The rock climber|Martin-Vladislav Anastasov
It’s 9:30 am, he arrives at the destination after a long travel in between the beautiful nature, far away from the city lights. He stops, leaves his heavy backpack on the ground, and slowly moves his head up looking towards the sky. Two hundred meters above he sees his objective for today’s climbing session.
Martin-Vladislav Anastasov is a professional climbing instructor, and his job is also his hobby and the thing he does the most in his free time. When Martin makes his first steps in the sport he is only 16 years old. However, his passion keeps him tightly engaged and in the last five years of his life, Martin has not left a week without doing a climb. “The first sport that I really developed a passion for.”
Before setting himself up with the proper equipment, Martin makes his warm-up ritual. “This is a dangerous sport and your body needs to work in full cooperation with your brain.” He takes his shirt off for his body to feel the temperature more sensitively and starts jumping in one place. After doing thirty jumps, Martin lays on the ground for a set of push-ups, after them, he does a set of burpees, and then he repeats all of the exercises for the next thirty minutes before doing his stretching part for another fifteen.
After his last set of exercises, Martin opens his backpack and prepares the equipment needed for the route he will be covering in the next three hours. He ties his seats around his lower body, tightens his climbing shoes, and puts a helmet on. “Putting the equipment properly has to be done with full focus and attention. Some colleagues have made such mistakes and suffered severe injuries.”
After getting all set up, he sits on the ground, closes his eyes, and tries to connect with the nature around him by meditating.
“I commenced to the sport because it helped me to fight with mental breakdowns and severe depression when I was 16. At that time, I needed something to take me out of my head and put me on the right track. Climbing was the perfect solution because practicing the sport occupies both my brain and body and puts them into synchronization. After every successful climb, I am feeling wonderful,” Martin says.
Martin heads towards the starting point of the climb. He looks at the sky again, breathes heavily, and puts his hands into a pack of dry magnesium to avoid slipping over. Then, slowly starts climbing. Before every step he makes, he spends a little time thinking of whether this is the safest and the highest rock. “It is like a game of chess, you constantly have to be two or three moves ahead.” After moving from one position to another, he makes sure that he is attached to the rope.
After three hours of intensive physical pressure during the free climbing, Martin stands on the top of the scale. He looks for the third time towards the sky, but what he sees then, is only the sun and the clouds.
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Ivaylo Todorov is a second-year student at the American University in Bulgaria. He has chosen Martin-Vladislav as the main character of the story because he admires the personal development Martin has made with his experience in climbing.
