Frank Abissi Jr.

Frank Abissi holds a Th.D in Biblical Studies and a Ph.D in Biblical Philology, both From Northwestern Christian University. He has been climbing for the past 52 years having started as a 10 year old in the Boy Scouts. He currently owns two rock climbing gyms in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has worked in many facets of the outdoor industry over the year. From Mountaineering Guide to Expert Witness for lawsuits. He still actively climbs everything from short sport routes to major routes in the Alps and Andes. His interests span from equipment development to climbing techniques.

Edgardo Abreu

Edgardo is a full-time climbing coaching with degree in Physical Education (2005) and master degree in Sports Science by Federal University of Minas Gerais/Brazil (2014). Hi is interested in sport biomechanics and training load on campus board. Climbing since 1995, won regional championships and establishes new big walls routes including Pedra Riscada-MG, one of the largest monoliths of the Americas. 

edgardodecampos@gmail.com

Laura Adomaityte

Laura is a sport-orientated physiotherapist based in Alicante, Spain. At the moment she specifies in rock climbing injuries and at the same time works as rock climbing coach for children in indoor climbing gym. In the scientific field she did a research about scapula stabilising muscles and grip strength correlation. Laura is very interested in collaboration and new projects in the field.

laura.adomaityt@gmail.com

Kara Ashcraft

​With a background long standing background in physiology, I am currently pursing my PhD in human biomechanics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. With an innate curiosity and fascination with the human body and how it functions and moves, I am working to integrate the sport of climbing into my current research surrounding adaptive locomotion and prosthetics. Surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains, rock climbing has become both my mediation, and my obsession.

Claudia Augste

Claudia has studied sports science with focus on computer science at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. At the University of Augsburg, Germany, she did her doctoral degree to the topic „Skill acquisition training under fatiguing exercise“ and she habilitated in human movement science and training science. At the moment, she is working as a researcher and lecturer in the field of training science at the University of Augsburg. Her favorite sports are women’s soccer and climbing, which also lie in the focus of her research.

Arif Mithat Amca

Arif Mithat is a researcher in Biomechanics Research Group at Hacettepe University Faculty of Sport Sciences in Turkey. After his graduation from the Department of Mathematics at Middle East Technical University, he gained his MSc and PhD in the field of sports biomechanics from the Faculty of Sport Sciences at Hacettepe University. His main research areas are biomechanics of sport movements including motion analysis, modelling and simulations. Since he has been climbing for almost 17 years now, he has a special interest on biomechanics of rock climbing and currently focuses on the relationship between holds, grips and finger force capacity.

Michael L. Anderson

Dr Michael Anderson is an Associate Professor of Engineering Mechanics, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. His research interests include the development and evaluation of training protocols for elite climbers, engineering design of training hardware, such as hangboards, and innovative design methodologies applied to rock climbing technology and robotics. Dr Anderson is an expert climber (redpoints to 8c+ and on-sights to 8b) and member of the Trango Climbing Team.  He is the co-inventor of the Rock Prodigy Training Center and Forge hangboards and author of The Rock Climber’s Training Manual. Dr Anderson is a registered Professional Engineer, Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and member of the International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA).

Kim Appleby

Kim is super passionate about climbing. It’s her entire life and it’s the air that she breaths. Kim will do anything to support the sport, and aspires to become more involved in the community that consists of chalky and incredibly personable people. Mostly a boulderer but the sport climbing around where she lives in the bow valley is too incredible to ignore. Really Kim just loves anything and everything to do with climbing, she is happiest with both feet off the ground and on the wall. And that’s a feeling she longs to share with people as well as sharing the thrill and love for the outside walls that she so adores.

Dicle Aras

Dicle has been climbing for about 13 years.He is a PhD researcher at Ankara University Faculty of Sport Sciences, and the supervisor of Sport Rock Climbing Community of the university. He wants to learn as much as possible about rock climbing.

Nick Bacon

Nick earned his PhD in Human Performance/Exercise Science at The University of Alabama in 2010, and is an Associate Professor in the Sport Science at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.  His primary research interests include using various recovery methods to enhance climbing and artistic gymnastics performance, and increasing strength & mobility of the spine and joints to improve bouldering performance. Currently Nick practices basic gymnastics and enjoys bouldering.  He is also certified by ACSM (EP-C) and the NSCA (CSCS), and is also a movement and mobility class instructor at Climb Nashville.

Roberto is a climbing trainer for beginners, amateur, competition (national youth team) and professional climbers (world cup). He wrote his thesis on the “study of the technique on sport climbing” and “training for climbing” and has also written two books on training for climbing (in Italian only). He is interested in different aspects of the human body related to sports and climbing in particular, focusing on Posturology (he has a Master on Posturology), Osteopathy and other complementary disciplines. His next goal is a study on climbing technique with a 3D climbing movement video analysis. 

Paul Baker

Paul Baker is a nutrition Ph.D. student at Florida State University, where he is investigating physiological adaptations to normobaric hypoxia. His interest in rock climbing began during his time at the University of Kentucky, climbing at the recreation center and eventually outdoors at the red river gorge. He aims to use his expertise in nutrition and exercise physiology to aid climbers, expand the current literature, and progress the sport to new heights. Paul is highly interested in collaborating with fellow members and projects in the field.

Demir Barić

I am Ph.D. student in Coastal Management at University of Cadiz, funded by Erasmus Mundus Program. As a passionate climber and environmental activist I devoted my professional interest towards the research subjects related to methods for evaluation of management effectiveness of protected areas with particular emphasis on integration of social science and conservation of natural resources. My Ph.D. project is set out in Paklenica National Park in Croatia, which is recognized as one of the famous European rock climbing destinations. In general, my Ph.D. research lines examine: (i) visitor´s and local stakeholder’s attitudes toward the benefits provided by protected areas (ii) visitors characteristic and behaviour patterns in respect to their recreational activities. I truly believe that my multidisciplinary professional profile and climbing experience could expand the research spectra of IRCRA and thus effectively contribute to its future development.

Miguel Barrios

Miguel Barrios started to climb 10 years ago, combining intensive climbing periods and some
serious injuries. He graduated in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences degree in 2014 researching about rock
climbing as mechanism to reduce stress and anxiety levels in undergraduate women. Nowadays, training people to improve their health and climbers which want to achieve a better performance is his job. Moreover, He is studying a master in which He is doing a research about “Therapeutic Climbing” and its benefits to depressive disorder. He hopes to start a PhD this year and continue researching about climbing, which is his hobby
and passion.

Thomas Bayer

Thomas has been climbing for more than 20 years in various climbing disciplines from bouldering to big wall. He is a local to the Frankenjura climbing scene (“home of the pulley rupture” ). Thomas has been involved in research on climbing injuries since 2007, collaborating with Andi Schweizer and Volker Schöffl. His special interests are MRI of climber´s fingers and the biomechanics of the A3 PIP joint pulley. He is a specialized Radiologist at the Radiology Department of University of Erlangen.

Jiří Baláš

Jiří gained his PhD at Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic where he is currently a lecturer and researcher. His specific research interests include structure and testing of climbing performance as well as short and long effects of climbing training in different populations.

Kate Baecher

Kate is a clinical and performance psychologist, based in Sydney Australia. She has attained a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, a Masters of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Psychology (Hons). She is a former Australian Army Officer, a humanitarian, and a passionate mountain and outdoors enthusiast. She focuses her work on the navigation of high stress and high consequence environments.

Stuart is a recreational boulderer and climber who has a strong interest in urban liveability. He has a masters in Landscape Architecture from RMIT university where he looked at bouldering and its possibilities to create activity and connectivity in urban environments. Stuart runs a landscape architecture practise called Bouldergeist in Melbourne which focuses on design, research and advocacy of public space urban bouldering facilities and climbable sculpture.

Beverly Bischof

Beverly is currently a graduate student at the University of Utah pursing a M.S. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Wellness Coaching. Beverly is an ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist and NETA Certified Personal Trainer with experience training, instructing yoga, and leading group exercise classes with individuals all over the country. While obtaining her B.S. in Exercise Science/Physiology at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Beverly worked and lived summers in Asheville, NC, gaining experiences climbing and working with all ages and abilities. Her current research involves assessing the interaction between self-efficacy/mastery experience, decision making, and high altitude within climbers, mountaineers, and alpinists.  Upon graduating, Beverly hopes to train mountain athletes who share her passion for the outdoors and contribute to further research with this population.

Beverly.bischof@utah.edu

Jessica Blanton

Jess began climbing as a new year’s resolution and it completely overhauled her life. Since 2014 she’s changed careers, obtained a Master’s in Exercise Physiology, has become a USAC certified routesetter and has been coaching advanced youth climbers. Jess is currently working for Momentum Indoor Climbing as an instructor, personal trainer and youth coach. Her passion is to educate climbers of all ages and abilities on proper movement, technique, nutrition and training. She hopes to one day attend the Olympics as a coach and mentor for rock climbers.

Danny John Brown

Danny has been climbing and working as a mountaineering instructor and coach for over 25 years working with climbers at all levels. As a Physiotherapist he has worked in clinical; ICU, trauma and orthopaedic, burns and plastics as well as two hand rehabilitation clinics. He specialises in elite youth coaching and treatment as well as screening and has developed injury prevention protocols for coaches and physiotherapists in climbing and skiing. He delivers lectures and training across the UK and abroad as well as engaging in research to inform his own practice. He climbs, cycles and runs.

Ina Beeretz

Ina is a Pediatrician and Sports Physician near Vienna, Austria. She has been the competition doctor for Boulder World Cups in Austria, Switzerland and the UK. She is currently involved in a research project about sports climbing and body posture weakness in children/adolescents. Her main research interests are climbing/mountaineering and health promotion in children as well as in climbing and mountaineering research with adults.

Rômulo Bertuzzi

Rômulo is a professor in the School of Physical Education and Sport at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. His research interests include exercise physiology and energy system contribution in endurance sports as well as rock climbing. He has coached a number of Brazilian high performance rock climbers and his athletes have won the Brazilian Rock Climbing Championship five times and been runners-up at the South-American Climbing Championship three times.

