The Fanatic Search 2 - A Girl Thing

---

A GIRL THING:

In the beginning, as we well know, man placed his seed in the womb of the woman.

Millions of spermatozoa, a torrent, a raging river... all would die, except one!

THE BIRTH:

My name is Brooke, I'm 9 years old and I love climbing...

My mother was champion of the world four times, so I guess I just started a bit like that...

Are we ready?

Yeah, it's been a long time I started, I was about one

From I started to walk

I started just by the inspiration of my mom climbing

She never falls when I belay her...

I like it all

I like to onsight routes, here ... it's been a lot of time

So, there is not much more for me to on sight, but the 6s

Do you want me to undo these things?

So how was it? Not too hard?

My daughter, she's a fanatic, she's really addicted, she needs a lot of it, and she never stops.

She is for me an amazing kid of cause. Cause she's mine. But she's different also and very smart.

She loves school, and one of the reasons she is really good at school, because she's a hard worker the teachers can tell you.

Every one admitted say that her strongest quality is that

she never gives up, and she always wants more, and it's the same in sports

She is a climber and a gymnast

And it's often really hard to get her to leave the gym, to come down from the routes.

She wants more and sometimes it ends in tears because I say "no, stop!"

We are going home now, and you need to pack your bag, the day is over, you still have homework,

we have to have a dinner, to take a bath ... she's a good getter. Yeah

A lot of people ask me why do my kids love to climb

and why do they seem to be as passioned by exactly what I am passioned by.

I don't really have the answer because I have two kids and they are both really passioned by climbing. I think it's magic.

It's a magic for us as a family, and I feel really lucky but I don't think that I did anything specific to make them love climbing.

I think it's who they are and climbing was their thing

They came in contact with climbing in a very young age, it worked for them,

it made them feel strong, it gave them the confidence,

All the things it's given to me, it gave to them

and I think magically it work for all of us.

I train a lot, especially in the winter. Mostly inside; not too much outdoors, we train 3 or 4 times a week.

There is no secret. A lot of people say "what you do?" And I say "don't push your children to climb". If they wanna climb, they'll climb.

Make it fun, keep it fun, it has to be a game.

Hello, could I have enough Toulousan sausages for five?

It's for a film on rock climbing. Even at Shopi they film you; they really think completely of you!

Yes, but why at Shopi?

Why not? Because Shopi is the best!

Look up there!

It's up there where we're going to climb?

Yup, on "BigBang"

is it hard?

Yup, it's a 7c+

And you've already worked on it?

Yes, twice

Oh no, she's cut both her hands...

ow, it really hurts!

Let's rinse them... okay?

I've got a good pinch!

You've got a good pinch? Great... I've got a good undercling

Mom, can I put in the draws?

It's your job to put in the quickdraws?

No, normally it's my mother's but this time I'm going to do it

First I take this, then the pinch, there's a little sloper thing, um, maybe a bit better than a sloper... after I... uh...

Hold on, you've lost me there!

Go on Shawn, you'll figure it out alone

I don't understand anything that you've said, okay?

Ok...

I take the undercling, there is an undercling... uh... nobody does it like me...

There are these small holds, with a few long reaches

Yeah, I can get scare sometimes, but after I fall, I am not that scared.

Oh! I blew it!

Yeah, you slipped a little... Good, you can optimize this section. You don't really know this climb very well

I can't always know what I have to do

Like this with the left hand, it's good!

I'm often surprise by the motivation the kids have. They can be as motivated as an adult.

But I think they have all the same tools that we have as adults

but they are kids and it's a game for them. They love it, they just want more.

They can go again and they are not tired. We are tired, they are not tired. There's the evolution.

But Mom, I feel like you're giving me too much slack!

Ow, I took it in the eye! The quickdraw!

This quickdraw's bothering me!

It's going to be tough linking it up...

Take!

Well, what do you think, will it happen?

Yup, it's gonna be tough!

It's always like this, you know. I wait hours to climb when I'm with the kids, then I'm super pressed to get a route in!

Two sessions later, Brooke succeed leading "BigBang", her second 7c+. Two weeks after that, she did her first route graded 8a in Rodellar, she's the youngest girl to reach this level!

Oh no! I blew it!

THE ART AND THE WAY

I began when I was very young, mostly in alpinism, thanks to my dad;

and soon after, I was taken quickly by cragging and the game of progressing...

The routes and the sends that bring to me the most are the esthetic lines.

That is where I get the most pleasure in climbing, notably in the Gorges du Verdon, in the Tarn...

When I was about ten, I started competing and immediately took to it, because it added an element of spice to the activity.

Looking back now, I realize that very quickly, I had achieved a pretty good level for my age.

But at that time I didn't realize, I just climbed and did well; I was super motivated by the game and to get better at it.

The first year that I could do international competitions, in 2004, I was world champion.

That had impressed me because I wasn't in the best of my form,

and winning my first world championships had been something very important for me.

And the first year I was senor over classed, I won the European Championship

Second to the last finalist, the most decorated female competitor of all time, 5 times world champion,

she had been European Champion in the Senior coming from first year Cadette category,

she took it all, and great at the cliff as well,

let's hear it for Charlotte Durif of France!

And now in my first year as a real senior, I won my first World Cup in Chamonix this summer.

The winner tonight, Charlotte Durif!

Well, the Pic St. Loup is a huge hole!

An enormous overhanging cave hidden on a cliff that you can't see,

You get there by abseil and you discover an immense cave,

in the middle of nowhere.

I like to climb on sight because I succeed at it,

in fact I think that it's my climbing style that allows me to well adapted to on sight climbing.

And since I don't like to return to my climbs once I've had a shot on them, I prefer the on sight.

To do this 8c on sight, it was really just luck!

It was never even one of my goals to climb 8c on sight; it was more like "that will never happen!"

...And then finally you progress and in the order of things you tell yourself "and if one day you reach that level?"

The route itself, "Les Rois du Petrole", it goes where the cliff is the most overhanging,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes