one summer in paradise (from an older blog)

and yessssssss, after 7 boulderingdays in july and august (and 8 during mai and june), i finally got my "summer in paradise" ;)

this was a wednesday-afternoon, from which i just have one or two in a year. as i fired the first go of the day, i felt a lot stronger than the other days. i just got cold fingers on the very last moves. and then i allready was holding the last crimp in my hands as my heel slipped off and i went down to the pads - i coud have killed myself!!! then on the 2end go, i had colder fingers again and went down on the move to the second last hold (as in june!!!) well great - that was it - i never had power for more then 2go's.

then a few italiens and americans were trying the moves of "pura vida". they were asking for beta and they asked if i woud go again. so i was sitting at the sds again, but just for funn, as i was ABSOLUTLEY convinced that, after two "nearly-sends", i never woud have enough energy left! but suddenly i was in the last moves again - cold fingers again - but this time i just didnt let the crimps go - and two moves later i was on top of the block - screaming and jumping arround like a madman - a dream - my dream came true ;)

pura vida (from an older blog)

as i walked by this block for the first time last fall, i just saw an amazing line and - it was like: i MUST climb THIS ;) starting at the very left hand side with a deep sds, there were holds traversing up to top out the high right hand side of the block. as "pura vida" has a defined standing-start on two crimps in the middle of the great overhanging bloc, the obvious line was not climbed yet.


if you touch the holds and try the moves, you may will be surprised; they are quite good, and not really hard, but if you try form deep down, the perspective changes radically ;) - linking a few moves together can get quite hard. you "wurm up" with totally easy 7moves - then it starts: you have a nice "swing" arround the corner - you match - and you are in the pura vida sequence - from here you have another 9 quite hard moves to an easy two-move-top-out. so you have totally arround 20moves - depending on the the beta - its may a bit long for a boulder - but the moves are brilliant - the hard part's just 11moves and the line its just amazing -so its really worth to try it ;)

after heaving climbed a few beautiful problems this spring, it was time to go for IT. i was working with some friends on the moves - it was quite funny and inspiring - and together we solved the puzzle of the single moves. franz widmer, a young strong guy from zürich, sent then relativ quickly the original "pura vida" - i was still working on the sds. one problem was the "freezing-effect". as very cold air comes out from under the bloc, the rock was very cold and i usually missed to grab the holds cause i got totally cold fingers. after eight days of working, the temperature went up to over 30degrees in chur (down the valley) about 25 in the wood - for me it was just perfect - got my run - had no cold fingers - got up to the last move - and missed it.
two days later, still warm and bright weather, i was convinced to send it - then bernd zangerl walked by and he told me that he had, during a go, ripped of a part of a hold near the ending. so i had to change and find a new, for me, way harder (but cooler) beta. so i was positive that may 2more days woud be enough - but then i killed three fingers on another problem and was forced to rest over 6weeks.

i restarted about 2months ago - getting back in shape again, sending "bulldog", another brilliant new problem, and getting back on my GREAT project again. this time simon "smoni" wandeler (back from ice-climbing and routesetting) was heaving great funn bouldering through a bunch of hard classics from the wood. after several days working on the line, with special beta (yess, he CAN rest and shake near the ending, no YOU probably wont ;) he sent it during a nearly snow-storm: "one summer in paradise" went on his way getting a new classic in the wood...

i felt kind of closer and closer too - but the problem with the cold fingers was still there, and i had just no chance - so i hoped for warmer temperatures - now i climbed with seth allred from colorado, young and terribly strong on crimps ;) as we allways went down with cold fingers, we were looking for something shorter. so he was trying the original crimp start from "pura vida". no problem for him. as i was allready kind of tired from two go's untill the last few moves - i decided not to try "one summer" again and tried the move too. as in spring i was not able to do it - to my astonishment, i was able to do the move now too ;) i took a 10minute rest - started, did not get cold fingers and just sent "pura vida" - amazing ;)) after one more hour, seth just sent it too - so we were heaving a nice party that evening ;))