Climbing professional Petra Klingler shows her new world: the Olympic dream lives in this hidden Appenzellhal

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This story about climber Petra Klingler (31) is actually also the story that even today not everything is always online. But that a simple poster on the wall of a house is enough for a person to find happiness. The poster with the words “Rooms for Rent” is hanging on a nondescript barn wall in the middle of Appenzell when Klingler’s friend comes by one day and calls the phone number provided.

It’s a bull’s-eye. Klingler had long been looking for a large space to set up a new training location. “We have already visited several other places,” says the 2016 bouldering world champion, “but the ceiling height was too low or the rent was too high.”

The front door is hard to find

Everything fits in this time. Also because the owner, the company tanks.ch, is enthusiastic about the idea of ​​integrating a climbing facility into his stable. Months of work and set up. Crowdfunding covers the costs. Now Klingler opens the inconspicuous door on the side of the barn to her new realm, where a narrow, self-made staircase leads to the subway.

Klingler’s newfound happiness is underground. When Blick comes to visit, it is oppressively hot outside, but really cool inside. “One of the benefits here is that you don’t notice the heat even in the summer,” she says.

The other advantages: Your own practice wall, which costs several thousand francs and is adjustable in angle, actually took place in the high room with a small adjustment. There is also a second wall, a state-of-the-art “moon board” costing about 5,000 francs, on which different routes of varying difficulty can be displayed via an app with LED displays. The mats come from a climbing gym in St. Gallen, where they were thrown away.

For her next big goals, the World Cup at home in Bern in August and also for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Klingler now has her own training area. Most public climbing gyms don’t offer a wall full of grips, which is important for professionals, as they are aimed at the general public.

Also due to a lack of suitable training opportunities, the Zurich resident had a long time difficult to move to her boyfriend in Appenzell. But now Klingler cycles from home to her hall in two minutes.

Now there is even a club because of Klingler’s hall

“Sometimes I’ll be here as early as 7 a.m., relaxing my program quietly on my own,” she says. Because it is no longer self-evident that she trains alone. In Appenzell there is a lively climbing landscape due to its location in Alpstein. Klinger: “The need for a room was greater than expected.” It is so big that a real community has grown up around the room and even an association has been formed. There are now 20 keys to the hidden front door in circulation in the club.

But above all, Klingler is there himself. She wants to come back strong at the home World Cup in Bern after a long injury spell and says of Paris 2024, her last big goal before she retired: “I still have a score to settle with the Olympics.”

Source : Blick