VIKTOR VAROSHKIN -BULGARIA-

Kind of. In winter, when I'm involved a lot in skiing, winter mountaineering, Ice and mixed climbing I do short and intense gym training so I can keep my overall endurance for the mountain. In summer, spring and autumn I have 4 gym sessions a week plus climbing sport and trad outside.

Do not over train, but be never lazy. Listen to your body more than other people and be clear minded. Listening to the body often requires a silent mind. A total lack of intentions, motivations, goals and so on.

I think in terms of physical performance they are great, but in terms of mental performance and intuition gym climbing leads to regress. To me mixing it up is kind of the best thing to do. Without gym you cannot give everything in terms of physical ability, because there is always a slight mental border which is hard to cross. And the other way around – with gym climbing you can never go on the edge on your mental state.

Never tried, because never needed it. One finger pull up either.

At the very top of personal performance show not only reduces concentration for success, but also clears out an egoic intention which comes to say that there is no deep devotion to the act itself, but mostly to how others look on it.

Speaking as an IFMGA mountain guide, I would say that everybody can perform dozens of times above his own expectations if he decides to.

It's important to set goals, but much more important for you to be in control of your goals rather than your goals having control over you and turning you into a puppet of your ambitions. They must not control your expectations, frustrations, overall mental state, connection to loved people around you. And this is hard to achieve. In some sense it's much harder to conquer oneself than a peak outside oneself.

I try not to lose focus on the diversity of life and climbing because of an immensely hard project. I try it several times and return to it after doing more of the same (no matter if alpine, boulder, sport climbing or a ski descent). Devoting to a really hard project lets you adapt to it, but adaptation to something in particular always drop your level in everything else. For a multi-disciplined guy like me a maniacal devotion to a particular case is not the best way to act.

Not really. I admire the fast and free ascent tendency in alpinism, also the constant development in boulder and sport climbing.

My main role in it I see as forming a more balanced approach to all alpine disciplines. This doesn't mean reducing the adventure but rather understanding fully its impact on your free will. With all the people I work – hundreds a year, I try to give them an understanding of their particular relation to the mountain and also an understanding for the mountain itself.