Felipe
Camargo
Brazil
·
Climbing
Date of birth | April 27, 1991 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo |
Age | 34 |
Nationality | Brazil |
Career start | 2006 |
Disciplines | Free Climbing |
1991 was the year the first World Climbing Championship was held. It’s also the year that Felipe Camargo, the future Brazilian icon of the sport, was born in Ribeiro Preto, São Paulo.
Aged 10, Camargo – or Pikuira, as he is known to his nearest and dearest – climbed his first wall for fun in a club in the city of São José do Rio Preto. From that day, he was hooked and has been climbing ever since.
“I did an interview in my gym and they asked me, 'What do you want to do when you grow up?' And I said, 'I just want to have a job where I can climb as well,'" he says.
As a young teenager, Camargo knew how he wanted to live his adult life: as a professional climber. "As I got older, it became clearer and I told my parents I wanted to become a professional climber."
In 2006, he won the Brazilian Climbing Championship in the professional category for adults, the first of many titles. From there, his career took off, and he enjoyed many successes, including numerous Brazilian titles and one South American in the Boulder category.
A switch to free climbing
Sport climbing then took a back seat, with Camargo's focus switching to conquering the great outdoors.
"I always loved rock climbing," he says. "I was never someone who could spend the whole year competing – every break I had, I’d go rock climbing. So I’ve always had that connection and I have been doing it since I was 12, 13."
In the second half of 2016, he achieved an unprecedented feat on national territory: he and his climbing mate, American Sasha DiGiulian, mastered the 650m track from Pedra Riscada, one of the largest rocky walls in the Americas, in Minas Gerais.
Some stretches of the site reach the impressive 8+ mark, making them the first climbers to complete the route in one – and without suffering a single fall, something previously unheard of in the Riscada Stone.
Camargo then became a household name in his home country of Brazil when, in 2017, he won the sports-reality TV show Ultimate Beastmaster. That same year, he reached the top of São Paulo’s most famous landmark, the Ponte Estaiada, also known as the X-Bridge. Standing 138m high, the bridge had never been free-climbed by anyone before.
In 2019, Camargo became only the third climber to successfully ascend the 9+ route of El Bon Combat at Cova de Ocell in Spain, and he continues to search for challenging new routes as he further solidifies his status as one of the world's best climbers.
Giving back to the climbing community
Keen to help the next generation, Camargo now co-owns a bouldering gym in São Paulo called Fabrica Escalada.
"We have a group of young climbers in my gym that we try to help; we’re sponsoring them with a small salary. It’s something I always wanted to do when I started the partnership with the gym."
Red Bull Bouldering Camp challenges Felipe Camargo
© Jan Virt/Red Bull Content Pool
Thirsty work: Felipe Camargo belaying Michaela Kiersch
© Matteo Mocellin/Red Bull Content Pool
All of Felipe Camargo's tattoos tell a story
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool
Felipe Camargo hits the climbing gym
© Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Content Pool