about me

Alba Lucia Neder

climber, writer, language nerd

No, I’m not Italian nor Spanish. I get that question a lot, or people ask me right out if I’m a gypsy.
I might not look like it, but I’m a “good German citizen”, except for the fact that my parents were kind of hippie and took me kayaking before I could walk. The climbing started shortly after I could walk…
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Wild multi-pitches?

Yes please

Trad climbing

is where my heart is – my camalots are my only toys (and my car)

Bolts?

OK at the belays, and in places that cannot otherwise be protected. I do sometimes clip them when they’re there, opposed to what people seem to think

Limestone or granite?

Is that even a question? Granite makes nicer cracks

Granite or sandstone?

That’s tough. Haven’t decided

Fear?

I feel more scared when sport climbing than on alpine routes. Because that’s when I could fall

Dogs?

Yes please

Work?

Little. Translating (climbing) guidebooks, proofreading, writing

Qualifications?

DAV sport climbing instructor since 2009, ex head instructor at DAV Kletterzentrum Frankfurt
Whitewater kayaking instructor since 2008

What else?

Yoga, cold water, gluten free baking, sewing, kayaking (used to do that a lot until 2009)



No, I’m not Italian nor Spanish. I get that question a lot, or people ask me right out if I’m a gypsy.
I might not look like it, but I’m a “good German citizen”, except for the fact that my parents were kind of hippie and took me kayaking before I could walk. The climbing started shortly after I could walk.
Then, when people realise I speak Spanish as well as Italian and French, they ask again if I’m sure my mother isn’t Spanish? She isn’t, but she had a longing for faraway places, so we went to live in Bolivia when I was 9. I grew up with my father climbing Huayna Potosí and Mururata on weekends, was dragged through days and days of Inca Trails, sometimes without food …

… and went to school on 3.600 metres every day.
Mostly I preferred to be on horseback during that time. My climbing career took up again when we moved back to Germany in 2003, a much greater culture shock than the first one. I adapted, halfway, even though I never really fit in and took up kayaking during all times of night and day. Even back then I had a hang to exercise my passion at minus 6 degrees in the dark. At age 18 somehow I chose climbing over kayaking, maybe just because I could get there by myself without a car and two tonnes of gear. And I do like the control that defines a great part of climbing for me; water is much wilder and less controllable than rock. Dozens of trips, instructor certificates and experiences later I discovered I liked being even more independent: by choosing where I place my gear instead of following a line of bolts (never liked following anything).

I’ve been doing that ever since and even topped it in 2022 by finally choosing my own line in a face of granite, long-standing dream of mine. It may not be the boldest line, but it is mine. Have a look at PMDD – my first first ascent in Val Bedretto: completely clean, including the belays, as God and time created the wall.