Alex Ianev had a natural love for mountains and outdoor activities. During his childhood he had spent most of his free time hiking and exploring the Bulgarian wilderness.

In 2004, at the age of 14 he started climbing in the oldest gym in Sofia - the one in Sofia University. It did not take long for him to realize that, as he says "climbing outdoors is the real deal, the gym just keeps you fit".

From then on he was mainly concentrated in climbing outdoors-both sport and traditional.

Some of his sport climbing achievements:

• Robotsapiens 8b - Lakatnik
• Jackpot 8b - Lakatnik
• Enjoy the Silence 8b - Geyikbayiry, Turkey
• Olympos games 8b - Geyikbayiry, Turkey

Apart from sport climbing Alex had done many traditional ascents in Bulgaria, and also the Italian Alps (mainly the Dolomites). In this period of his career he also summited Mont Blank (4792m) via route from Italy's side which included a mixture of ice and rock climbing as well as a lot of hiking.

Climbing trips are another chapter of Alex's career. Greece, Turkey, Spain, Austria, Germany are some of the places he had visited.

"Being in different countries helps compare grades, bolting and developing climbing areas as a whole."

This bring us to the current state of his climbing career. Alex has bolted more than 60 lines in the last 10 years. Since 2022 he has been working alongside Boyko Lalov in the Teteven area in Bulgaria, discovering and developing new climbing gems. They both dream big and last year they organized the first climbing festival in Bulgaria - Teteven Climb .