Vibram Climbing Team

By Silvia Galliani

Barbara Zangerl, Eva Hammelmüller, Jernej Kruder, Fanny Gibert, Nicolò Balducci and Jorg Verhoeven. This is the new Vibram Climbing Team.

They come from Austria, Slovenia, France, Italy e The Netherlands, and are specialized in different climbing disciplines. But they are all united by the same passion, enthusiasm and determination. The same characteristics of Vibram that, once again, reconfirms its desire to support the climbing movement and to invest more and more in proposing high-performance and innovative products to the market.

Let’s get to know them!

Barbara Zangerl, from Austria, 31 years old, has climbed since she was 14. Free climbing expert, in her palmares there’s El Capitan (El Nino, Zodiac, Magic Mushroom) and she is the first women to free climb Odyssee on the Eiger as well as several sports climbing routes up at the 9th grade and the recent title of “Adventurer of the Year 2019” by National Geographic. Always looking for new challenges, Barbara brings all her experience and her constant desire to face new challenges to the Vibram team.

Jernej Kruder, was born in Slovenia in 1990 and won the Bouldering World Cup in 2018. He has been the second person to climb “Es Pontas”, a famous deep water route on the arch of Mallorca. A multifaceted climber who likes to get involved in different specialties including trad, deep water soloing, sport climbing and multi-pitch climbing. Among the next goals of Jernej there’s the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the conquest of new routes.

Fanny Gibert started climbing when she was a child on Reunion Island. Born in 1993, she’s now attending the course of mechanical engineering, dividing her life between study and boulder. She won the French Bouldering Championship three times and made her way to the third place of the Bouldering World Cup in 2018. Her goal for the future is to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Another girl in the team, Eva Hammelmüller, is just 19 years old but has already won in the lead category at the European Youth Championship twice and obtained an excellent fourth place at the 2016 Bouldering World Championship. Always looking for new challenges where to test herself, Eva transmits determination to the whole team.

Jorg Verhoeven, born in 1985, is the other veteran of the team as well as the captain. For over 15 years he has competed internationally and has many successes in his palmares (more than 25 lead and boulder podiums) and the victory of the 2008 World Championship. His most significant achievements include The Nose (5.14), Dihedral Wall (5.14), Brento Centro (8b), in addition to sport climbing routes up to the 9th grade and boulder routes up to the 8C grade.

Last but not least is the youngest member of the team. Nicolò Balducci is only 16 years old but has always lived in close contact with the Alps. In a short time he has achieved exceptional results and has climbed up to the 8B grade on boulder and accomplished prestigious sport climbing routes.