quiz

11pm : 3 good looking girls, a bottle of wine and YOU - what do you do?


1. the "obvious thing"

2. the "obvious thing"

3. you go to the sofa to make some new GU-caps


ANSWER :)))

the "holy" grade

how coud i forget about the "most" important thing?


does anybody need a grade to describe bouldering like that?

well because it was never about a grade. it was about a dream: climbing a line, linking a logical start with a logical ending. despite looking WAY to hard first, the holds where there, so there had to be a way through it. spending hours and hours, days and days in solving an "impossible" puzzle and then push the body as far as it gets. that is what this boulder was about for me and then "numbers" disappear from itself - you just want to DO it - and it really does not matter anymore if 7A or 8A or 9A or what ever. 

entry moves into the hard moves of  part 1: close to the ground....

anyway, i will give it a try: it can be put it in pieces and compared to others: IKARUS is arround a 7C+ linking into a hard 8A - thats about the same numbers as the "neverendingstory, 8B+" in avers - just the other way round and ikarus/deadalus feels even more physical (and more fun to climb) to me.

...are often the hardest moves (the single hardest move at the beginning of the second part)

the next 5moves to gain the easy topout-part are "just" arround 6C/7A and from the bottom one coud think that this ads "arithmetically" nothing to the "NUMBER". but for me it was a BIG diffrence. up to IKARUS i climbed super safe and controlled. the next 4 "easy" moves i was totally out of controll and my "flight" up DEADALUS nearly "crashed". 



so can it be the SAME grade?! difficulty-wise it was something totally diffrent but as grades have "depth" its may the same grade. but where is the line between the grades? and if a grading-scale can not tell me such an obvious diffrences in difficulty then i just dont need such a "tight" grading-system! it woud be enough to state that DEADALUS is a HARD 8th grade boulder. the grading system may failed here (for me), but i can make a relation to how difficult DEADALUS felt compared to other boulders i did. you can find that relation/order in the column to the right where i put in the boulders i climbed. for me DEADALUS was for sure the hardest thing i climbed up today.


topping out on deadalus - better dont crash ;)



i will let others the "honor" to debate about that PRECISE grade that anyway just does not exist - i will stay with what FRED said in the "core"-movie about his "L'isola che non c'è" : "...i dont expect anybody to judge about me and my climbing; whats right, whats wrong. the GREAT thing about climbing is that there are NO rules from humans, just what nature gave to us. i saw the line, i liked it very much - and i climbed it..."




details

why 6years?! too stupid, too weak?! well may both ;)

as susten is a high-alpine area there is too much snow/wet holds sometimes up to july. then it gets normally too warm (not enough friction on crux holds). late october winter is back; snow, icing cold, closed road... - so not much time to climb HARD up there.


hmmmm, how does that work best?! the answer ocasionally can take some time...



usually you have just some 4-5weeks prime at end sept/october - if there is once some rain or snow, you have even less time. i first climbed the existing parts, got stronger, but then there were: broken holds, wet holds, injuries and other nice boulders you want to climb - all that can take some time...



why two names for "one" boulder?!

the part up to "traumland"-hold is pretty safe. the top out is not very hard, but if you blow it you may have a serious problem. so "ikarus" for the safe part, and "deadalus" for the topout seemed pretty appropriate.


after 5easy moves from down-right it STARTS

and it was EXACTLY like that on the send. as i climbed last friday for the first time to that finishing hold of "traumland" from the bottom-right, i climbed very solid, safe and felt strong.

BUT from there it seemed my "tank" was TOTALLY empty. the next 6moves to a REAL jug (and safe heaven before the easy topout) are maybe just 6C for itself - but you shoud not miss the last of them; a big move to a big jug. you cant spot that move anymore, if you miss it you swing out and you will "land" in the "bush" (full of stones) on the steep slope 3m below yourself. that was never a problem climbing in from the standingstart or the "traumlandstart" as everything was super controlled.