Valerio De Biagi

Valerio is a researcher at Politecnico di Torino. He has been practicing climbing and mountaineering for about 15 years. In 2013, he gained his PhD in Structural Mechanics at Politecnico di Torino. His main research topics focus on mountain risks (snow avalanches, rockfalls) and structural robustness. In parallel, he has been conducting studies on technical mountaineering equipment, such as the functioning of camming devices.

Çağlar Bıldırcın

Research assistant at Çukurova University department of Physical Education and Sports. National Climber, route setter and supervisor of Çukurova University Mountaineering Club. Special interest is climbing performance and climbing physiology.

Lisa Marie Boden

Lisa is a physiotherapist living, working and studying in Cardiff in Wales ; when not traveling around the world looking for rock and snow adventures. Currently studying a masters in Sports and exercise physiotherapy at Cardiff university, with a special interest in climbing. Her current research is looking into climbers shoulder biomechanics and injuries. She also has an interest in strength and conditioning in sports, for both injury prevention, rehabilitation and performance enhancements. 

Kelios Bonetti

Kelios Bonetti is a Medical Doctor, orthopaedic surgeon, PHD  in orthopaedic and traumatology, over 10 years takes an active interest in climbing pathology. He works with several climbing hardwere factory applying their knowledge to make it more functional and safe, preventing problems related to the climbing pathology. He is a recreational climber and boulderer. 

Patrick Boudreau-Alguire

Patrick is a graduate student of Physical Education at the University of Victoria in Canada. He is a graduate of McGill's Physical and Health Education program. His current research explores the effect of various teaching strategies on rock-climbing self-efficacy. In his leisure time, Patrick is either climbing up a mountain, jumping in the air, or paddling through waves.

patrickboudreau@live.ca

Felix Bourassa-Moreau

Félix develops software solutions for rock climbing research. He is studying mechanical engineering specialising in the biomedical field at the "Polytechnique de Montréal" university. He developed software to analyse three-dimensional deformation of the spine and to plan radio-surgical treatment of brain cancer. He is passionate about climbing since 2004. He is working on a climbing specific finger strength performance assessment tool.

Angie Bowers

Angelica is a graduate from Claremont Graduate University with a master’s in Positive Organizational Psychology & Evaluation, where she learned under the guidance of Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the co-founder of the field of Positive Psychology and a former mountaineer.  Her primary research interests are in the development of resilience and grit on individual and group levels, as well as the transference of psychological capital developed through climbing by individuals to positive organizational outcomes.  She discovered climbing during her undergraduate studies and has been passionate about sharing her love for the sport with others ever since.

Gary Buckland

Gary Buckland is a UK-based Performance Coach and Nutritionist working under the name of GB Performance & Nutrition.

He has been climbing recreationally since 2007 and coaching since 2009. Graduating from the University of Bath in 2015 with a BSc in Sports Performance, Gary also completed an MSc in Applied Sports Nutrition at St Mary’s University, Twickenham in 2018. His original research projects have looked at the relationships between varying grip types and abilities in boulderers, muscle oxygenation and dietary nitrate supplementation, and trialling new technologies to assess the physical capabilities of climbers.

Working predominantly with rock climbers, Gary uses an evidence-based approach to provide nutritional support, complete physical assessments, and implement training plans. He continually strives to improve his practice and aims to add to the depth of knowledge in climbing research.  His website can be found at: gbpnutrition.com

Matthew Bulman

Dr. Matthew Bulman is a chiropractor with an interest in treating rock climbers.  He is founder of The Climber's Clinic at Sports N Spine, Australia's leading rock climbing injury management center.  Dr. Bulman is on the Sports Medicine Australia Council of NSW, and has been the official medical supervisor for Sports Climbing Australia, offering free support for the rock climbing community at SCA events.  He often runs injury prevention and management workshops for climbers at local gyms with the aim to promote safety.  He is currently interested in researching the epidemiology of bouldering injuries at indoor climbing gyms in NSW.

Bob Callahan

Mathematician and climber. I view climbing as a dual-nature activity: A pure enjoyment of movement similar to dancing, and as problem solving--akin to mathematics. Currently studying how to streamline training for climbing for efficacy and efficiency. As a martial artist, I'm also interested in how the kind of mentation seen in Eastern philosophies could be used to induce and enhance the "flow state" in climbers as described by Csikszentmihalyi, et al.

David P. Carter

David is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Utah’s Department of Political Science. His research examines collective action and self-governance within rock climbing communities, with current projects focusing on how the changing composition of many communities is transforming climbing ethics and norms. David has been climbing since 2002, with an emphasis on traditional, ice, and alpine climbing. He serves on the Policy and Conservation Committee of the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance.  

Jorge Couceiro Canalejo

Jorge Couceiro Canalejo teaches mountaineering, tourism, leisure and sport at the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid (Spain). He began rock climbing in 1982 and is still an active climber and climbing coach. Jorge has participated and organized climbing competitions and climbing expeditions.

​

Jorge completed his PhD Thesis in 2010. His thesis analyzed the psycho-physiological responses of climbers to bouldering and lead sport climbing. During the year 2010, he moved to New Zealand to collaborate with Dr. Nick Draper and his research team in Canterbury University, Christchurch.

Tallie Casucci

Tallie Casucci is an Assistant Librarian at the University of Utah, Utah, United States of America. Tallie obtained her BA in Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. In 2012, she completed a Master of Information and Library Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, with a specialization in health resources and services. During her master degree studies she examined the information-seeking behaviors of rock climbers for injury prevention and care.

Rebecca Catlin

Rebecca is a physical therapist specializing in orthopedics, sports, and manual physical therapy. Becca is a full time clinician in Seattle, WA USA and enjoys treating her fellow climbers from the bouldering gym and local alpine climbers. She has a extensive background in biomechanics and exercise rehabilitation. She teaches postdoctoral level continuing education courses for physical therapists both nationally and internationally. Becca has been climbing for over 15 years and is a member of the Seattle Mountaineers, Climbers for Christ organizations. She is also volunteer instructor for the Mountaineers in both their basic and intermediate climbing courses. Becca enjoys multi-pitch rock, glacier ice, and the plentiful alpine climbing of the Cascade Range.

Liu Changzhong

Liu Changzhong is a precursor of China rock climbing, with over 20 years' climbing experience. He served as the earliest captain of Chinese national rock-climbing team. Liu is founder of the Chinese well-known climbing training institute LCZ Climbing School.   His book “岩之有道” is the best-selling rock climbing book in China. He's dedicating in promoting and spreading rock climbing sports in China, and doing research of rock climbing training system.

Alisha Chakrabarti

I obtained my PhD degree in Biology from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in February,2015. Sport has been a vital part of my curriculum since childhood. I was a competitive tennis player but an ankle injury put me out. Once out of professional sport I focused on fitness and recreational sport mainly in the form of running and yoga. I was introduced to rock climbing in Singapore during the course of my PhD studies and developed a deep passion for it.  At present I climb at least 3 times a week at an indoor gym that trains national athletes. I hope to build a career that can harness both my passion for sport and research and a career in rock climbing research is one that combines both. At present I am working on oxidative stress and diet induced lipid homeostasis disruption.

Stian Christophersen

Stian has climbed from a young age, but he got more seriously into sport- and competition climbing by the age of 13. He competed internationally for some years, reaching WC semi-finals at best, but he had retired from the competitions by the age of 19 to focus more on outdoor climbing. Stian spent nearly one and a half year climbing in Spain and France before moving home and starting his education as a physiotherapist. Through both studies and work he continued to train and climb, and over the past years he has won the Norwegian Bouldering Championship and done 8c routes and 8B boulders. In 2011 Stian took the job as coach for the Norwegian National Team, combining this with his clinical practice and an elite coaching education through the Norwegian School of Sport Science and the Norwegian Olympic Center. From 2016 he will be in charge of the federation’s education system for coaches, combining this working in a large clinical practice where he specializes in climbing related injuries. In the future Stian's goal is to do a MSc on climbing related injuries and strength training, hopefully adding something to the growing body of climbing related research. 

Oliver Codd

Oliver is a Physiotherapist from the University of Queensland, Australia with a special interest in adventure sports, particularly rock climbing. Oliver is based in Brisbane, Queensland where is committed to applying evidence based practice regarding the assessment, management and rehabilitation of all musculoskeletal rock climbing injuries.

Antonio Coelho

Antonio Coelho, is a researcher at Engagelab, University of Minho, Portugal. He has a degree in Multimedia Design and a master's degree in Technology and Digital Art. He works with tangible interfaces and biosignals, as a means of "biofeedback " and develops technological interfaces to improve performance and autonomy for climbers with disabilities. As a climber and mountaineer, he climbed some of the highest mountains in Europe, as MontBlanc, Matterhorn and Elbrus and in the Himalayas, was João Garcia’s partner ( 10º Summiter of 14x8000m without O2 ),  Pumori, Amadablam and survived a Kangchenjunga C1 appendicitis in 2006. Also collaborates, as an instructor at the Portuguese Federation of Camping and Mountaineering in the training of professional technical mountain sports.

Alessandro Colombo

Alessandro is a professor of Control Theory and Nonlinear Dynamics at Politecnico di Milano, and a mountaineering instructor of CAI (the Italian Alpine Club). His research interests include applications of engineering to better measure and understand climbing performance, and to improve safety in climbing and mountaineering.

Carrie Cooper

Dr. Carrie Cooper is a climbing ambassador for PETZL, LaSportiva and prAna. She has been climbing for over 20 years and was a professional climber for 10 years before going back to school and receiving her Doctor of Physical Therapy in 2014. Since then she has been working with elite level climbers and outdoor athletes. With over 20 years of experience teaching movement, Pilates, and dance she has a unique eye for body mechanics. She is a guest lecturer at her Alma Mater, The University of Utah. She is looking forward to her first research publication and has a special interest in Climbing Medicine Research. She has two children and lives with her family in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dave Custer

Dave is a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he sometimes supervises student research on climbing equipment, including the cyclic loading failure of carabiners and ice screw failure. He has been the American Alpine Club’s delegate to the UIAA (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) safety Commission since 2003 and is finishing a term as president of the UIAA Safety Commission (2012-2016). Other standards work includes stints with the CWA (Climbing Wall Association) and the ASTM (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials, now ASTM International).  Non-standards service includes participation on the negotiated rules committee convened by the US Department of Agriculture regarding anchors in wilderness.

