Jorge Díaz-Rullo, life without a rope and in a van of the best climber in Spain: "I am not afraid"

“No rope climbing is totally mental. During the ascent I have to be totally focused on climbing, I can't divert my attention in the slightest. That's why I don't feel afraid, I don't think about falling. If I climb without a rope it is because I am 100% sure that I am not going to fall, I am confident in myself”.

That point. A total harmony between body and mind. Technical excellence, absolute determination. At that point is Jorge Díaz-Rullo, the best Spanish climber of the moment. He is one of only six men in the world who have managed to complete a grade 9b+ route, an almost impossible wall. He is one of the few who dares to carry out solo ascents, that is, without any protection, in the natural. And despite this, he is hardly known outside the world. At 24 years old, he is far from the recognition that the Czech Adam Ondra receives, much more than the fame of the American Alex Honnold, star of the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo.

Why does that happen? In Spain being a climber is very difficult. It is a little recognized sport and the aid is minimal. In the United States and other countries they know how to sell themselves much more. There when someone does something important, they value it and spread it in the media. I am very lucky to be able to say that I am a climber. I train about 40 hours a week and can afford to make several trips a year with my van.

Because yes, the life of Díaz-Rullo is a nomadic life. From Vallecas, in Madrid, since he was a teenager he has combined weeks at his parents' house with months at the foot of the mountains, climbing, climbing and, later, climbing. «When I have a project that motivates me, I go for an indefinite period of time to live in the van. The last time I was in Catalonia almost half a year. The truth is that I love living in the van, it's like having your house on wheels. Now I have a big one, camperized, a real luxury. Before I was living in a small Citroen Berlingo and it only fit a bed, with some wood that I had fixed. The difference is quite noticeable, ”acknowledges the athlete, with strange beginnings.

ADRI MARTÍNEZ “Climbing is like a video game”

Climbing, like so many minority sports, is usually hereditary, a hobby that is passed from father to son, but in his case it is not like that. «In Vallecas, near where I live, there is a small ceiling light and when I was 12 years old my brother convinced me to try it.. I didn't like it very much and I was pretty bad at it; I preferred to play football. But over time climbing attracted me, it began to attract my attention and in the end I ended up completely immersed”, recalls Díaz-Rullo, something of a child prodigy.. Because, with no one to take him up the mountain, he spent years without trying the rock, but as soon as he got his hands on it…

In 2017, at the age of 18, he performed in Rodellar, Huesca, his first 9a and his first 9a+; in 2019 in Villanueva del Rosario, in Malaga, his first 9b, following in the footsteps of Ondra, Jakob Schubert, Angela Eiter or Jonathan Siegrist; and from there to the first Spanish 9b+ in history.

“Climbing is like a video game. When you start, it's easy to progress. But as you go up in level there is more and more difference between one grade and another and when you reach the ninth grade it is crazy. For example, to get to this 9b+, I had to do seven grade 9b routes and about 80 ninth grade routes,” says Díaz-Rullo, a graduate in Sports Sciences and former worker at the SoulClimb climbing wall in Madrid.. Now he has the help of another climbing wall in the capital, Sputnik Climbing, and brands like Scarpa, Petzl or E9.

Rock climbing seems to have lost focus with respect to competition, to climbing walls, even more so after Alberto Ginés' gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Would you like to be an Olympian? They are two very different disciplines. I am clear that where I enjoy the most is in the mountains, on the rock, and if I had to prepare for the Games I would have to put that aside. I competed a long time ago, in Spain and abroad [he was in World Cups and junior Europeans], and I had a good time, but at the moment I don't feel like doing it again. Maybe in the future it motivates me, but not right now.