hard moves, but safe - IKARUS

but coming from the bottom-right these moves felt TOTALLY diffrent and they were suddenly OUT of controll. i may never fighted as hard on so "easy moves" before. on the move to the jug i nearly had a total "musculatur-failure" - my mind told me "no way you can do that", but i did not stop for a milisecond and just went all out for that jug - i got it. but then my fingers just started to open and i NEARLY lost the jug as i matched to it - so close... so there can be not better name than "ikarus" for the SAFE part and "deadalus" for the "not-so-safe-from-all-the-way-down" topout ;)


where you shoud not fall anymore, you cant really see it on the pic - but you will miss the pads and go a long way down... DEADALUS

and yeah, may "the most important" reason for 2names: like that (2names) you can register it twice and get twice the points on 8a.nu ;) but may the "boulder"-police will call you back because all that is not brave and hummer blablaballa... and as it is a pretty long boulder (6moves easy entry, 16hard moves, 10moves easy top out) - is that still a boulder? a route? a boulderroute? a routeboulder? ... you will have to register it as 6cB+b+C- or something like that. and as the move to the traumlandstart is a bit "dabby" and the following move bit "crouchy" - instead to get some more bodytension, flexibility and/or better beta - one can bitch arround that on internet-forums. AND... did i really climb it - no video-proof....puahhhhhh... ;)

FINAL day - EPIC it was...

... as it was NOT the best conditions, 4C is normally toooo cold for 15+moves (for me)

and as i was SUPER CLOSE on failing on the top-out (noooo good if so)...

BUT - ... lucky enough I was for once ;))))))))

so over 6years i dreamed of it, now i have done it:

IKARUS and the topout to it: DEADALUS

in the crux-sequence of IKARUS/DEADALUS (IKARUS ends at the traumland, next hold right) and DEADALUS (tops out)

topping out DEADALUS

2 minutes after topping out DEADALUS, the fog arrived

2min later, there was just 2C anymore and fog (humid as hell) everywhere - impossible to climb anymore - EPIC ending ;)

1day later; looks like i was "just in time" ;)

but all that was somehow just an "intermezzo" on the way to the "king-line" through the whole boulder. i now have ALL the beta i need, so see ya next year again: HIGHLANDER ;)

epic? EPIC!

- yesterday i waited longer and the friction was perfect.

- my power was ON

- no mistakes, everyting went PERFECT up to the very LAST move 

- with 2 fingers on the finishing hold i went DOWN

--> so NO, lucky i was NOT!!!

i went not down because i was too tired, but i pushed so hard on the secondlast move, that my fingers on the right hand CRAMPED and they just did not fully reOPEN while i was deadpointing to to finishing hold - so i partly missed it - CRAZY-BUMMMMMER!!!

- and NO, i did not discover my final beta on sunday - it way was (may) yesterday ;) i allways struggled, sometimes more, sometimes less with the startingmove of "traumland". i never truly understood why it sometimes was going ok, and why it sometimes was harder. i had an idea, but was not able to find the precise solution. yesterday on my "near send" i got a cut, had to tape my finger and went on my second go down on that underclingmove cause i slipped offfffffff the tape. i retried the move to bring my tumb on the hold to not slipp from my tape and "a move in the move" was then the missing puzzle and it worked perfectly - i can now do the move totally safe and i know precisly what i have to do. finally i UNDERSTAND every single move and its coming down to just be STRONG enough - or not to get cramped fingers on the final move...

to SPICE things UP:  first i wanted to travel today to the frankenjura with my girlfirend for a week or so. but the weather looks like it turns bad over there. so we decided to stay in swizzy till at least the weekend - what gives me another LAST (as the winter will arrive at the weekend in swizzy too) chance on friday (thanks a LOT to angela - KiiiiiiiiiiiiSSSSSSS;)

SO after 60+days over 5years - with the final BETA - one more MOVE to do - ONE FINAL DAY - thats EPIC!!! (i allways have to smile when people are like: ohhh, three days of epic - and then i climbed the problem. thats WAY far from EPIC ;)

susten - EPIC

the new beta worked - i did the move i went down 7times allready - just to go down on the next move - with my tips on the second last hold... but the temps were just toooo high - 17C - on 2000m (CRAZY!!!) - i shoud have waited longer into the evening - i did not - slipped off - with the finishing-jug just in front of my face.

if you can hang arround with just a t-shirt at 2000m in the shade - ITS TOO warm to SEND - beginner mistake - kind off... ;)

... so i found an intermediate hold for that move - never used it before (for the last 6years!!!), just in case i start to slipp again...is this the FINAL beta - or will the conditions be perfect for once - or will i be just strong enough for once - or will i be just lucky enough for once up there...???!!!

