NORWEGIAN Rannveig Aamod was introduced to rock climbing by her older brother and his friends. Their patience and support allowed her to grow in confidence and she soon excelled at the sport. 

In this inspiring interview Rannveig talks passionately about her progression in climbing as well as her adventurous lifestyle and work as a photographer.

For anyone who has felt helpless after injury or sickness Rannveig’s story of recovery from being wheelchair bound to once again setting the climbing world alight is sure to motivate and leave you in awe. 

To find out more about her story and to follow her blog visit www.rannveigaamodt.com.

When did your passion for climbing begin and were there any strong influences in your early progression in the sport?

Hiking and adventures in the mountains has been a basic ingredient of growing up. I started rock climbing at the age of 16 when my older brother (my idol) came home one day with a pair of climbing shoes and said “Hey litle sis, you are gonna start rock climbing”. He and his friends brought me climbing and it was the coolest thing in the world to be brought along on their adventures. 

I kind of sucked at it at first, but the climbing community they had created was very inspiring. They were always supportive and would include me at whatever level I was at. It made it easy to enjoy and learn. I could try as hard as I could without any thoughts about comparing myself to others or worrying about  ‘being good’. Stubborn as I was (and I still am), I kept doing it until I got hooked. Here I am 15 years later.

Tell us about some of the amazing places climbing has taken you and about some of the people you have met along the way?

Good people and good places! I met my husband on a climbing trip! So that was pretty cool. He is a great photographer who shoots weddings (dreamtimeimages.com) and adventure sports (nathanweltonphoto.com). These days we travel about half the year to climbing areas around the world. 

We met in Fontainebleau in France, which is one of the most magical places in the world. It’s a huge forest in France full of sandstone boulders, and the rocks require so much technique and skill that you’ll often see old grandfathers climbing seemingly impossible lines.

One thing that’s kind of cool is that there is a huge climbing community, so as you travel around you wind up crossing paths with the same people in all these different corners of the earth – in Thailand, in Australia, in Kentucky, in Greece. And then you reconnect, move on, and meet again randomly somewhere else.

What have been some of your biggest successes in climbing?

To me, my biggest success is being able to live this lifestyle and see continual improvement, particularly after my accident. 

In the last year or so I’ve grown even more interested in attacking my weaknesses as a climber.

I am typically an endurance climber and don’t like to get rowdy on routes, but I chose a really hard route to project in Greece that exploits all my weaknesses. Training for it and trying on it has been frustrating, aggravating, fun, rewarding – I’ve experienced the entire gamut of emotions. 

In the process, I’ve become far stronger and much more well rounded as an athlete, which in my mind is a huge success. It’s just one of those sound bite type of successes that make sense to anyone else but me, because you can’t really measure it with a grade or a number.

What other extreme sports are you passionate about and how often do you get to pursue them?

I’m not much of an extreme sports person aside from climbing. Coming from Norway, I grew up on skis and love cross country skiing and back country snowboarding. I actually spent four-and-a-half months crossing the entire country of Norway (north to south) on XC skis when I was in my early 20s, which remains one of my greatest life adventures. 

My ankles hurt a bit after my accident so I don’t ski and snowboard that much any more, but that’s okay: it leaves me more time to train for climbing!

Could you tell us about your work as a speaker and photography and what it’s involved to date?

The work as a speaker involves talking about my life as a climber, my recovery from the accident and what I’ve learned from it, and I tailor the talks to the audiences I’m in front of. Once I spoke to a large group of medical students at the University of Oslo, while another speech was to climbers at a huge outdoor festival in Norway. The main themes I address are overcoming challenges, how to not be paralysed by fear, and what you need to do to excel when faced with difficult situations. 

As far as photography goes, I learned to shoot when I met my husband, and began to enjoy documenting people in their element. Over time I started helping him more and then was his second shooter for a few years. This year I branched out and started shooting weddings on my own as well (aamodtstudio.com), though we will continue to shoot together whenever we can! I love photography and I think it’s really fun and challenging to capture people’s authentic personalties.

Tell us a little about your accident in 2012 and how did you manage to motivate yourself to such a degree that would see you make a full recovery and go on to enjoy climbing in the way you had done before?

In 2012 I nearly died in a 50-foot ground fall while climbing with my husband in Turkey. It left me with a broken back, pelvis, arm and two badly broken ankles. I was in a wheelchair for months and had to relearn how to walk.

My motivation comes from a deep passion for what I’m doing: climbing and being active. I’m not a person who gives up that easily even when things seem impossible at first. Making ‘impossible’ moves possible is what I love about rock climbing, and I think that is what ‘brought me back’ from the cloud I was in, when I was laying on the ground at my husband’s feet. Dying seemed like the easiest option, but choosing life and living it fully is the most challenging thing we are faced with.

It wasn’t just getting back into rock climbing that motivated me throughout the recovery process. It was the freedom of motion. Being active and playing in the outdoors is a huge part of so many aspects of my life and my happiness depends on it. I knew I had to ‘give it all’  in the recovery process if I was going to be able to live with myself. Knowing that I did my very best during recovery left me with good feelings and higher goals.

As the recovery went forward it turned into training, not just recovering, and I used the same motivation and the same strategy in training for climbing. I wasn’t afraid of dreaming big and setting high goals, but most important I made small goals for every day and set one foot in front of the other. After eight months I climbed the hardest routes of my life.

What can visitors expect from your blog at www.rannveigaamodt.com and how important is it to you to connect with like-minded people across the internet?

Great photos from all over the world, inspiration and training advice.

Have you set yourself any big goals or challenges for 2016 and do you have any exciting projects in the pipeline?

 Always! And my homework to all of you who reads this is to do the same!