Siebe Vanhee

Siebe is known in the climbing community for his ability to climb on his maximum limit on the hardest big walls and in the most uncomfortable environments. He will perform his hardest climbing grades on a big wall, in the cold and if some storm is rolling in, he climbs even better. Mentally he’s is the strongest in environments where others have a difficulty to stay motivated and keep climbing. The combination of adventure, out of comfort and heady, hard climbing is what he is searching for.

Biography

I got into climbing when my parents send me on an indoor summer camp to the local climbing gym. I was 9 years old when I first climbed on plastic. Since that summer, every school holiday I wanted to take part of this indoor camp, regardless the fact that all the activities where exactly the same. At an age of 10 I got into the local climbing team, climbing twice a week. Soon this turned into 5 times per week, the climbing gym became my second home. The people and community encouraged and supported me so much I just felt safe to be who I was, with all my eagerness to climb hard and push myself.

I experienced two main drivers that kept me interested in the sport; the climbing itself and the lifestyle and community. Climbing hard, training and pushing my own limits physically as well as mentally on one side. On the other hand; traveling low key, finding your path as a ‘dirtbag’ in an unknown culture, getting to learn new languages, sharing stories and getting into discussions about the values in climbing and life. In the end it’s been about self-development and interaction with my environment.

After some adolescent years of sport- and competition climbing my focus turned towards adventure. All I wanted was trad and crackclimbing in the best places on earth. I went from one expedition to the other and was never home, the search for the unknown kept me going. Since 2019 something changed, I had a great desire to become ‘stronger’. Instead of searching only for the adventure in climbing I wanted to spend more time to discover my athletic limits. All with the dream to climb the most difficult big walls in the world. I rediscovered climbing ‘hard’ and the challenges of pushing my own athletic skills. Yet one more time the sport opened up for me and I got to know many new challenges in becoming a ‘better’ climber.  

I’m a very goal oriented person. Maybe I’m a bit addicted to goals as well , I always need a goal, it brings me mental rest to know I’m aiming for something. I am conscious it’s not always good and being able to just ‘be’, is an incredible quality I might still have to develop.

My goals? Pushing my climbing skills as a big wall climber. Climbing harder and more difficult big walls in a good style. Ground-up, doing pushes, onsights, one-day ascents, first free ascents in altitude, … The latter is the most exciting, climbing hard big walls at a high-altitude environment like the Karakorum. A very personal goal of mine is to be more kind with myself, more patient and more supporting. I will always put a lot of pressure on myself, which I believe is my strength. A strength that turns into a weakness when it’s overcultivated. And last but not least, an objective which is very much connected to being goal-oriented; I would love to be able to be more process oriented and give less importance to the actual result. But that’s the beauty of climbing and all its challenges, it pushes you to keep developing yourself.

Quick Facts

HOMETOWN
Leuven, Belgium 

HOMEBASE
Leuven, Belgium  

BIGGEST DREAM
On a very personal level I dream about being able to look back on my life and know I’ve done my best to achieve my goals and that I enjoyed and learned from the process of aiming for those goals. A second dream is about sharing and equality. I would love to bring climbing, nature and the climbing spirit to people and groups who might need it but don’t always have the access to climbing.

HOW DO I FOCUS?
By creating a routine for myself. If it’s on the climb, by sticking to little positive habits of preparation. If it’s in the long term, by writing about my project and the process, with a focus on the positives and improvements. But the main key for focus is something very contradictory, distraction and relaxation. Letting go at times to then return full of mental energy to be focussed!

BEST ADVICE
If you don’t feel it, just don’t do it.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Climbers and people in general that find the perfect balance between aiming high and managing to respect their personal needs. People that stay true to their values and connect to others in an authentic way, and that this may be their true strength on and off the mountain!

WORDS TO LIVE BY
Stay true to your priorities.

FAVOURITE OTHER FITNESS EXCERCISE
Redcord training (kind of like TRX)

I DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT MY...
The North Face Thermoball

INSTAGRAM