...we will see 2morrow... - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr -

nightsession and new KEY beta

i was wrong; just 11days for the snow

to melt - thanks to CRAZY summer (25C) weather ;)

so off i was for susten again. due to a meeting i was pretty late (5.50pm) - but with 11C the grip was magic - while wurming up i felt great - compared to summer-time the grip was sooo good - i nearly had the feeling of pulling out some holds ;) 

but as i was not up there for 2weeks (the snow), i knew i first had to rebuild the power endurance (15hard moves in a row) and get used to the special moves again. to my SURPRISE i climbed up to my highpoint on my first go (again). but facing the second last move, i felt tired and was not not toooo disappointed to miss the hold. i know my body pretty well. it will build up the powerendurance during the next one or two sessions and then i can climb to that move totally fresh - what is highly necessary if i want to suceed. 

my "falling-move" (7times allready)  - from the slot left hand (not sidepull as seen here) to the nice hold righthand i allready have here.

i then did some laps to build up resistance and played arround a bit on my "falling-move", which is a big move from a jam-slot left to a good hold way right up. the problem is that i do have to do it a bit dynamic and if i dont hit the hold right or the feet cut off - and youre bit tired - youre offfffff. its no problem from the traumlandstart, but gets a bit to a problem from the lower start. i allready had three diffrent betas, but not one was really safe - or to hard - coming from the low-start and beeing not 100% fresh (after climbing arround 8B to that point) anymore.

then i found a "non-hold" 10cm before the good hold right hand. i never considred to use this one, it also was not brushed, never seen it white - seemed useless - but yesterday i figured out that this "non-hold" actually fitted perfectly for me. i can get this hold statically, and with the right bodyposition i get tension on the hold - and then i can push me with my left feet the 10cm to the good hold right hand. this beta feels WAY better than the other ones - its powerful, but more controlled and i really LIKE the move now  - CANT wait for SATURDAY ;))

traumlandblock at 10pm: way better than the gym: get your LED lamps out and climb ;)

CRAZY, 6years ago i climbed the first time over this moves - now i found my best beta - good things need some time ;)

boogie boogie...

went up to magic wood with my brother and met some good old friends in the wood. despite the three days of beeing sick i did not feel too bad. the temps were moderate and there was wind blowing - NICE conditions!!! so i wanted to make use of it and had a look on nbsl.

but due to WAY toooo soft skin i punted around on  the second move like a beginner. from there it was ok, but i wanted to try from the start, and as that f*ç4" second move did not happen it was off (NEVER try this boulder with bad/soft skin - its a wast of time!!!) then i wanted to do something to keep up my endurance on big holds (for susten/ticino) - so looked for something with REAL holds and BIG moves: “Electroboogie”!

THE sloper on the boogie, pic back from 2005 when i did it for the first of maybe 15times up to date - it just toooo good to do it just once... ;)

I loved that boulder from the first moment I saw it YEARS ago. a freestanding pure line with intense and tricky compression moves – just perfectly my style ;) since last fall, electroboogie has a broken hold (does not affect the orginal beta/grade) – and I wanted to know if I coud still climb it with my old beta. I did not wanted to reclimb it with the original crux-beta, cause this beta involves a (haaaard) shouldertweaking move I really disliked from the first time I tried it in 2005. Back then I figured out some nice heelhook compressionmoves. I used the shoulderhold just shortly and then another crimp lefthand to avoid my shoulder from dislocate. That crimp I used back then is broken now and so I had to find something new.



the left-hand-crimp is broken, instead you can go another 50cm to the left and down (with a nice left heelhook) to get a good crimp and do some nice compression moves to gain the top-sloper.


After playing a bit around I recognized that I coud reach with my left hand even further down left to a nice sidepull. From there I could make use of my old beta with some more nice hooks and compressionmoves to top it out.

I tried this new beta shortly 4weeks ago, but was (powerwise) not ready yet after the summerbreake. This time I was ready. It felt perfect, nearly too good as i was kind of “disorientated” while climbing, never "knew" where i exactly was cause it felt so diffrent (more like 6A) compared to 4weeks ago (where it really felt like 8A+). it was a funny state of mind – shoud happen more often ;) unfortunatley it was allready too late for something else. but as I REALLY like the moves with the new beta i then made use of the “momentum” and did some laps on the "NEW" boogie, boogie – YEPPPPAAAA ;))



searching for the toe-hook left, to go for THE sloper left hand - bodytension all way to the top - i liked and i still LIKE very much ;)



presenting: THE BUTCHER

this NICE little cat can do BAD things to you if youre too slow...

cat-pics by angela wagner

 -if youre not fast enough -  it will CATCH you BADLY

and thats the DEEP RESULT as i WAS too slow (well at least not at the tips)

my hand after PLAYING a littel bit with the cat...

and to clompete the MESS, i must have eaten something "wrong" or i catched kind of a virus:  2days on the toilet does not really help to get you in perfect shape to get your projects down either.

at least the weatherforecast is CRAZY again: 25C for tomorrow; may the snow will disappear just in time to get another (last) chance at susten. we will see...