Top Austrian climbers and winning fibers

Climbing a huge boulder hanging over a precipitous alpine drop requires rigorous training, faultless gear and brute courage—and a good t-shirt doesn’t hurt, either. The Lenzing Group, Lenzing, Austria, suited up the athletes of the Austrian Climbing Association with sportswear made of Tencel® fiber, a cellulose fiber made from wood. One of the top-ranked climbers in the Austrian Climbing Association, Kilian Fischhuber, won a boulder climbing competition in Switzerland wearing “My lucky t-shirt: Tencel Blue.”

Tencel offers climbers effective moisture management, good sun protection, reduced bacterial growth and a comfortable feel. “Tencel prevents body odor build-up and transports perspiration to the surface surprisingly fast,” says Angela Eiter, a World Cup winner, after her first test climb with the t-shirt. The company produces Tencel using a closed loop process that recovers almost 100 percent of solvents used to manufacture the fiber, which earned Lenzing the European Union’s “European Award for the Environment” and the “Eco Responsibility Award” at the 2010 ISPO international conference.

For more information on the Tencel® technology and the Lenzing Group, read “Discover the potential of natural fibers,” also from the August 2010 issue of Specialty Fabrics Review.