Tyler Cope

Tyler is a sports medicine physical therapist and athletic trainer practicing at Duke University Sports Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. Tyler treats a variety of orthopedic and sports injuries but has a special interest in treating rock climbing-related injuries. Currently, he is conducting research projects at Duke regarding climbing-related injuries. Tyler hopes to create a strong base for climbing related research and treatment in the southeast region of the US at Duke. Outside of the clinic and research, Tyler writes and maintains a blog and social media presence to help clinicians stay current with best practice and research with his site, Ortho Hub.

Patryk Czermak

I'm a lecturer and Ph.D. student in University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw (Poland). I'm also a sport climbing trainer and a member of Polish Mountain Rescue Group (GOPR). I'm also a member of Polish Mountain Medicine and Rescue Society. In winter: ski and snowboard trainer.My research interests are focused on sport psychology, that is: anxiety in rock climbing, anxiety and emotions in extreme sports, psychology of outdoor activities.

Rudson Santos da Silva

Graduated in Physical Education from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ - 2016). Master in clinical research from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation at the National Institute of Infectology - INI / Fiocruz with the line of research in cardiac rehabilitation in chronic Chagas' heart disease. Currently, he participates as a researcher in the Laboratory of Clinical Research in Chagas Diseases, also acting in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (INI-FIOCRUZ). He has experience in Physical Education with an emphasis on Exercise Physiology and lines of research in Chagas' heart disease, heart failure and cardiac rehabilitation. Climber with 3 years of experience, interested in training for rock climbers.

rss1917@gmail.com

Verya Daeichin

Verya Daeichin is a researcher, climbing coach, and a setter with about 10 years of experience. He has obtained his PhD degree in biomedical Engineering from Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2015 and he is currently a researcher at the department of imaging physics at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. In his current research, he applies state of the art ultrasound imaging for understanding the electromechanical pathways involved in muscles contraction and force production. 

Tabitha graduated from the University of Chichester in the UK with a first class honours degree in Adventure Education. Her research area is in the psychophysiology of rock climbing with specific interests in sports specific performance assessment in rock climbing, and oxygen uptake kinetics and energy system contribution in climbers differing in ability level.

Zack DiCristino

Zack DiCristino, MSPT, OCS, SCS is a physical therapist practicing for 14 years and has been rock climbing for 17 years. He is team therapist for the USA Climbing Teams and works with climbers at the competitive and professional levels. He has degrees in Exercise Science and Physical Therapy, and is a board-certified orthopedic and sports specialist. He has worked with Stanford-University student athletes from 36 teams that included gymnastics, soccer, and others. He served as lead therapist for the Track and Field / Cross Country and football teams.

Zack resides in Vail, Colorado. His special interests are in return to sport/activity-integration progressions for running and rock-climbing athletes. His passions include sport climbing and traveling.

Lars is a training science post-doctoral research assistant at the institute of exercise and health science at the university of Basel. His research interests focus on health promotion in children, adults and seniors as well as strength, balance and endurance measures. Additionally, his climbing research interest is on asymmetry of load application and physical performance diagnosis in sport climbing.

Scott Drum

Scott earned a PhD in Exercise Physiology at the University of Northern Colorado and is currently an Associate Professor in Exercise Science at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI USA. His research interests are varied and include ultra endurance running, active worksite stations, exercise in normobaric hypoxia and weight loss, and physiology of rock climbing. In particular, Scott is interested in climbing entropy of lead versus top rope ascents along with assessment of performance variables, such as heart rate, rating of perceived exertion, lactate levels, and oxygen cost of various climbing routes.

Guillaume Dumont

Guillaume is a Ph.D. student in Social Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and in Sport and Techniques of Physical Activities, at the University of Lyon 1, France, conducting ethnographic research on the professionalization of elite climbers based at the physical sites of climbing professionalization (e.g. climbing gyms, climbing areas, professional events) but also in their virtualities (e.g. visual productions, climbers and climbing websites, social media and networks).

Veera Ehrlén

Veera is a sport sociologist and a Ph.D. student in Media and Global  
Communication at the University of Helsinki. Her research interests  
include sports online communities and networking in sports culture.  
Her studies focus on the communicational possibilities social media  
sites offer rock climbers, as well as how rock climbers create  
networks and communality in social media.

Hassan Elsangedy

Hassan is a professor in the Department of Physical Education at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil. His research interests include psychophysiological responses, brain and emotional regulation in different sports as well as rock climbing. He is interested on indoor and outdoor rock climbing on health promotion in various populations including athletes and those with chronic disease or disability.

Yasser El-Sheikh

Yasser is a plastic surgeon, fellowship-trained in hand and microsurgery.  His clinical practice is in hand,wrist and peripheral nerve surgery.  He is corresponding member of the UIAA Medical Commission, founder/director of The Canadian Climbing Medicine Symposium and Climbing Medicine Canada, and medical and strength training consultant for Joe Rockhead’s Climbing Gym in Toronto.  Yasser has been sport climbing and bouldering for over 25 years, and continues to be a hopeless fanatic of the sport.

Julia Epelde

Julia is a Ph.D student at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. She is currently writing her thesis about Climbing as an Educational Tool basing her research on a case study of a climbing innovative program in a public school located in the National Park of Guadarrama, which holds one of the famous climbing schools in the country. In this particular scenario she is also working as a climbing teacher for children and climbing trainer with adults. A passionate climber herself, she also works guiding outdoor nature activities related to adventure educational programs. Her research can contribute to the IRCRA community by offering the educational and experiential learning approach to climbing as a tool to encourage and develop a wide range of interesting skillsand abilities on children and young adults.

Maurizio Fanchini

Maurizio gained his PhD from the University of Verona (Italy), Department of neurological, neuropsychological, morphological and movement sciences, investigating the validity of the measurement tools used to control training load in soccer. Actually I’m working as a fitness coach with Inter Milan an Italian professional soccer team. I have been an athlete in lead sport climbing a coach and instructor of Italian Federation of Sport Climbing and my interest is focused on performance, training and testing.

Carl Joacim Fensbekk

Carl has been climbing since 2011, with increasing interest for training and performance. He got his first experience of climbing earlier, however, moving to Trondheim for his masters degree got him into a good community of climbers, which made climbing his main activity. Focusing mostly on sport climbing and bouldering, with the occational mountaineering and trad climbing. Carls education is in human movement sciences, were he has a bachelors degree from the University College of Hedmark, Norway. Mostly concerning endurance training and block periodization of high intensity intervals. Further Carl has done a masters degree in human movement science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. His masters thesis is about the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness on microvascular functions. Carls interests are sports performance training and the effects of physical activity on public health.

Philip Ferrara

Philip Ferrara is an Atlanta, Georgia native, but grew up playing in the mountains of North Carolina. He completed his undergraduate degree in Dietetics at the University of Georgia; but after working in Yosemite National Park for 4 years, he devoted his life to rock climbing. He is now attending Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana where he is working on his master's degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. He will graduate in May 2018.

Fernando Vilela Filho

Fernando Vilela Filho is a Brazilian sport climber with a 10-year experience and ascents up to 8b and 7C boulder problems. He is currently finishing Physical Education graduation in Juiz de Fora Federal University - campus Governador Valadares and learned from tutors like Bianca Miarka, Marília Martins Bandeira and Luis Fernando Deresz in research projects. His graduation paper is in progress and going to be about the effects of 4-week endurance finger training protocol in recreational rock climbers.

Jake Fojtik

Jake Fojtik is a medical student at Humanitas University in Milan, Italy. Hailing from Park City, Utah, Jake is a passionate skier, climber, alpinist, and ski mountaineer. Jake is interested in combining medicine with the mountains, especially in regards to mountain-related trauma and illnesses, human physiology at altitude, and the intersection of strength, conditioning, and nutrition as it pertains to climbing performance. In addition to medicine, Jake is a writer and photographer. When not studying, Jake can be found climbing, skiing, or biking around the Alps.

Simon Fryer

Simon is a part time lecturer at the University of Canterbury. He researches the psychophysiology of rock climbing; his particular interests are in possible adaptations of advanced performers.

Ulf Fuchslueger

Ulf Fuchslueger has a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Technical University of Vienna and an Executive MBA from the University in Zurich. After having worked for more than 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry he co-founded Vialis AG, a company focussed on process optimization and software implementation in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. After having worked 10 years as CEO and senior consultant, Vialis AG was sold to a public company. Since then Ulf and his wife are travelling the world in a camper truck, linking rock climbing spots and other beautiful places on their journey. Next to travelling he supports theCrag.com - the world’s largest rock climbing and bouldering platform - as head of business development.

Liliana Roa Gaitán

Physiotherapist at the Universidad del Rosario Colombia with a master's degree in physical activity and sports Universidad Nacional de Colombia with intervention in the recovery of injuries to climbers since 2012 to date with research in the relationship of injuries with different types of power strength (Boulder) and resistance (difficulty) in rock climbers in Bogotá Colombia. Active member of the Colombian Association of Hand Therapists (ASCOTEMA). Certified in various therapeutic techniques for the recovery of injuries derived from sports. Amateur rock climbing for eight years to date.

Ezequiel Garcia

Ezequiel resides in Colombia. Rock climbing is one of his passions among other outdoor activities. He holds a Masters of Science in High-Performance Sports Training: Strength and Conditioning, from Universidad Catolica de Murcia. He´s also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist from the Nationa Strength and Conditioning Association. He is Physical Culture, Sports and Recreation graduate. He works as a sports researcher in a Sports Training program. He has worked as an author and co-author in rock climbing research topics. His latest topic being the characterization of sports rock climbers handgrip strength in Bucaramanga, Colombia. He specializes in high-performance sports training. 

Vicente Garcia

Vicente Garcia is manager and climbing coach in Rockera muro de escalada in Queretaro, Mex. He specialises in training for competition and outdoor climbing, His been climbing since 2009 and coaching since 2014. He is currently studying about myofascial chains, finger power endurance. Interesting in climbing method research.

Inma Garrido

Inma is a Sport Psychologist. She has been climbing for more than 18 years including different climbing disciplines, from alpinism to big wall. Inma has been a member of the Spanish Female Mountaineering Team and high performance athlete during 6 years in the Mountaineering  modality. She has also been working the mental training for Andalusian youth team and Andalusian Mountaineering Team. Very shortly Inma is going to start her PhD with Vanesa España, on psycologist aspects involved in the high-performance climbing.

