Meet routesetter Maragda Gabarre ¦ #ClimbToParis Ep. 3

This is Climbing District, a buzzing gym in the centre of Paris, and we're here to chat to Maragda. She's an IFSC route setter and is working upstairs, so we're going to go and have a word with her about the setting and her life within the comp circuit. Hey, how are you? I'm good, it's very good to see you. Yeah, me too. But normally we're at World Cups, and obviously we know each other, but for people who don't know who you are, who are you and where are we? Well, I'm Maragda Gavarre, I'm 25 years old, and I'm a route setter. So I want to talk to you a bit about movement, because obviously you've set at the highest level for the athletes. We're in a gym, though. We can't set boulders that Adam Ondra and Janja are going to climb. We need to have it more for normal people. So how do you take your experiences with movement and different boulders and take it into a commercial gym? Well, I think that competition is a good point to challenge the athletes, so to push a bit the movement and to check how far the athletes can go. And I think that for climbing gyms, the people who are really fanatic and see competitions and start to own time on this news, it's nice to get this movement and try it in different levels. That's why in climbing gyms we have different circuits, so the level is progressive for the difficulty. So the boulder, I'm guessing, starts in the corner, with like a pressy thing. Yeah, exactly. Like a small position. And then the footwork starts. The idea, I think, is to cross foot, try no hands in the fiberglass, in the big black. Yeah, because there's no hands. Yes. You're right. All foot. And then some unbalance to that tiny volume. With like a fall into it. Like a palm. Yeah, exactly. And then just foot up and a bit small dynamic to that tiny, tiny hole. So you need to be in a stable position, right? Okay. Yeah. And this is the no hand section. Exactly. You've got so much flow when you're doing that. All right, high foot onto the little jib. I feel like I should be commentating here. Sometimes you should improve. Okay. And then this is the move I thought looked the wrong way. I think the best could be to turn it. Oh wow, okay. Well, you made it look really good. We will see now you. I know it's your first go on it, but was that vaguely what you were trying to get from the bottom? Kind of, but for example, the dynamic, it was more like, oh, we can do like more fast and more not slow, slow, slow. So it's really possible to now play with the position of the big volume. So I think now it's like, these are small things and small details that we start to realise and analyse. Okay, that's better with my forearm. Now look, this was what I was thinking, which is that's a crimp. Yes. You can maybe help you. Okay. And then what, fall onto that? Yes, yeah, yeah. That's terrifying. Come on. Yeah, you got this. Yes, yes, yes. What are you going to adjust on this now? I would say just the position of the hold to the reception. Maybe I can move more to the right to create more swing, because now it's a bit more slow. So maybe I can try to move it and then a bit more faster. Yeah, yeah. That's doable. And then you just do a big move? Okay. Yeah, maybe this is a bit stretchy. That felt much more doable to me. What do you think for the top? I think the top's cool. I like it. I love the big stretch. It feels like a hero move. I like the little finger down. Sometimes it looks like you were so stretchy, but... I think I'm just small. Small arms. Okay. But I thought it was cool. Before we finish, zones. Because this is a commercial boulder, right? There are no zones. But in World Cups, the Olympics, there's going to be zones on the wall, scoring places. Exactly. So tell us about that. Yeah, normally in all competitions, like European World Cups, World Championship, it's one zone. But in the Paris Olympics, it's two zones, right? And this is nice to do the ranking for the athletes, because we point out the amount of tops that the athlete has, and after, how many zones the athlete has, and then the tries to each. In terms of your experience with climbing in the Olympics, so many more people are going to be watching it. Have you seen climbing change over the last couple of years, from the first Olympics to this one? I mean, I think that they've just seen how the climbing gym has changed in the few years ago, five years ago. I think that they grow up so fast. And I think just because the competitions increase the level for high quality, the route setting is more professional, and the visibility that our sport has, I think that the climbing gym improves a lot. The quality, the boulders that we put on the wall, I think it's way different than before. I know we won't see you at the Olympics, but we will see you next year on the World Cup circuit. I hope so. So yeah, can't wait to see that. Can't wait to try hopefully more of your creations in the future. Thank you. Thank you for all the hard work. IFSC photographers bring us incredible shots of the action and emotions that go with every competition. Next time, we have breakfast with Jan Wirt to find out what that job actually entails.