Rock climber Angie Scarth-Johnson returns home to Canberra for Gutsy Girls Adventure Film Tour

While her sister was training at the swimming pool, she couldn't stop herself from climbing the wall of the swimming centre.

"I just would do stuff like that all the time," she says.

"I'd be climbing everything in the house all the time."

Yes, everything.

"You know how parents hide sweets in the highest cabinet? Well, they put it in the lowest one because I would always climb up and find things," she says.

It wasn't until she had a few accidents climbing trees that her parents decided to stop fighting her nature and took her to a climbing gym here in Canberra.

She fell in love the moment she walked in. And from there a passion and a climbing career began.

When she was nine, she was the youngest person to climb at level 31 - elite level.

When she was 12, she was the second Australian female to climb a grade 34.

Now 19, Scarth-Johnson is the No.1-ranked junior rock climber in the world. She lives in Barcelona, Spain, putting her close to some of the best competition and climbing destinations in Europe.

People call her a climbing prodigy, a description she doesn't reject. But she points out that it requires more than talent to succeed as a professional athlete.

"From a very young age, I've worked very hard towards my climbing goals," she says.

"Sometimes people would say to me, 'Oh, you don't have a normal job, so you don't know what it is like to go to work nine to five'.

"But something I always say is that being an athlete is 24/7... you are always what you eat; you are either training or in resting mode. It is not like a normal job, but it has its own hardships and not everyone can be like that because it is so demanding.

"Being an athlete is a constant job."

In a few weeks' time, she will return to her hometown of Canberra for the launch of Momentum, a film which documents her remarkable journey and captures special moments in her climbing.

The film is part of the 2023 Gutsy Girls adventure film tour that celebrates inspirational women in outdoor adventurous activities.

Viewers of Momentum are placed on the side of a cliff with Scarth-Johnson, in the silence and solitude she experiences when climbing.

Of course, filming that did require some company.

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"Climbing is an adrenaline sport - you do it because you love it," she says.

"It is cool to have an opportunity to capture a moment that wouldn't necessarily be caught ... when you are alone. I think it is super special and that it [filming] puts a lot of value into it because it is very raw and real."

Scarth-Johnson sees herself as one of the change-makers in the outdoor sporting industry, one that has been dominated by men. She hopes the film can inspire other young women to take on outdoor sports like she has.

"For a long time, it's always been considered like a manly thing to climb rocks or to mountaineer or to do these certain things that are not at all necessarily manly," she says.

But she has not only made a living through rock climbing, it has also taught her to be determined and resilient.

She says embracing difficulties is the way to solve problems.

"Climbing is like a way of living and a way of thinking," she says.

"I've grown in so many ways through ... failing in climbing. When I've been defeated, I think that's definitely character building."

She clearly remembers when she climbed 9a (a very high level on a grading scale) for the first time, she was so close to setting her new record but couldn't do it.

"I had trained so much. I was very strong. I was ready, like super ready to do it. And I just couldn't do it and I didn't know why. And it just really frustrated me," she says.

"I thought to myself that maybe it's just not possible. Maybe I just can't do this climb. I ended up going away, training a bit more, but more training ... my mind."

"And then I came back and I di\d it."

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