Peter Gilliver

Peter is a senior lecturer in the department of Sport, Outdoors and Exercise Science at the University of Derby. His research interests are in skill development and motor performance particularly of rock climbing. Where his recently research focusses on the pattern recognition and attentional focus in the preplanning stages of movement by climbers.  

Dave Giles

Dave works in research and product development at Lattice Training Ltd, a UK based climbing coaching company. His research predominately focuses on sport-specific methods for the assessment of climbing performance and their application. Formally, Dave was a research fellow at the University of Derby (2016 – 2019). His research background is in exercise physiology and psychophysiology, with his PhD focusing on the physiological, psychological and biochemical responses to climbing.

Gina Blunt Gonzalez

Gina is an Associate Professor of Exercise Science at Morehead State University in Morehead, KY. Her climbing research interests include understanding the psychological factors associated with climbing participation and performance. Other research interests include behavioral interventions to increase physical activity and understanding attitudes and motivations toward dietary supplement use in a variety of populations. 

Ioritz Gonzalez

Ioritz Gonzalez Lertxundi is from Azkoitia (Basque Country, near Bilbao, Spain). He is a Biologist specialized in Sport Sanitary area. Nowadays, he is teacher in Sciences area, and also a member of a researchers group that works in the area of climbing injuries. In the last 2-3 years he has been researching about climbing injuries, possible injury risks, consequences of rock climbing, and giving some conferences about it. In addition, he has been a sport climber for over 20 years, reaching 8b+/c redpoint and 7c+ onsight difficulties.

Patrick Wayne Gonzalez

Patrick is an experienced climber and software engineer interested in GeoSpacial application development with a particular interest in terrain feature recognition. As imbedded navigation components (GPS Radios, Compasses, Gyros, Accelerometers) in mobile devices continue to improve, Patrick is researching potential software solutions for climbers and outdoor enthusiasts. 

Aline Gonzalez-Moreno

Lecturer at Universidad Anahuac in Mexico with a master's degree in Innovation & Design at Universidad Autonoma de Querétaro, as an Industrial designer, her research field is focused in how product  & strategic design can have an impact for the promotion of climbing in people who aren´t related to the sport nor the benefits of it. 

Taylor Groeneveld

Taylor is 21 years of age and currently completing his Exercise and Sport Science degree at ACU, in Sydney. He has been climbing for 10 years and has come from a sporting background consisting of national level swimming and national placings in sport climbing. His recent studies have made him very interested in the science of rock climbing and wanting to contribute to the science being undertaken in our sport. He is currently working as an Assistant Coach with the State climbing team, and coaching top level Australian athletes under First Ascent Climbing Coaching. In his coaching, he is using film technology to perfect technique and allowing his knowledge of sport and coaching to educate athletes. His goal is to raise the standard of competition climbing in Australia to match the high standards that other sports such as swimming and athletics have in the Olympics and the professional era.

Gudmund Grønhaug

Gudmund is PhD candidate in social medicine and a physiotherapist. He has been climbing for 20 some years with hundreds’ of FA´s up to 8b+ routes and 8A boulders. Gudmund has previously worked as a research fellow for 5 years and published several papers on osteoarthritis and quality of care. He wrote his bachelor thesis on training for climbing in 2004; since he has been more and more interested in the science of climbing. In the spring of 2015 he got published with a book on Chronic injuries in Climbing, published by one of the major Norwegian publishers.  Gundmund spoke at the National Sports Medicine Congress 2015, based on the scientific research made previous to writing the book. The same work is hopefully being published as a scientific paper during the winter.

groenhaug@gmail.com

Jenny Hall

Dr Jen Hall is a cultural geographer interested in embodied experiences of extreme and adventure environments in terms of gender, emotion and affect and more broadly in heritage, culture and sports. Her PhD research is titled Women mountaineers: A study of affect, sensoria and emotion. She has used innovative mobile video ethnography within her field research to capture the experiences of female mountaineers. Jen currently lectures at York St John University and lives in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom and is a keen mountaineer, runs ultra-distance mountain marathons and is a member of her local Mountain Rescue Team.

j.hall@yorksj.ac.uk

Zachary Hammerle

Zachary, has 20 years of climbing experience and is currently studying prosocial behavior, adrenaline threshold and fear tolerance in climbers, climbing communities and police. Zachary, is a member of PCIA, NIRSA, Wilderness Medical Associates and the ARC. He is currently serving as the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation at Western Oregon University in Monmouth Oregon. He guides and teaches climbing all across the United States and has distributed over 1,000 surveys across Mexico and the United States in the quest to expand the knowledge of the sport. 

Seth Collings Hawkins

Dr. Seth Collings Hawkins, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Wake Forest University, holds dual board certification in both emergency medicine and EMS. He currently serves as medical advisor for REI and NC Outward Bound School. He is executive editor of Wilderness Medicine Magazine, co-author of Vertical Aid: Essential Wilderness Medicine for Climbers, Trekkers, and Mountaineers, and editor of the textbook Wilderness EMS. He is co-owner of Vertical Medicine Resources, an innovative climbing medicine company, founder and Chief of the Appalachian Mountain Rescue Team, a member of the Mountain Rescue Association Medical Committee, and author of numerous climbing medicine publications.

Rene Hecht

René is a sports science master student and research assistant at the Institute of sport science at the University of Constance. His research interests focus primarily on biomechanics, as well as strength, balance and endurance measures and its mechanical and neuronal components. Additionally, he is a climbing and bouldering trainer and tries to explain and understand why some climbers are able to hold the sloper and others are not.

Deak is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Canterbury. His research interests are the role of attention in performance, skill development, and the measurement of workload and stress. He is currently working on human factors issues in search and rescue, including high-angle search and rescue.

Mika Hemphill

Mika completed her MD in British Columbia.  She is now in her final year of rural family medicine residency in Alberta, Canada.  She has been climbing for the past 12 years, with a focus on trad and sport climbing.  Her interests include rural and remote general practice, wilderness, and mountain medicine.  This year, she completed her FAWM and DiMM certifications.  She has participated in research related to altitude sickness, and looks forward to becoming involved in more climbing specific projects. 

Espen Hermans

Espen has a master degree in sport science and wrote “The effects of high resistance–few repetitions and low resistance–high repetitions resistance training on climbing performance”. He is working as an assistant professor at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, where he teaches outdoor education students in the sport of rock climbing and bouldering. Personally interested in training to perform better in climbing (hang board, conventional strength training and core training), and have a couple of interesting intervention coming up.

Llyn Hill

Among America's best-known climbers, Hill has been a guest at the White House and has been featured on television and in many newspaper and magazine articles. She has produced a film about her all free ascent of the Nose and an autobiography about her life as a climber. Her book is titled, Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World (published by W.W. Norton). Lynn currently lives in Boulder, Colorado where she balances her time between climbing, running, skiing, travels to cool places around the world, and sharing life with her son Owen Merced Lynch.

Chris Hodgson

Chris is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chichester, UK. He has a PhD from the University of Southampton in human performance in the cold and his research interests include the psychophysiology of adventure sports. He has published on the impact of rock climbing activities on cortisol concentrations and stress and the assessment of fitness for rock climbing. His professional background is in the teaching and coaching of adventure sports including rock climbing, mountaineering and skiing. He is co-author of Adventure Sports Coaching (Routledge).

Somayeh Askari Hosseini

Somayeh Askari Hoseini is a Ph.D. candidate of sports biomechanics at Kharazmi University and teaches at Ferdowsi University as a visiting professor. Before graduating, she gained her M.S and B.S in physical education and sports sciences. She is a climbing coach, route setter and advanced national champion. She`s interested in sports climbing and its related sciences.

Dan Hoyle

Dan is a UK based rock climbing and mountaineering instructor and coach, with a keen interest in the development and evolution of different methods of coaching climbing at all levels. Dan used to be a semi-pro footballer until injury stopped that, and now climbs and walks on a regular basis around Britain and Europe. He graduated from the University of Derby in 2016 with a First Class BA Honours Degree in Outdoor Activity Leadership and Coaching, part of which involved developing and testing a coaching tool, using video and notational analysis to easily determine where a climbers strengths and weaknesses lie and where to focus training for improvement in the future.

Eric Hörst

Eric J. Hörst (pronounced “Hurst”) is an internationally renowned author, researcher, climbing coach, and accomplished climber of more than 38 years. A student and teacher of climbing performance, Eric has coached hundreds of climbers, and his training books and concepts have spread to climbers in more than 50 countries. Eric is author of eight books (with many foreign translations) including the best-selling Training For Climbing, How to Climb 5.12, and Maximum Climbing.  Eric has written more than 70 magazine articles, appeared on numerous TV broadcasts, and his techniques and photos have appeared in countless publications including Rock & Ice, Climbing, Outside, DeadPoint, Men’s Health, Fortune, Men’s Journal, Muscle Media, Muscle & Fitness, Parents, Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic Adventure, as well as European magazines such as Desnivel, Alpen, Climax, and Climber; he has also co-authored one research paper (“Behavior Analysis and Sport Climbing”, Journal of Behavioral Health and Medicine, 2010, with Dr. Richard Fleming). A self-professed “climber for life”, Eric remains active at the cliffs, traveling widely with his wife, Lisa, and sons, Cameron and Jonathan. Eric's Web site is: www.TrainingForClimbing.com.

Arno Ilgner

Arno Ilgner distinguished himself as a pioneering rock climber in the 1970s and 80s. In 1995, after searching the literature and practice of mental training, Ilgner formalized his methods, created The Warrior’s Way mental training method, and began teaching full time.

Ilgner has taught clinics across the U.S.A. and abroad. He holds a BA in Geology, operated a geological consulting firm, acted as CFO for a company, and attended the Army Ranger School. He lives and climbs in Tennessee.

Ilham Ilham

Ilham has been climbing for about 8 years based in Indonesia. He is in the proccess finishing graduate programme in sport science faculty at The Yogyakarta State University in Indonesia. He is an active researcher in sport climbing. His research interest is psychology to enhance sport performance, specifically in climbing performance. He conducts his research in the field of exercise psychology and mental skill training to enhance climbing performance. He is also one of caretaker of climbing organization based in the region of Indonesia.

