Natalija Gros

She started climbing at the tender age of six. Even as a youth competitor she showed extraordinary talent, and three times was world youth champion (1999, 2000 and 2002) and twice youth runner up.

When she was 16 she joined the national team and notched up several victories. She stood on world cup competition podiums 23 times in the bouldering and difficulty climbing categories, and twice brought home gold in the bouldering world cup and once in difficulty climbing.

She was two-time winner of the prestigious International Master at Serre Chevalier, and in 2005 she won silver at the world games in Duisburg. In 2008 she crowned her long career by becoming European champion in bouldering and combination. She retired from active sport at the end of 2011.

Natalija is the co-author of the book Z glavo in s srcem do vrha (With Head and Heart to the Summit) along with Martina Čufar and Aleš Jensterle. She has also appeared in two documentaries: Magnezij in čokolada (Magnesium and Chocolate, 2009) and Nova dimenzija (New Dimension, 2011), directed by her late partner Jure Breceljnik. After his death she took over the management of his production company Film IT, and together with colleagues enabled the completion of three of Jure’s documentaries: Terra Magica, Prečkanje Islandije (Traversing Iceland) and the full-length documentary Zadnji ledeni lovci (The Last Ice Hunters). The Last Ice Hunters won the top prize at the Festival of Mountain Film, and the Vilko Filač prize for the best photography at the Festival of European and Mediterranean Film in Piran, and is also garnering success internationally at festivals abroad. Apart from climbing, Natalija’s other passion is dancing, and in the past she tried out flamenco for a brief period, as well as pole dancing, and in 2018 she won in the second season of Slovenia’s television show Dancing with the Stars.