Interview with Anze Peharc

His main goal is always to perform at his best! Anze Peharc is part of the Slovenian climbing representation, competing internationally in sport climbing and bouldering, currently preparing for the 2024 Olympic Games. 

A professional climber who has managed to balance not only his career with studies at university. What are his goals beyond climbing? And how does he perceive the climbing boom of recent years? 

Find out more in the interview below. 

If you want to be a professional athlete you have to understand that there are things you will have to say no to. You live a life pretty different from most people, a life that gives you way more if you let it.

You started climbing back in 2006 as a very young boy. Did you already have the ambitions at the age of nine of climbing as a professional one day? What were the beginnings of young Anze like?

At the start I certainly didn't think about climbing professionally, it was just fun. But the thing that I am known for is that I am very competitive. And that showed from the very start and later led to being a professional climber. Whatever I do I aspire to be the best at.

Climbing on the professional level is not only time-consuming. A few years ago, you graduated at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science at the University in Ljubljana. How did you manage to combine your career as an elite athlete with your studies? And overall, what, according to you, is the key to finding balance throughout your personal life, rest, and training?

Finding time is all about mindset. If you are determined enough you will always find time, otherwise there will be endless excuses. So I knew that climbing was not something you could easily live from and I wanted to have other options for after I finish my career. What made studying computer science really good is that most things can be done remotely, which helped me the most. I completed most of my assignments from wherever I was at the moment and spent as little time as possible at the faculty so that I was able to train as hard as I could.

Motivation is what I would say is the key in managing everything. If you are motivated for something you will find a way to do it. But at the end it is not just motivation, it's also a lot of sacrifices. If you want to be a professional athlete you have to understand that there are things you will have to say no to. You live a life pretty different from most people, a life that gives you way more if you let it.

In just a few months, the best climbers from all around the world will come together to test their skills at the Olympics 2024 in Paris. What are your thoughts on the recent change since the last Olympic Games, the separation of speed climbing from the combination of lead climbing and bouldering?

For me this was definitely a small win. I say small win because I would like to have all three disciplines separated but you can't have everything at once I guess. So yeah, I think with the new format I have a shot at making it and I'm currently doing everything I can to do that!

In May, the Olympic qualification series will take place in Shanghai, followed by Budapest in June. It is your final opportunity to qualify for the Summer Olympics. What is your main focus in your current preparation? Where do you feel there is room for improvement, and in which areas are you confident?

My main focus right now is to simply do as many simulations as possible to kinda get the feeling of how the qualifiers will feel like. Apart from that I just finished with my boulder preparation and will now focus on combined training.

I feel confident in bouldering and know that this is where I will be making a difference. Weakness is for sure my endurance and this will be the main thing to improve till the qualifiers.

You are a member of the Slovenian climbing team, what is the experience like? Are you more of an individualist focusing on your own performance, or do you prefer training in a larger group and coming up with beta together? How much do the team members collaborate on their preparation, if at all?

Being a member of the national team is a great feeling. By now it feels like a family, because we have been through so much together. I feel humbled that I was able to be a small part of the huge slovenian climbing story.

As the training concerns I have been training mostly alone in the past year with the exception of team trainings but this year I've decided to take a different approach and train together with other athletes as much as possible. I really like it and I wish I would have done it sooner.

Your homeland, Slovenia, can be considered a climbing paradise thanks to several significant areas. However, you have accomplished your hardest boulders in Switzerland (Disneyland production 8A+, Die Unendliche Geschichte 8B+) or Austria (Power of Goodbye 8B). How about some climbing "at home"? Do you have a favorite area or any specific routes?

For quite a while, my outdoor climbing has been put on pause because I was constantly training for the next big thing and there was coronavirus, of course… Now, I found passion in computer science, and apart from training every day, I use the rest of my days for learning new computer stuff. Hopefully, I can one day contribute to climbing in that way as well. 

However, I climbed a lot outdoors in the past, and there are three areas that I really like and hopefully return to in the future. They are Mišja Peč, Osp and Bohinjska Bela. Out of three, Bohinjska Bela is a bit more special, because it’s close to where I live, and I climbed there a lot with my parents when I was younger. If you ever go there, you must definitely try the famous route “Ekosistem”.

Where else are you drawn to? What do you have on your climbing wish list, what are your other goals?

For climbing goals there are so many yet on my list but right now the only one in my mind - Olympic games. Apart from making it to Paris I still want to tick my long lasting goal to win a world cup in bouldering. I also hope that in the following years we get a world cup in bouldering in Slovenia so I can climb in front of my home crowd.

Outdoors my goal is to do a 9a route and 8c boulder. My must do boulder is Bügeleisen in Maltatal and I also love the area of Magic Wood where similar projects are still waiting for me.

Climbing has become increasingly popular across society in recent years. How do you perceive this climbing boom? Do you have any tips or tricks that you would suggest to others, not just for their beginnings?

This climbing boom is just great for every professional climber and I hope it just keeps booming. I hope one day it reaches the point where I will be able to live comfortably from climbing.

If I would have to give just one tip for all the beginners out there it would be to learn to climb with your hips open. I see so many beginners rotating their knees inwards and closing their hips and once you get used to it it is really hard to change it. So open your hips and make sure your knees are facing outwards when moving on the wall.

What equipment would you personally recommend? As an Ocún ambassador, we usually see you in the Fury climbing shoes and Flit harness in the photos, are they still your favorites?

For the advanced climbers I would recommend either Fury or Bullit. Those are my favorite picks and I still use them everyday. My all-time favorite is the Fury shoe, yes. It fits my foot perfectly and I have gotten so used to it, that I don't plan on changing very soon. The Flit harness is super light, which makes it perfect for competitions. You can't go wrong with Webee as well though.

Anze, thank you so much for your time! We wish you the best of luck not only for the Olympics.