Maria Ștefania Ionel

Maria Stefania is a Ph.D student in the field of Applied Cognitive Psychology at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania). As a climber for over 15 years and a Counselling Psychologist she wants to develop ​a​

research ​based on ​exploring the cognitive and affective benefits of indoor and outdoor climbing in clinical and typical setting​s​ ​in order to ​​highlight​ the​ potential​ of rock climbing and bouldering​ as a mental health tool​. She has been working ​in private practice and ​in NGOs with ​different population ​and disorders​. Currently she is coordinating the Development through Climbing Project, both in Transylvania (Romania) and Catalonia (Spain), and she is moving ​foreword from the traditional Psychotherapy ​to​wards​ Wilderness ​and Adventure ​Therapy Approach.  

Klaus Isele

Klaus is a physical therapist, osteopath and trainer for sport climbing. As the therapist of the Austrian climbing team he has expert knowledge on climbing, training and injuries. He works at his physiotherapy and osteopathy outpatient practice „Therapierbar“ in Vorarlberg, Austria. He is a member of the “Olympic Medical Pool Austria“. Currently he is writing his Master thesis about his own developed conservative treatment methods to improve finger pain in climbers. His main focus is on nonsurgical, holistic and structural osteopathic treatment methods.

Arne Martin Jakobsen

Born in 1961. He is a professor in sport and outdoor education at Nor university Bodø, Norway. He holds a doctoral degree in pedagogy. He has been working as a teacher in outdoor education and climbing for more than 20 years. He has been climbing for nearly 40 years since 1984. The main topics of research has been in psychology and more specialized in motivation.

Christopher Jenks

Chris Jenks has a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Newcastle University (England).  He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota.  His research contributes to several disciplines, including Linguistic Anthropology and Sociology.  He has a number of research interests outside of rock climbing, but is especially curious about how climbers discursively construct notions of injury and performance.  This line of research has the potential to inform several areas of climbing knowledge, such as how physical therapists and trainers approach their clients during consultations.

christopher.jenks@gmail.com

Gareth Jones

Gareth is a Senior Lecturer in  Physiotherapy and Sports and Exercise Medicine. His research interest is injury epidemiology in climbing and the role of self-efficacy in performance. Gareth is an active climber and is particularly passionate about Scottish mixed winter climbing. He is a retired member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors.

Christopher Keating

Christopher is a PhD student at the University of Jaen (Andalusia, Spain) in the department of Physical Education and Sport Studies. His research interests include exercise physiology, physical activity in an aging population, and the physiological aspects of rock climbing. Before moving to Spain and entering the PhD program, Christopher taught exercise physiology, nutrition, and rock-climbing courses at San Juan College in Farmington, NM. Christopher earned his M.S. degree in Exercise and Wellness from Arizona State University and his B.A. degree in Physical Education and Health from Northwestern College (Iowa). Christopher is an ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist and an AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor.

John Kettle

Johns’ passion as a performance coach is making the scientific research practically applicable to everyday climbers. He has published a book on climbing movement, and worked as a full time coach and guide for over 18 years. John has trained many climbing organisations, provides the UK's Coaching Awards, and delivers nationally recognised coach education courses. His speciality is coaching movement, tactics and strategy within an evidence-based practice. As such he has a particular interest in biomechanics, skill acquisition and psychology. John has climbed for over three decades, including many first ascents, and is a full member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors.

ask@johnkettle.com

Kirsten Kimbler

Kirsten Kimbler, though she has been climbing most of her life, recently became an avid participant of rock climbing. She is currently a 3rd year medical student at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Due to her scientific background she is very interested in the evidenced based medicine and the evidence base for one of her favorite sports - rock climbing. She looks forward to how she can help the sport advance in a systematic and creative way!

Michel Kleinjan

Michel Kleinjan is from the Netherlands and a full-time climbing coach and trainer. Specialized in endurance and power-endurance training. Pioneer in the use of Heart Rate Zone based High-intense interval training. Studied at the The Hague, University of applied sciences from 1989 - 1994 Started climbing in 1986. His latest project is the creation of a climbing training App with integration of Heart Rate Zone based High-intense interval training schedules for lead climbing and bouldering. You contact Michel for research and practicum in the field of physical education, training and coaching.

Jan Kodejška

Jan Kodejška is a full time Ph.D. student in the Charles University of Prague, supervised by Jiří Baláš. His research is interested in acute and chronic effect of active recovery and cold water immersion after repeated bouts of isometric contractions. He is as totally and madly in love with rock climbing as his supervisor.

Pattarawut Khaosanit

Patt is a Lecturer at Faculty of Sports Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He has PhD in Sports Science from topics about training athletes in normobaric hypoxia. His research interests include exercise physiology and sport performance enhancement in adventure sports, combat sports and endurance sports. He loves mountaineering and rock climbing. Moreover, he also teaches about camping and trekking at the university.

Mohammad khoshkhou

Khoshkhou is a 34 years old Iranian. He lives in the north of Iran, where they have moderate weather, numerous mountain and forest and many big walls. Khoshkhou is studying physical activity and sport science.

He is also a Rock climber with 10 years experience.

Marcin Krawczyk

Martin is a PhD student at the Academy of Physical Education in Krakow (Poland). His research interests focus on body structure and manifestations of motor abilities at various stages of advancement of sports. And in particular, compounds the level motor abilities to performance with sport speed climbing and bouldering athletes of both genders. In this regard he is interested in other sports disciplines. Currently he realize associated with this (speed climbing and bouldering) research project, having to be the basis of his PhD thesis. In this regard he is also interested in other sports disciplines.

Stefan Künzell

Stefan is professor for human movement science and exercise physiology of the institute of sports sciences at the Universität Augsburg (Germany). His main research fields are motor control, motor learning and coordination. He is a moderate, but enthusiastic climber and teaches beginners indoors and outdoors. He is interested in defining a combined performance profile of the different climbing disciplines. 

Chris Lacoste

Chris is a comprehensive climber and coaches all forms of rock climbing to the highest industry standards in New Zealand as a senior "Rock 2" instructor from the New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association. With a Master of Arts in Transcultural European Outdoor Studies, he has climbed, studied and travelled extensively. As a regular attendee of International Outdoor Education and Recreation conferences, he keeps up-to-date with research and practice. Chris also owns his own rock climbing business in New Zealand, has an eye for finding new climbs and crags and is always a friendly and familiar face.

Cassim Ladha

Cassim holds a PhD in Signal Processing and has a particular focus on movement science. He has worked with inertial sensors since the 2011 and was instrumental in delivering sensors for the worlds largest Physical Activity research trial (sampling ~500K people for UKBiobank). Cassim left his position at university in 2014 to start his own innovation laboratory (CASCOM Ltd) and since has delivered projects such as “Griptonite" and “Climbax" (distributed by Mammut) as commercial offerings. Cassim still holds an honorary guest position at Newcastle and continues to actively publish in his field.

Guillaume Laffaye

Guillaume has a Ph.D. degree in Sport Science from the University of Paris-Sud Saclay. His primary research interests include the biomechanics of  jumping, throwing and running. For this aim, he used either physics model, or statistical multivariate modelisation. Since few years, he has a special interest on predicting performance in climbing by combining anthropometric variables, fatigue index and biomechanics variables and on the impact of the training on these variables.

Luca Lancellotti

Luca has a degree in physiotherapy, specialized in manual therapy and in sports performance. He is a climber and instructor in an Italian mountaineering school. Luca lives on Garda lake and he works in a private clinic in Brescia (https://www.studioerre.bs.it/) as a freelancer. He works frequently with climbers and always tries to find the best treatment possible according to the latest scientific evidence.

Jacquelyn Lazzaro

Jacquelyn is an OTD student at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. She is currently a part of a research team examining the volition, habituation, self-identity, and motivation of recreational rock climbers. The goal of this study is to discover the motivating factors of recreational rock climbing through the Model of Human Occupation theoretical framework. She hopes to apply findings to the occupational therapy profession, while also influencing and participating in future research in the field. Jacquelyn enjoys mountaineering and novice ice climbing. She is interested in developing her rock climbing skills and knowledge.

Jensine Leung

Jensine is a Doctor of Physical Therapy practicing in an outpatient orthopedic clinic in Oregon. She completed her undergraduate studies in Exercise Science at Michigan State University and earned her doctoral degree at George Fox University in 2017. She developed an interest in climbing when she started PT school and has been climbing actively since. She has developed a strong passion for treating upper extremity injuries primarily due to the fact that she has volunteered some of her time to consult and treat climbers at her local climbing gym. Her goal is to continually use evidence based practice to help her those affected with an injury return to their optimal level of function and to teach injury prevention classes at her local gym. She enjoys primarily sport climbing in the great pacific northwest as well as road biking and mountaineering.

Jurica Levatic

Jurica is a PhD student at Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His research areas are data mining and machine learning. In particular, he develops methods for mining complex knowledge from complex data. As a long time passionate climber, he is intrigued to apply data mining to extract potentially interesting information from climbing-related data."

Mirjam Limmer

Mirjam currently works at the Institute of Outdoor Sports and Environmental Science, German Sport University Cologne. She is a sports scientist, an IVBV certified mountain guide, and serves as division chief of mountain sports in education and research at her university. Her primary research interests include Outdoor Sports, Sports Physiology and Sports Nutrition. Currently, her research focuses on various recovery methods to enhance sports climbing performance as well as on nutritional aspects for an improvement of anaerobic exercise performance at altitude, and the influence of altitude on cognitive aspects. And of course, she is a passionate climber and mountaineer in her leisure time as well.

Caroline Linhart

Caroline is a biologist and PhD student at the Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics of the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. She graduated from the University of Vienna, Austria, with a focus on ecology and microbiology. During her diploma thesis she got more and more into statistics and data mining. In order to include her affinity to rock climbing and mountaineering in her everyday life she decided to stay in Innsbruck, where she is now working as a University Assistant and lecturer. Her current PhD research work focuses on ecotoxicology and cancer. Through her statistical and epidemiologic work she is included in several other research fields such as physiology of rock climbing.

Eloisa Limonta

Eloisa is a researcher in the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health at the University of Milan. 

