'I can not imagine a life without climbing. Driven by the desire to combine my study and my sport, I will do everything I can to succeed in both 'disciplines.' This is important to me to develop myself towards the person I want to be. I will always search for new goals and wont give up until I reached those goals.'
My name is Siebe Vanhee, for more then ten years I've been passionate rock climber and globetrotter. I've been climbing since I was ten years old, from then on this passion dominated my life. Climbing is more than only a sport to me, it's a school in life and a passion that made me into the individual I am right now.
My name is Siebe Vanhee, for more then ten years I've been passionate rock climber and globetrotter. I've been climbing since I was ten years old, from then on this passion dominated my life. Climbing is more than only a sport to me, it's a school in life and a passion that made me into the individual I am right now.
My very first climbing years I've spent a lot of time
climbing indoor and participating in multiple competitions. I excelled in
'sport climbing' and was completely sold for this sport. I took part in my
first competition in 2002, at the age of eleven. Pretty fast I became Belgian
youth champion four times in a row and won some other competitions as well.
As a teenager I participated for several years in the European Youth Cup with
the Belgian Youth Climbing Team. In my opinion, my best competition results
were a second place at the Belgian Bouldering Championship both
in 2009 and 2010.
Next to competition climbing I discovered 'rock
climbing', this became a real obsession to me. Between the ages of 14 and
18, I left Belgium every single school holiday to go rock climbing at beautiful
places in nature in foreign country’s. With loads of help from my former
trainer, Jorn Van Roy, I succeeded to raise my climbing level up to 8b+/8c at a
very young age. Gradually, the centre of my passion shifted from competition
climbing to the more adventurous rock climbing.
In those years I climbed a lot with high end climbers from
whom I learned a lot and proved a source of inspiration. I climbed at a high
rhythm and developed a good spirit that helped me to put down some performances
at this young age. My best performance in sport climbing I did at an age of
17 with the ascent of my first 8C 'Les Maux de la Fin' in the French
climbing area Gorges du Loup near Nice.
In June 2010 I finished high school and had to make the
decision every teenager at the age of 18 has to make. Climbing was a passion and
resulted really quickly in a new lifestyle. I spend loads of time and energy
searching for the right study but couldn't find one that inspired me as much as
climbing. Moreover, I developed a big passion for traveling and the beauty of
meeting new people and interesting cultures. The ideal combination with
climbing in nature.
The summer of 2010 I left Belgium at the age of 18 to take a
two month trip on my own through Canada and the United States. I climbed
with a lot of different people and personalities and discovered the life of a
traveler. Faster than I imagined, I ended up in the challenging and inspiring
world of traditional climbing. I
learned the skills of trad climbing where the mental factor is even more
important as in sport climbing. Placing you own safety equipment while climbing
your way up, proved to be a real challenge for the trad climbing rookie. I started
to climb bigger walls where reaching the top in an ethical manner is priority.
Back in Belgium I realized I wanted to see more of the
world, I had to make a new trip but now an even longer one. Thanks to the
consent of my parents I made the decision to focus one year on traveling and
climbing. First I worked a couple months to earn enough money to realize a
dream.
January 2011 I left again on my own towards the United States,
this time for a seven month period.
I bought a Chevy Van and traveled around the West Coast from
South to North to carry out my passion in the most beautiful climbing areas. I
practiced more or less every climbing discipline: from bouldering to sport
climbing and from traditional climbing single pitches to ascends of big walls in
Yosemite (US) and the Bugaboos (CAN). You can find a list of all the places I
visited and climbed in the map ‘Trips’.
Seven months long I climbed and pushed my limits on all kind
of surfaces. Mentally I became stronger and my all round condition progressed.
Most of the time I practiced my traditional climbing skills and the skills of
climbing cracks. This resulted in more adventure and mental challenges,
something I'm searching for over and over again. Also I changed as a person and
felt myself more in balance with who I am. Having goals and realizing
those goals in climbing and life in general thought me a bunch of lessons.
Once again back in Belgium I was a lot more richer in
experiences. According to the social consensus, students progress from secondary
school to university. But once again I felt I could learn much more of life as
a climber and traveler. All the good contacts I made during the year I
traveled, resulted in lots of opportunity's for new trips. This is when I got
the invitation of an American friend to join a Big Wall expedition in Venezuela
together with two British climbers.
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| Kids with Guns Foto: Jean-Louis Wertz |
At the end of January 2012 a young climbing team consisting
of Mason Kinloch Earl (US), Sam Farnsworth (UK), George Ullrich (UK) and I
traveled towards the deep jungle of Canaima National Park, Venezuela. Being
the first team we climbed a virgin wall of 450 meters high and an amazing 100
meters overhanging on the table mountain Amuri Tepuy. In 15 climbing days and
11 days living day and night on the wall we opened a stunning line of 21
pitches behind the waterfall Tuyuren who falls down from the top of the table
mountain. We baptized the route 'Kids with Guns'. We only placed six bolts and climbed almost the entire line
free. We climbed as clean as possible, leaving no human trace behind, showing
respect for the amazingly steep sea of Quartz-arenite (Precambrian
metamorphosed sandstone). We climbed the route partly free with a grade of 5.13a
(7c+), A3, E6 6c.
After this amazing performance and experience I left on my own
for the mountains of Argentina. Here I traveled two and a half months around
and climbed in a lot of different places. I also joined the Petzl Bolting Trip
in Piedras Paradas, Argentina, where I opened a couple of new routes. You can
also find the details of this trip in the map ‘Trips’.
During the summer 2012 I traveled around Europe to do
al kinds of climbing. I traveled several countries like France, Ireland,
Switzerland and Italy. In Italy I found a project that contains one difficult
roof crack and is named Greenspit. It's considered one of Europe's most
difficult crack climbing lines. Greenspit is a granite line (8b/+) that
has been only climbed a couple of times by strong climbers from all over the
world. I focused myself one week on this particular crack and on the 31th of
august I realised to climb Greenspit free while placing the protection.
Right now I’m combining my passion for climbing and higher
education. From September 2012 on, I’m studying at the Social School Heverlee
(SSH) to become a social worker. This study I’m attempting with an adjusted
school program. This will enable me to combine this study with trips and
expeditions.
I hope I will be able to find the right balance between my
passion for adventure and climbing and my life as a student, hoping to develop
my personality both on the level of sport and education.
By making big trips
and expeditions I try to show young climbers and youth in general the other
possibility's to develop yourself as an individual. These exceptionally
rich experiences will help you to feel more comfortable in our society right
now.
Develop your climbing, develop yourself.
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