, I went through six months of my hardest training ever. I have always been a training freak, but I increased the volume of workouts by 50% maybe and just prayed that my body would take the punishment. It was close shave, but I managed to avoid getting injured. That’s key.

So what about that training routing then?
Training? Up to 30 hours a week. I sit behind my keyboard full time, without making the slightest physical movements and that defines my work routine. I then spend Saturday and Sunday at the cliffs all year round, so I need Friday as a rest day. That makes Tuesday and Thursday finger training days. Campusing or finger boarding in the morning, two or three hours at the climbing gym in the evening. I try to dedicate Sunday night to campus board as well. Mondays and Wednesdays are then free for weightlifting or something similar (bench press, weighted single arm pull ups, front levers etc.). Just before Abyss I was so desperate about my weight that I started to run regularly. I do three weeks of training, then one week rest. Simple.

Climbing is a never ending story, what is your next goal?
To become the best Czech climber. But this might prove slightly difficult…