Her main research topics focus on exercise physiology, with assessment of performance variables, such as heart rate,

lactate levels, oxygen cost and on muscular physiology, with analysis of force and electromechanical signals. 

It is also interested in indoor and outdoor climbing therapy on health promotion, especially for children and the elderly population. 

Today, she's still an enthusiastic practitioner of outdoor climbing and mountain sports.

Jeff Lodas

Jeff has been rock climbing since the late 1990's, when he fell for it at Indian Rock while studying at UC Berkeley. He is often found cragging and bouldering, but is most psyched on the long free climbs of Yosemite and the greater Sierra. He is certified as an AMGA SPI and a Wilderness EMT.  
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For Jeff, practicing and teaching the Warrior's Way is now at the core of why he climbs. His appreciation for the Warrior's Way is informed by his diverse interests, including Buddhism, martial arts, aviation, and film.

Roberto Junqueira Lopes

Roberto is a Sport Management master student at Porto University, Portugal, he is graduated in Physical Education has worked as a climbing coach, guide and Route Setter, owner and CEO of Montê Climbing and Movement Gym. He is interested in social entrepreneurship and management in climbing, especially about the management of climbing places and value production on its community and all sustainable initiatives that develop climbing as a sport and way of life.

Eva López-Rivera

Eva is a sport climber from Spain who has climbed up to 8c+ and currently works as a performance climbing coach and giving climbing coaching courses and Masterclasses. She has a PhD in high sport performance, with her doctoral thesis on the comparison of different finger strength and endurance training methods in sport climbing. Her primary research is on finger training methodology, with a more general interest on the analysis and training of key performance factors in sport climbing. An avid sport climber herself, she also writes a training web log: www.en-eva-lopez.blogspot.com

Christoph Lutter

Christoph Lutter works as an orthopedic surgeon in Volker Schoeffl's team in Bamberg, Germany. At present he is spending 1-2 years in Washington D.C. for a research fellowship. His research focus is rock climbing related injuries of the upper extremities and the hand (such as UEDVT, pulley injuries, injuries of the carpal bones). Currently he is collaborating with Andreas Schweizer, Thomas Bayer, Thomas Hochholzer, Erik Monasterio, and some other members of the IRCRA. Christoph also received the Diploma in Mountain Medicine in 2014. Outside of work his favorite sport is bouldering (and rock climbing), especially in his home-area, the Frankenjura!

Franziska Mally

Franziska holds a master’s degree in Sports-Equipment-Technology from the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Wien (Vienna). Ever since gaining the degree (2012) she has been working as a lab assistant and lecturer at the UAS Technikum Wien. Franziska is currently enrolled as a PhD student at RMIT University in Melbourne (offshore) researching in the field of therapeutic climbing (working title: “Investigating the correlation between muscle activation and forces applied at a climbing hold in therapeutic climbing”, Supervisor: Tino Fuss).

James Maples

Dr. James N. Maples is an assistant professor of sociology at Eastern Kentucky University. His research focuses on economic and environmental change created by the outdoor recreation industry in Appalachia and beyond. He received his PhD from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2012. He has authored several economic impact studies on Eastern Kentucky’s tourism and outdoor recreation industries, including the recent economic impact study of rock climbing in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. He is presently conducting an oral history study of rock climbing in the Red River Gorge.

Erich de Freitas Mariano

Erich is a PhD in Biological Sciences, Professor of Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Campina Grande, Brazil and a diving instructor. His areas of research include ornithology, outdoor learning and environmental education. Since 2001, he has gained experience in scientific expedition in many wild landscapes in Brazil. In 2005 he became a diver and in 2008 he graduated as a diving instructor. In 2012 he started practicing climbing and from that moment until now he has a special interest in the application of indoor / outdoor climbing and outdoor education as a tool for environmental and experiential education.

Juan trained in Physical Education in Argentina before specializing in sport climbing training in the Spanish High Mountain School. He studied Theory and Methodology of Training in Cuba, learning how to distribute and apply training loads in all level athletes (the eastern methodology), with his thesis in Cuba being about climbing training. Currently his is completing Master in Physical Activity: Sport Training and Management. He is now involved in training people from all over the world, including some national team members. Juan now spends his time developing new training methodologies, training and testing apparatus and working as a training advisor. He also works as a route setter in National comps.

Patrick Matos

Patrick lectures sport science and different sport disciplines for becoming sports teachers at the IFL. Bayreuth, Germany. He is author of two climbing books and trains athletes at the federal center of sportclimbing in Nuremberg. He also shares his 15 year-training experience in workshops at home and abroad. His research interests are specific training forms and psychological aspects of climbing, where he currently writes his doctoral thesis. Besides his family and his work as a lecturer and trainer he takes every chance to climb and boulder searching for the "flow".

Luca Matteraglia

Luca has been a climbing coach since 2008, he has a sport science degree (in Verona in 2012) and two studies on sport climbing biomechanics and physiology. Luca is a multi-discipline climber from 2004, he experienced lead and boulder competitions. In 2009 had a very bad injury due to a huge fall in multipitch traditional route, he broke the right ankle very bad and in 2011 decided to implant an experimental talo-navicular bone prosthesis built-in laser sintering technique. Now Luca is interested in sport climbing research, especially on predictive performance characteristics in conditional skills, focusing on RFD.

Jessie McDougall

Jessie is a graduate student in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University. Currently, Jessie’s research focuses on the psychology and physiology of pain in rock climbing, specifically examining the role of pain tolerance and pain coping strategies in elite and non-elite climbers. When not researching, Jessie can be found taking advantage of Squamish, climbing and hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.

Keith McGregor

Keith is currently a Lecture at the University of Central Lancashire in The outdoors in the School of Sport and Wellbeing in the UK. He is also a second-year PhD student looking at health and wellbeing of mountaineers and Rock climbers. The title of his project is “The Motivations as to why Extreme Grade Mountaineers and Rock Climbers Expose Themselves to Risk and Danger on a Regular Basis. Keith is also an accredited Strength and Conditioning coach and coach young climbers and Athletes.

KMcgregor@uclan.ac.uk

Jerry Medernach

Jerry Medernach has a PhD in Sports Science and is a Sports Professor at the Athénée de Luxembourg in Luxembourg-City. His research at the German Sport University Cologne is mainly focused on Bouldering and includes the investigation of training devices to increase muscular strength and local endurance. Jerry has been climbing for almost 20 years, from Climbing Competitions to Big Walls, and is the President of the National Climbing Community of Luxembourg.

Benjamin Meneses

Benjamín Meneses, is a physical education teacher and GAH instructor, for 10 years has been linked to the development of climbing and vertical work in the region of Araucanía, currently working as a coach for El Bloke, climbing house. As a goal, it has been proposed to improve their knowledge for the development of athletes in the region and to improve the quality of the escalation at the national level.

Alessandra Mendes

Alessandra’s a passionate climber with experience as athlete/coach/professor (of different sports) and sport policy management. She worked as a climbing coach in Ibiti (Brasília/Brazil) and as assistant coach at The Climbing Wall Station (Loughborough/UK). Alessandra has a Full Degree (2007) and MA (2010) in Sports Science by University of Brasilia (Brazil), at the moment she is doing PhD in Sport Policy at Post Graduate Program in Public Policy of UFPR (Brazil) with a split site at School of Sports, Exercise and Health Sciences of Loughborough University (UK). Alessandra studied at Brazilian Coaches Academy (Brazilian Olympic Committee). Interests: Training Methods and Sports Injuries in Climbing; Sport Policy. 

Christine's research interests include physiological responses to exercise in various populations including athletes and those with chronic disease or disability, as well as non-traditional athletes such as dancers and rock climbers.

Marisa Michael

Marisa Michael is a registered dietitian in the United States. She has a Master's Degree in Sports Nutrition from the University of Stirling in Scotland. Her research thesis is titles "Assessment of dietary intake patterns and eating attitudes in recreational and competitive adolescent rock climbers." She holds the International Olympic Committee's Diploma in Sports Nutrition. She is a certified personal trainer and owns a private dietetic practice in Portland, Oregon, USA. 

Dallas Mix

Dallas is a masters student at the University of Alberta studying coaching climbing. He lectures at the university and coaches the university competitive youth climbing team. Currently he is doing research on motor learning in an indoor climbing environment. 

Erik is a forensic psychiatrist and senior clinical lecturer with the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Clinical Medicine. Before completing his specialist training Dr Monasterio spent many years mountaineering and mountain guiding in all the major mountain chains of the world (where he has established over 40 new routes over rock, ice and mixed terrain).

Audry Morrison

Audry is a registered nutritionist in the UK with a special interest in climbing metabolism, and nutritional issues related to improvements in all types of climbing performance. She is a corresponding member for the Medical Commission of the UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation). Audry has co-authored peer-reviewed scientific papers on climbing nutrition, physiology and injuries, and contributed chapters to ‘Moderne Berg-und Hohenmedizin’ (2010) (‘Modern Mountain and Altitude Medicine’). Audry has been a keynote speaker internationally on climbing metabolism at sea level and at altitude, and in the physiology of climbers.

Kerrie Mott

Kerrie is currently studying for an MSc in Sports Rehabilitation in Plymouth, UK. She has a background in Sports Science (focusing mainly on biomechanics and kinesiology) and she is also a keen climber, who particularly enjoys mountaineering and alpine routes. Within research, she is interested in investigating injury mechanisms, prevention and rehabilitation within rock climbing, focusing her thesis on scapular pre-activation techniques in climbing. She is looking to continue her study and research experience at doctorate level in the near future.

Peter H. Nerothin

Peter is currently a research fellow at the Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University. He holds a MA in Adventure Education and Applied Psychology from Prescott College. His research interests include surfing, climbing, flow theory, and human-nature interaction. Peter resides in Southern California, where he trains and explores with his wife Blair. 

Natasha Nilsen

Natasha is currently a final year medical student at the University of Wollongong, with future job aspirations within the critical care specialties and expedition medicine. She is looking forward to her first climbing-related research project looking at the training habits of climbers this year. Her future research interests include high altitude physiology in alpine climbers, paragliders and base jumpers. She has been a climber since 2015, with other obsessions including speedflying, skiing and anything else mountain-related. 

