Forged For Gold

It’s all about the process. The commitment. The focus. A maniacal devotion to movement. The forging of body and mind for a single purpose. These BD athletes are putting in the work for the big show.

But for each climber, the process is different. Peek behind the curtain and watch how Colin Duffy, Oriane Bertone, and Natalia Grossman are preparing for the Northern Hemisphere summer.

Natalia Grossman

Natalia Grossman was born in Santa Cruz, California, and started climbing at the age of six. Nine years later, she moved to Boulder, Colorado, in order to pursue her climbing career. She knew that she wanted to become a professional climber and that Colorado had multiple resources that could help her achieve her goals. Later, in 2020 she moved to Salt Lake City in order to be able to train at the US training center.

Natalia has been competing since she was seven years old and has won multiple national and international events. Although she focuses on competition climbing, she occasionally still loves to climb outside.

Natalia enjoys climbing and all the experiences it has brought her. She loves traveling the world while competing and gaining new experiences, meeting new people, and pushing herself both mentally and physically. In addition to being a passionate athlete, Natalia enjoys devoting her time to learning about psychology in hopes of one day becoming a sport psychologist.

Colin Duffy

Colin Duffy is a rock climber from Broomfield, Colorado. His passion for rock climbing began at a fitness center at age five. He later began climbing competitively and outdoors at age eight. Colin is a 10-time USAC youth national champion across all disciplines. He won gold medals in lead climbing at the 2017 and 2018 IFSC Youth World Championships followed by a silver medal in lead in 2019. In 2020, he won the IFSC Pan American Championships and became the fourth, and youngest member of the U.S. Olympic climbing team.

Colin also enjoys the freedom and spirit of climbing outdoors. His biggest outdoor accomplishment to date was a single day in the Red River Gorge when he sent both Pure Imagination (5.14c) and Southern Smoke (5.14c). Along with this, he’s sent numerous V13 boulders and has his sights set on several new projects.

Oriane Bertone

Oriane Bertone is a French rock climber hailing from a small island, Reunion off the east coast of Madagascar. She now splits her time between Reunion and mainland Europe for competing and training. At 12 Oriane became the youngest climber to send an 8B+ boulder. In 2019 she started international competing and became Junior World Champion in lead climbing and bouldering.

Oriane entered the seniors category for IFSC World Cup competition in 2021 and burst on to the scene with a Silver Medal at the Meiringen Bouldering World Cup in Switzerland. She grabbed another Silver Medal at the SLC Bouldering World Cup and continued to be a fan favorite across the globe.