Swiss report

4/12-08

12/12

The weather was good to day and we went to brush some boulders in chironico. We drove by to check out the senza denti boulders and was quiet surprised that all the boulders here was dry. Its a 20 m high block with 9 problems up to 7c and the boulder don’t top out. Did the problems quiet fast and went up to phaese and brushed some boulders.

10 and 11 December

Woke up in the morning to a snowstorm. The plan was to bring Magne to malpensa in time, but it was a total chaos on the highway so he just missed the plane. It was supposed to snow for some days, so I looked at the weather forecast and found a sun in Venice so we hit the road again in the hunt for sun. We was prepared, Steffen even had brought shorts for a swim in the sea. It rained like hell all the drive down and the rest of team agreed to fire me as the “weather man”. First the job as “egg timer” and now this, I don’t think they have much trust in me:-(

The rain stopped as we drove in to the old city and parked, but that was just for an hour and it started again.

I’ve been in Venice ones before when I was a kid but I dined remembered anything from that time. As the first impression Venice is quiet a mellow city, nice to just walk around for hours in this chilled atmosphere with the absence of cars. I don’t now if I am an evil person or not, but for me the funniest thing so far on the trip was when the high tide flood into the streets and into the

 Dr. crimp 7A+


restaurants and shops where the owners got quiet busy. At our hotel we had to eat breakfast at our room because the restaurant was filled with water or as the receptionist said: I’m sorry its water in the restaurant, or more correctly the restaurant is under water. I will recommend a trip to Venice to all but don’t forget your high fishing rubber boots.

On our way back to Tecino we drove by Milan to find a climbing shop. Quiet a hectic drive in the center but we survived.

9/12

Fourth day on, felt early that this was a day for just go around and do easy stuff. It went out to be quiet a nice day with a lot of nice boulders and 17 new ticks in the book.

6,7 and 8 December.

Climbed in chironico, not that many possible boulders climbed some nice 7s like globetrotter, autopilot, le flipper and doctor crimp. Tried a project at phaese, easy climbing up to a catch from an awkward position to the lip, made it to the lip but couldn’t hold the swing, next time. Did an “8a+” called doctor pinch in 3 try, should had flashed it. The hardest part was to top out in the snow since there was ice on the holds. I think the right grade is around 7c+ for this one. Fold of the top of two 8a´s called souvenir and le vent nous portera. Souvenir is direction elimination but it has quit cool moves, its big holds and compression style. Its possible to do it as an direct boulder (7B) to, where you use a very sharp two finger pocket, but instead you climb leftwards on a huge “rib”

I certainly feel that the shape isn’t the same after the long break of, but it is a good chance to do a lot of the easier problems that I wouldn’t have done if I were in shape and in project mode. Really psyched to start train hard again and come back fitter in the start of the spring.

Friday 5/12

Rest day and snowing, out brushing snow of boulders again.

Thursday 4/12

Ottar wasn’t in the best shape today so it was a reduced team that went to brione. First shoot was Ganymede takeover 8a+, a problem I tried briefly last year and was quiet close to send in a short session. When we arrived to this river block everything was looking strange, the ground was like a meter lower than last time, and to do a problem like pampelmusse you had to do 3 moves to come into the standard sit start.

The crux move on Ganymede felt much harder this time and I couldn't stick it. Probably not that aggressive in the crimp after a long time of, but hopefully it will feel better after some weeks crimping down her. Stopped when it still was some skin left and went up the hill to take a look at vecchia leone 8b. Haven’t tried it before and after getting spanked on Ganymede I didn't accept much of success on this one. The holds above the pinch was filled with ice and I was quiet surprised that I in short time did all the moves up to this point. The problem felt very doable and since it is one of the best lines in Tecino I looking forewords to work on this one when the whole line is dry.

Wednesday 3/12

Today’s choice was cresciano, and hopefully jungle book was dried after the brushing last day. We started up at the la pelle bloc. First I tried la pioche, the plan was to try to flash but I couldn't get the toe hook so it took several tries before the send. Went then to la pelle direct 8a+ that is one of the great classics in cresciano. Its start with some fingery foot technical moves who leads up to a long of balance catch from crimpers to the lip. I managed the catch witch is the crux in a coupled of tries and it felt like a quiet safe move for me. Did the rest of the moves but had problems with the toe hook in the start moves. Need to tune this sequence a bit if a send could be possible. We then went to jungle book but it was still wet. After some hours of just looking around for dry boulders we went back to la pelle. With no warm up I stocked the catch again, but my hand went numb and it field like someone had tried to pull it of, so I stopped and called it a day. Looking forward to try this problem again.

2/12

Woke up early and was psyched. The rest of the team was sleeping and after a half hour I thought it was time for climbing so I turned the volume of System of a doom to the max. It was quiet effective but there was someone other in the house that thought it wanes the best way to wake up. Maybe more chilled music next time? After breakfast we went to chironico, but the boulders was covered with snow and soaking wet. We brushed the snow of some the tops of komilator and willenberg dach and some easier ones so it hopefully will dry quick.

We then went down the valley to cresciano, but the situation was the same her. We removed snow from la pelle and jungle book. After looking around we found a boulder called XP graded 7C that wasn't that wet so we dried the holds with a towel. Steffen quickly sent it and I fold of the wet 5+ top out on the flash, was quiet pissed with this and sent it easily second go.

Monday 1/12

Rain. I was quiet tired after the weekend so I probably needed the rest.

Sunday 30/11

After a couple of hours of sleep after the Nordic challenge party it was time to leave. The train to gardemoen was going to early and I was to tiered. The big snowball war in the middle of the night had teared me down and my leg was hurting so much that I nearly could walk, but it had been great fun! Felt like I went thru the day like a zombie. First I nearly missed the train then I managed to send the passport with the luggage. In Milan my backpack was missing so the only thing I had were my pad and the clothes I was wearing. The drive up to bellinazona went quiet fast and we could pick up the last member of the team Magne before he had too much quality time in a pub. We are staying in the same apartment as I stayed at in February. Nearly feel like at home her.

The crew has changed from last time, but with a team of Steffen, Ottar and Magne it will be a lot of fun.



HARD TIMES
18/11-08

I have been stocked in my sofa for 9 days now, can´t get rid of the flu. After the first days I had finished my movie mental terror and read two books. But since my body still was in sofa mode I had to find something new to do that I could accomplish from my sofa to prevent my self from starting to walk on the walls.

That´s how I started to play with a web creator and after some days I decided to go serious and publish my own web site.

My climbing life has been a total mess the last 5 months. In the end of jun I went to rocklands stronger than I ever been and was looking forward to seven weeks of the best bouldering and many hard ticks. The first day we arrived just before the dark, so i went straight on an 8a+ and I nearly stocked the last hard move on the flash go. I made it 3 goes later when it already was dark. The next week I accomplished several other 8a´s and 8a+´s in some tries and with good flash goes. It was a perfect start and I was looking forward to try some harder lines and hopefully manage to flash an 8-grade problem. Then it started to rain like hell, in four days it rained more then the normal annual and if it had continued probably all rocklands would have been flushed into the sea. After a week of shit weather the sun was shining again and rocklands showed us why it is one of the best bouldering spots in the world, but one week of shit weather had destroyed my body and fever was going high. For the rest of the time I was just hanging around with the others and every time I felt a bit better and tried to climb I got fever feelings. In the end all my motivation for climbing had left and I decided to take a break. Because I had been super psyched since I started climbing I thought it was just a one-week phenomena but it wasn´t until recently my psyche to go climbing arrived.