Chris lectures in outdoor and environmental education at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Chris has been a keen rock climber with a penchant for multi-pitch and alpine routes such as the Kaipo Wall, El Capitan and a range of rock routes in North America, Europe and New Zealand.

Anja-Karina Nydal

Anja-Karina Nydal writes on the relationship between architecture and
mountaineering, and more specifically on the history of the emergence of these two
disciplines and their instruction manuals. In collaboration with the School of
Architecture, she has a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Art from the University
of Kent. Her thesis 'Repertoires of Architects and Mountaineers: A Study of Two
Professions' links the emergence of the professional architect to that of the
mountaineer, and examines the repertoires that both disciplines employed in order to
master their two spaces - the building and the mountain.

Georg Öttl

Georg has been climbing for 15 years in various disciplines from alpine trade climbing to bouldering.

His home spots are located in the Austrian Alps but he loves to discover climbing resorts all over the

world. After eight years in construction engineering he decided to strike out in a new direction. Now

he holds a bachelor´s degree and is a student in the master´s program in Sports-Equipment-

Technology from the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Wien (Vienna). His master

thesis deals with the topic of influences of rope friction on impact forces in climbing falls.

Michaela Panáčková

Michaela is part time Ph.D. student in the Charles University of Prague, supervised by Jiří Baláš. She has started research in sport-climbing in 2012 by study about effect of profile of wall and speed climbing on energy expenditure in a group of recreational and elite climbers. Then Michaela has begun to focus on her primary research area: changes of upper body strength and oxygen consumption during climbing in children in real condition.

Ganga R. Pant

Ganga R. Pant is CEO at Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA). He is an instructor for Trekking Guides in Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hospitality Management (NATHM). Former CEO of Trekking Agencies' Association of Nepal/ TAAN (2012-2016), Mr. Pant is Evaluation Research Expert serving Social Welfare Council of Nepal. Former Lecturer at Central Department of Linguistics T.U., Mr. Pant has earned Masters in Linguistics from TU Nepal (1999) and Masters in Education Leadership from ACU Australia (2008). Mr. Pant writes in various issues like socio-political analysis, tourism, education and various forms of Nepali literature.

Edward Park

Edward Park is a Canadian living and working in South Korea as a professor and an adventure tour guide. South Korea’s varied and accessible climbing, along with a personal curiosity of his ethnic heritage, brought Edward to South Korea. Having climbed in multiple world-class areas since 1994, and knowing how good South Korea’s climbing can be, Edward has made it one of his missions to promote the country’s amazing rock climbing. He achieves his mission through his guiding company, iGuideKorea, and he is excited about the opportunity to share the IRCRA’s work with the climbers he serves. 

Greg Peoples

Greg is a Senior Lecture (Human Physiology) at the School of Medicine, UOW, Australia.  He is a member of the Centre for Human and Applied Physiology (CHAP) where his research involves the cardiovascular-respiratory integration and skeletal muscle fatigue mechanisms when exposed to stressors including reduced blood flow and oxygen. His current projects include the role of dietary LC n-3 PUFA (DHA) in skeletal muscle physiology, sustainment of contractile function and cardio-protection. Other projects include the impact of thoracic load carriage (backpacks) on respiratory mechanics. Greg’s research interest in rock climbing is centred around nutritional physiology and optimisation of the diet for rock climbers.  

Rhiannon Peters

Rhiannon recently completed her MSc. Sport and Exercise Physiology, with a focus on acute biological and genomic changes after acute bouts of exercise. She is a passionate UK-based climber, who currently moves around the country in her van, chasing life in the outdoors, work and climbing. She hopes to integrate climbing-specific exercise into her future research and to follow opportunities that support mountain and rock climbing, including work regarding the effect of altitude on physiological mechanisms.

r.peters3499@gmail.com

Lefteris Paraskevopoulos

Lefteris works as a physiotherapist in a private out-patient practice in Athens, Greece. He holds a master’s degree in Exercise and Health from the University of Thessaly and during his studies he specialized in sports biomechanics. Lefteris’ previous research has focused on the effects of exercise in people with Parkinson’s disease and movement analysis. His MSc thesis studied the effects of body composition on the size of the Ground Reaction Forces. As a passionate climber he is now looking for a potential PhD opportunity on climbing biomechanics and risk of injury.

Kevin Phillips

Bio: Kevin earned his PhD in Integrative Physiology at Michigan Technological University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Exercise Science at Brevard College in North Carolina. Kevin has a number of publications related to improving performance in the sport of rock climbing. His dissertation was titled "The influence of temperature on neuromuscular fatigue and prefrontal cortex activation during upper extremity exercise", which focused on the psychophysiological benefits of muscular cooling on upper body / finger flexor performance.

Galo Hernandez Pineda

Galo is an Ecuadorian climber who has been climbing for 6 years, and competing since he was 14. He has represented his country in various international events: He is the 2017 Youth Pan-American Champion (Combined format), and the 2019 Youth Pan-American Champion (Lead and Bouldering). Galo is also the first Pan-American athlete in classifying to the Youth Olympic Games, Buenos Aires 2018. Alongside his climbing career, Galo is studying a BSc in Sport and Exercise Sciences at Coventry University (United Kingdom) and was awarded with a Sport Scholarship. Galo is passionate about exploring the science behind climbing and movement. His goals are to be a climbing coach, to inspire future generations, and to push himself physically to break the Ecuadorian and Colombian records in Lead climbing (8c) and Bouldering (v13).

Daniel Ponziani

Daniel is a very passionate rock climber, he has been climbing for more than 15 years, mostly sport climbing, but also trad, and some alpine climbing too. He is a certified Trekking Range Guide, and he lives in El Chlaten, in south Patagonia, Argentina, where he works guiding. He also studied Physical Trainer, and he is very interested in the physiology of training, training for climbing, and injury prevention.

Tabitha Price

Tabitha Price lives in Bellingham, Washington where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Western Washington University. Her graduation thesis focused on the pro's and con's of being involved in rock climbing. She further explained how rock climbing could be considered a "greedy sport" by using Lewis Coser's definition of greedy institutions as support. She now works full-time at a climbing gym that opened in July 2016, located in Burlington, WA. She wants to continue to research more about rock climbing, and specifically the climbers themselves.

Taylor Rivkin

Taylor is a full time MSc student at Middlesex University in London studying Sports and Exercise Science. He has climbed in various places including, the Red River Gorge, the New River Gorge, Joshua Tree and Suesca, Colombia. His education includes a Bachelors Degree in Human Health Kinetics from Ohio Wesleyan University has been a personal trainer for around 7 Years.  Currently he is doing research for his masters dissertation, focusing on rock climbing biomechanics and movement.

Manuel Rodriguez

Manuel Rodriguez Jauregui is an Italian climbing coach based in London. He’s been climbing for over 20 years and coaching for a bit less than a decade. He started working with the Italian Alpine Club and when moved to London started working as performance climbing coach. He is now working as coach for the GB Development Team as well as climbing and S&C coach for the Westway climbing wall. Manuel is an eager outdoor climber who loves travelling the world with his family: Oana, Sofia and Pablo.

Robert Rokowski

Dr Department of Alpinisme on Academy Physical Education in Krakow. Research interests - determinants of physical, motor, biomechanical and physiological performance  rock end mountain climbing. Author of the book: Scientific basics of training in sport climbing [2019]. Instructor Alpinisme Polish Mountaineering Association (PZA).  In the past - the coach of the young group mountain climbers in the Polish Mountaineering Association. Member rescue mountain in Tatras. Mountain guide UIAGM. Level rock climbing: 8b RP and 7c OS. Wonderful wife and three wonderful sons.

Claudia Rota

Claudia Rota studies physiotherapy at the Hochschule for Gesundheit in Bochum, Germany and has the lifetime goal of climbing an 8a. Besides this, she is an avid researcher about everything that is scientific related to climbing. She manages a climbing blog and portal - www.nerdclimbing.com - where she connects climbers and shares training and rehabilitation tips, experiences and reviews with them.

Shawn Russell

Shawn is a Post-doctoral Fellow at Virginia University in the department of Mechanical and aerospace engineering. His specialist area is the biomechanics of movement. Specifically as it relating to modelling of climbing movements.

Gabriela Saliba

Gabriela Saliba is a researcher from Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, Physical Therapist, Master Student of Rehabilitation Science in UNISUAM, Specialist in Physical Therapy Orthopedic Trauma and Sports Injuries and acupuncture specialist. She worked in Indoor Evolution gym wall in 2017 and in Integrative Health Space in 2018 and 2019. Her focus area of interest are: sports injury prevention, EMG and epidemiology.

Xavier Sanchez is currently based at Halmstad University, Sweden. He is Doctor (PhD) in Psychological Sciences by University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium); Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and Associate Fellow (AFBPsS) by British Psychological Society; and registered sport psychologist (VSPN®) by Dutch Society of Sport Psychology. Xavier has European (Sweden, UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain) and multidisciplinary (psychology, sport sciences) experience both in Higher Education and the sporting arena. Xavier main research interests when it comes to climbing is the relation between psychological aspects including self-regulation and emotions and actual climbing performance and route previewing/finding.

Ishani Sawant

National Level Sports Climber, Record Holder Mountaineer, proficient in all kinds of adventure activities like rafting, white water kayaking, paragliding. Extreme sports photographer. On my way to become a professional athlete.

Krzysztof Sas-Nowosielski

He started to climb at the end of 80's making repetitions of several 8c climbs in Poland. Now despite his 50+ yrs of age he is still an active climber doing 8b in rocks and taking part in competitions, for example being bronze medalist of Polish Academic Championships 2016/2017. He works at the Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, specializing in exercise psychology. However, he also deals with nutrition and training in sport climbing being an author or co-author of several books and articles on different aspects of conditioning and nutrition in it. Some of his books include for example “A short guide on dietetical strategies of performance enhancement in sport climbing” (2013), “Nutrition in sport climbing” (2004), “Sport climbing – selected issues) (2002). He is also a co-author (for entries on sport and rock climbing) of multivolume Great Encyclopedia of Mountains and Alpinism. In the 90's I was a head editor of sport climbing zine "Ekstrema".

