I’ve said it before – for such a small place, Basques seem to outdo themselves, making an impact above and beyond what their small population might suggest. Case in point: Patxi Usobiaga. Patxi is a rock climber who reached the pinnacle of his sport, doing things no one had ever done before. Maybe growing up in the mountains of the Basque Country gave him an advantage. But you only make it to the top with hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.

• Patxi Usobiaga Lakunza was born on September 7, 1980, in Eibar, Gipuzkoa. He started climbing when he was 10 years old.
• Usobiaga is the first climber in the world to complete an 8c+ climbing route “on sight.” What does this mean? 8c+ refers to the difficulty of the climb, or its rating, in the Fontainebleau bouldering system. An 8c+, equivalent to an 5.14c in the Yosemite Decimal System, is one of the hardest climbs there is, though there are routes that are rated in the 9s. Onsighting means that he had no prior knowledge of the route – he didn’t know where the handholds were or what order might be best to attack them, he discovered them as he climbed. He couldn’t even watch another climber attempt the route. Further, to qualify as an onsight climb, he had to complete it in his first attempt.
• The route itself is called Bizi Euskaraz (live by Basque) and is in Etxauri, Nafarroa. Usobiaga climbed it in 2007.
• This isn’t the hardest route he climbed. He also redpointed 9a+ routes. Redpointing means that he didn’t complete it on his first attempt, so that when he did complete it, he had some familiarity with the route.
• During one two-week period in December, 2007, he redpointed two 9a+’s and a 8c+/9a and onsighted a 8b, 8c, 8b+, and 8c+.
• In both 2006 and 2007, he won the Climbing World Cup in the individual discipline of lead climbing. He was also the World Climbing Champion in 2009.
• In 2010, he was in a car accident that caused a slip disk in his back. He retired from the sport the following year. Since then, he has become a personal trainer, training other climbers in the sport.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Patxi Usobiaga on Bizi Euskaraz – 8c+ onsight: a first by Mick Ryan, UK Climbing; Patxi Usobiaga, Wikipedia