[Wind blowing]
[Music]
COACH: When you compare Brooke to the average climber that's her age, there almost is no
comparison. BROOKE: I'm Brooke Raboutou, I'm eleven years
old, and I'm a rock climber. BROOKE: I started climbing probably about
when I could walk. MOM: She wants to climb the hardest route
out there, she wants to win the competitions. COACH: She's able to do climbs that people
once thought were impossible. BROOKE: When I'm on a high rock I feel like
I'm in control and just happy.
[Music]
BROOKE [to brother]: I'll go first.
[Music]
COACH: Brooke is a climbing phenom. She's set all these precedents in rock climbing
that 10 years ago the top elite climbers were having trouble doing.
ROBYN [MOM]: Brooke is one of two female climbers in the world at the young age of 11 to be
setting records.
[Music]
GARRETT: Brooke was the first 9-year-old to do V10. She was also the first 10-year-old to
do V11. She's the first 10-year-old to climb 5-14-A and the first 11-year-old to climb
5-14-B. You're talking like 0.0001% of the climbing community can do these climbs.
BROOKE: I love climbing because, well there's a lot of challenges in climbing. I don't know.
It's so cool just to be moves after moves and different holds. There's so many different
ways that you can climb. ROBYN: Look how I'm going to take the hold.
I'm going to take it open and then I'm gonna close it. Take it open, then close it. Open
and then close it. Okay? GARRETT: She really has the full package. For
one, she has these incredibly strong fingers. If she gets a hold, she's gonna hold onto
it. Also, she's been able to maintain that only baby flexibility where she's able to
twist and turn into these positions that the average climber just is not able to do. Brooke
is also unique in the sense that she comes from this long line of champion world cup
climbers.
[Music]
ROBYN: I started climbing at age 18 and I did my first world cup in 1989 and I went
on to win four world cup titles in a row. That pretty much set my path for what I wanted
to do as an adult which was to coach and teach young kids how to rock climb.
ROBYN [to student]: It's all about bringing it in with one arm—
BROOKE: Now she coaches me and my teammates. She encourages me a lot. She gives me really
good advice. She's just a big part of my climbing life.
ROBYN [to Brooke]: There it is! Good, strong! Yeah, Brooke!
ROBYN: She's hard on herself, so I don't need to be hard on Brooke. She's her boss and I'm
always there just to give her the tools she needs to help her progress to the level that
she wants to be at. BROOKE: Sometimes it's hard for my mom to
be my coach because I can get really frustrated with her.
ROBYN [to Brooke]: C'mon, faster Brooke! Let's go! Good. Go, go, go, go! Oh, you could have
gotten another second off there. GARRETT: Robyn is an intense person, but that's
what makes her great and I think that the kids thrive off of that intensity and that
desire to succeed. ROBYN [to Brooke]: Really pull hard. C'mon,
Brooke! Good job! Sweet! That's progress. GARRETT: C'mon, Brooke. Get more in!
BROOKE: To be a really good climber, you can't just have it. You have to train really hard,
so I take it pretty seriously. GARRETT: One! Time! Nice job!
[Music]
ROBYN: We have kids who are athletic and they've been athletic since the day they started to
crawl and you can see that they're very coordinated. As a family, we introduced our kids to climbing
at a very young age. We started when they were itty bitty in France and we have a climbing
gym in our backyard and as soon as they could walk, we tied them into a rope and we let
them try to climb. It's something that's just always been in our lives, just like the refrigerator
and the bathtub. We've always had a climbing wall at our home.
BROOKE: This is my climbing like mini-gym that my dad built and its in my basement of
my house. My dad was also a really good rock climber. He climbed in world cups, too. He
won a lot of big competitions, but he doesn't climb much anymore.
DIDIER [DAD]: I did all the competitions until '92, after that, I kind of slowed down my
climbing to find other passions. Now I like a lot to work with my hands. Building stuff,
I love it. BROOKE: My dad built climbing walls in houses,
too. He built a lot of my house and he also built a strength-training part above my basement.
ROBYN: It's just kind of a European way of gaining finger strength and we like it, so
we built it. [Laughing] C'mon. C'mon, finish it! Good!
BROOKE: I like to look for challenges. It keeps me motivated and I don't like doing
the same thing all of the time. BROOKE: We're in clear creek. And the route
I'm gonna climb is Sonic Youth.
[Music]
ROBYN: Brooke just steps way out there from a challenge standpoint and she picks things
that are hard for her and hard for anybody and she goes after it.
GARRETT: Because climbing is so hard, it's almost a masochistic sort of sport. If it doesn't
make you happy, then there's no reason to do it.
BROOKE: When I'm on a really high climb and I look out at the view or down, I know that
the view is always really pretty and fascinating and when I look down, I'm not scared because
I'm not scared of heights but it's just so cool to think how small I am compared to the
rock and high I am.
[Music]
ROBYN: C'mon, Brookey! You can do it! GARRETT: It's important to always be strong mentally.
If you let it slip for one second, especially because of the nature of climbing, it can
be a dangerous sport if you let that enter into your mind that you can't do this or this
is too hard. BROOKE: Sometimes when I reach a place where
don't think I can go any farther, it's always possible to do something. I just have to do
try it. ROBYN [to Brooke]: You just have to commit
to it. You can do it! There it is! Awesome! ROBYN: She doesn't go after things that come
easy for her. She wants to climb the hardest route out there, she wants to win the competitions.
And with that comes failure. ROBYN [to Brooke]: Wow, good effort!
[Brooke cries] ROBYN: It's hard as parents to see that happen
but it's important for all of us, we've all been there where things don't always fall
into place and that's what makes us stronger. BROOKE: If I don't make a route, it's just
motivating because I don't want to leave it undone. I'm so close and it's just that feeling
that I know I can get it. GARRETT: She has this persistence to keep going.
I've been with her outside trying these things well past after it's gone dark and Brooke's
still there fighting to do this rock climb. ROBYN: That tough grinding personality that
doesn't give up is really what makes her who she is and it was there when she was itty
bitty and it's still there.
[Music]
BROOKE: I'm Brooke Raboutou. Hang around and watch the next video. [Laughs]