Volker is an experienced climber and researcher. He has been climbing for 25 years with lots of first ascents all over the world and has established new climbing routes/areas in Thailand and Laos in particular. His research interests in climbing include biomechanics of the hand and fingers, clinical studies on climbing injuries, prospective evaluation of injury risks, long term consequences of rock climbing and how how to improve his climbing, as a keen climber in his late 40´s.

Andrey Shunko

Andrey Shunko has been working as coach for 10 years, he is a full time PhD student in Siberian State University of physical education and sports, Omsk, Russia and has been climbing for 20 years. Professional sport climber in the past and huge fan of sport climbing. His primary research interest is physical preperation in speed climbing. Now working on the development of model characteristic of elite speed climbers.  Always ready for productive cooperation.

Antônio Sérgio

Antônio Sérgio divides his time with artistic gymnastics, calisthenics, climbing, functional and morphofunctional training and wants to develop climbing in his city, in the sports and educational environment within schools and universities, which does not yet exist. He has made a lot of effort to develop the East-RJ climbing area. Scale since 2007, participated in several state, Brazilian and open climbing competitions.

Shannon Siegel

Having been a rock climber for 15 years, Shannon is very interested in the myriad benefits of the sport for youth. She is an Associate Professor in the University of San Francisco’s Kinesiology Dept., and works with various organizations and colleagues to address issues around sport and physical activity in youth. Shannon’s research focus is on recreational, competitive and elite youth rock climbers in the US and UK. She also collaborates with rock climbing gyms to increase physical activity in youth and address health disparities. Shannon is currently volunteering with USA Climbing to work on the progression of its long-term athletic development program (LTAD).

Bryan Simon

Bryan is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a former U.S. Army infantry officer and a graduate of the US Army Ranger School. He is an AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor (SPI), a Fellow in the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, and holds a Diploma in Mountain Medicine from the UIAA.

Bryan is a partner in the company, Vertical Medicine Resources, serves on the board of directors for the non-profit Appalachian Mountain Rescue Team (AMRT), and serves on the membership committee of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS). Bryan is also the recipient of the 2014 Warren D. Bowman Award presented for contributions in service to wilderness medicine and to the Wilderness Medical Society.

Bryan is a member on the editorial board for the journal, Nursing, a regional editor for the American Alpine Club's Accidents in North American Mountaineering, and is the climbing medicine columnist for the magazine, Wilderness Medicine. His writing has been featured in Climbing, Dead Point Magazine, Wilderness Medicine among others.

Michael Simon

Michael Simon is an orthopedic surgeon in Volker Schoeffl's team in Bamberg, Germany, as well as an ardent photographer. Having just lately found his passion for rock climbing, he now focuses his research on climbing-related injuries of the upper extremities. Previously, he studied cardiac and immunological alterations in top athletes. He often combines his enthusiasm for traveling with his professions, and has been working, both as a doctor and a photographer, in Peru, Sri Lanka, and Laos.

Julia Šmigelskis

Julia is a physiotherapist in Cape Town, South Africa and is specializing in preventing, treating and managing climbing injuries. She is currently busy with her MSc in Exercise and Sport Physiotherapy at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on finger and hand injuries and fingerboard training of South African-based climbers.  During the climbing season, Julia is fortunate to work in Rocklands where she loves meeting climbers from around the world, while working in such a spectacular natural environment and getting on some boulders as well.

Edward Smith

Edward is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Sheffield Hallam University (UK).
He completed his undergraduate degree in BSc Sport and Exercise Science in 2013 and specialised in sport
nutrition through the International Olympic Committee post-graduate programme. His PhD project titled
‘Nutritional considerations for climbing’, aims to provide fundamental nutritional guidelines for the sport to
promote optimal health and performance. Specific interests include the current nutritional status and weight
management strategies of climbers, from the recreational to the elite. Edward is also a registered sports
nutritionist (SENr) and runs a nutrition consultancy service for climbers in Sheffield.

Edward.smith@shu.ac.uk

Julia Brambilla Smith

Julia has been working as a Physical Therapist and growing Osteopath since her first degree in 2015, one year after she started climbing.

The hunger for knowledge lead her to expand her horizons integrating Chinese Medicine and Biodynamics to the structural osteopathic approach. Currently practising in the north western area of Italy, she set up ‘Verticand’ with the aim to be a reference for climbers, to inform and treat all round injuries and fingers complaints. Her love for climbing runs along alpine multi pitches, big walls and sport climbing.

Stephen Smith

Steve is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, who is a board certified specialist in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, and Strength & Conditioning.  He has been climbing since 2006, and has a particular interest in specialized sport training and rehabilitation, using science and evidence-based practice to improve performance and return patients to their highest level of athletic abilities.  Steve works in an academic Orthopedic and Sports Medicine setting and, in his free time, acts as a training and injury risk reduction consultant to local competitive and recreational climbers.

Tijl Smitz

Tijl Smitz is a Belgian climbing coach and routesetter active since 2001, at first working with the local youth in his home city: Leuven. Since 2008 Tijl coaches the Belgian Climbing Team working closely with climbers like Anak Verhoeven (World Youth Champion Lead Junior Female 2015) and Simon Lorenzi (World Youth Champion Lead Junior Male 2016). He believes that every athlete is a project made by the athlete him/herself, parents, trainer(s), coaches, physio,… working in tight cooperation and that the best climber in the world is the one who’s having the most fun (thanks for that one, Alex Lowe).

Ignacio Solar

During his medical studies he met climbing thanks to an elective course. Since then, he has oriented all his efforts to combine his work with his passion. Nowadays is developing his thesis assessing the role of dorso-lumbar musculature in climbing performance and is part of the academic core in charge of the creation of the "physical activity and sport medicine" speciality in Faculty of Medicine of University of Chile.

Manuel Spoerri

Manuel studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and has a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a passionate climber and has a strong interest in theoretical climbing research. Manuel developed a tool to numerically simulate a climber's fall. This tool uses real rope parameters to calculate all forces acting on the climber, belayer and various other important locations within the safety chain. Currently he works as an engineer in the processing industry.

Miguel Santolaya de Suñer

Miguel Santolaya is a psychologist, master in psycho-oncology and master in sports psychology and member of an investigation group in sport injuries at Autonoma university UAM (Madrid-Spain). His interests include the investigation of psychological variables  in climbing performance, talent detection, psychological rehabilitation of sports injuries, extreme sports and risk decision making. As an alpinist Miguel has travelled to the Caucasus, Pamir mountain range, Andes, Atlas.

Urs Stöcker

Urs is currently the German national coach for the seniors team preparing for the Olympics. He started professional coaching 2003 in Switzerland where he was national coach since 2008. In his own climbing career he could climb some first ascents at high and difficult peaks in the Himalayas and studied physics at the ETH Zurich, where he also completed his PhD in theoretical muscle mechanics at the Institute of biomechanics. Therein he studied the dynamics of half-sarcomeres in skeletal muscle.

Marcus Tatulinski

Marcus Tatulinski is an engineer and psychologist. He works in the field of technical risk management and the interface between human and technology. In risk management, people are the crucial factor. For several years he has been practising sport climbing as a hobby. Climbing is strongly influenced by the risk perception of the individual. His research focus is on human factor and risk perception.

Sam Thomas

Avid boulderer, mountaineer, and skier. PhD student within the Cardiovascular Research Group at Liverpool John Moores University’s School of Sports & Exercise Sciences. Currently researching the effects of exercise, age, and cardiovascular disease on human skin. One focus of my research is considering the effects of rock climbing on the function and structure of blood vessels within the skin in advanced climbers, and potentially using climbing as an exercise intervention to help improve cardiovascular function.

Athir Touaiti

Athir is a sport and physical education teacher. He is part of the first generation to have started climbing but also to popularize and present it to the sports community of his country, Tunisia, while preparing climbing routes and looking for new spots. He is also working with children to prepare the first competitive generation in the unique climbing gym, in the capital Tunis. Currently a master's student in human and social sciences applied to physical activities at the Higher Institute of Sports and Physical Education Ksar Said, Tunis, he bases his research on climbers of all categories from the point of view of social Psychology. 

Aylin Uğurlu

Aylin Ugurlu is a PhD student at Gazi University, Department of Physical Education and Sports in Turkey. She started rock climbing recreationally in 2004. In 2008, after her undergraduate degree in school of physical education and sports at the Gazi University, she lived in Canada for a while and had the opportunity to do more outdoor activities. In 2017, Aylin completed her master's degree in sports management programs and in the same year she started to do a PhD in physical education and sports. In recent years, she has been interested in bouldering and ice climbing besides rock climbing. She  would like to conduct her research in the field of psycho social areas in climbing.

Jared Vagy

Dr. Jared Vagy is a doctor of physical therapy who specializes in treating climbing injuries. In addition to his doctoral degree, he has completed a one-year residency in orthopaedics and a one-year fellowship in movement science, totalling nine years of concentrated study. He is the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller “Climb Injury-Free,” has published numerous articles on injury prevention and lectures on the topic internationally. Dr. Vagy is on the teaching faculty at the University of Southern California, home of the top doctor of physical therapy program in the United States. He is a board-certified orthopaedic clinical specialist and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. 

Riemer Vegter

Riemer is a lecturer and PhD student at the center for Human Movement Science, University Medical Center Groningen. His PhD research is on motor learning processes underlying manual wheelchair skill acquisition, applying a combination of biomechanics, physiology and coordination dynamics. Besides his work he is a fanatic rock-climber capable of French 8th grade sports routes and up to FB 7C boulder. Both from a professional and personal interest he is involved in rock-climbing research performed in Groningen.

Laurent Vigouroux

Laurent Vigouroux received the Ph.D. degree in biomechanics and sport sciences from the Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France, in 2005. He is currently associate professor at the Institute of Movement Sciences (UMR CNRS 7287) in Marseille, France. Laurent Vigouroux started his research in sport-climbing in 2002 by analyzing the forearm performances and the forearm physiology of rock-climbers. This work especially highlighted the different states of fatigue encountered during rock-climbing. His PhD thesis addressed the development of biomechanical models of the hand and fingers to quantify the muscle forces and the pulley forces while using slope and crimp grip techniques. This work brought new information for the understanding of pulley rupture pathomechanism which has been used by surgeons to improve surgical reconstruction techniques. More recently, he focused his work on finger force sharing and finger coordination while gripping a hold and the interactions between hold characteristics and finger performances.