wikileaks and 8a.nu - SAFE 8a.nu...

recently found documents show that 8a.nu (JENS) really is in great danger... ;)

personal grading*: don't go on with it!!! 

*the article about the DANGER of personal grading that disapeard miraculously from the website - why? ;) 
(klick to make it bigger)

---dont go on with personal grading as this kills (JENS and his) grading-system!---  that puzzled me a bit cause jens can not rest to tell everybody that grades are personal, you shoud be brave and hummer, not take the grades from the guidebook, that grades are unimportant cause climbing is about fun and so on... BUT it got even worse:

the dateabase SABOTAGE and the f***ed up system*!!!

sabotage and f***ing up HIS system (klick to make it bigger)

JENS found PROOF for SABOTAGE. the proof that i was NOT using personal grading and therefore was f***ing up his system (business): i forgot ONE boulder (from the last 12months) to put in my "personal-grading"*. so i felt caught, you cant argue against hard facts, can you?!

as a brave and hummer 8a.nu-member i imediatly made the commanded changes in my scorecard to 8a.nu-conform-grades. and in order to safe JENS, 8a.nu and the scorecards of some other point-hunters (who got all pissed when they saw i DOWNGRADED theier (soft) 8A/B boulders to 7A's) i see it as my duty to stop the climbing world from personal grading!

SO, PLEASE STOP PERSONAL GRADING AS THIS KILLS (Jens and) 8A.NU !!!

INSTEAD ASK JENS (or MIKE. mike knows too, cause he is a professional as well ) FOR THE "8A.NU-CONFORM-GRADE" ;)

jens or MIKE will SHOW you the way ;)

*the background to what did the "sabotage":  it was consequent personal grading - i took a "standart" for an 8A-boulder (great shark hunt) and messured all my other boulders i did on it: the result was quite weird. for example the riverbed in magicwood (which felt way easier then shark hunt) gets then a 7B... - perfect illustration that the (current) grading-system is about as reliable as long-term-swizzy-weather-forecast - and therefore shoud not be taken to seriously.... ;)

restday

what do you do if the ticio is looking like that:

bellinzona, close to cresciano - one day after climbing in the nice sun - dumped with snow - BAD for bouldering...

well make the BEST of it ;) one day after enjoying sun and bouldering in cresciano back home: up to 60cm of fresh snow, -16C, rock n roll ;)

how a real WINTER must be - i love it ;)

nice playground in my backyard - 40min drive and youre in a little freeride-paradise...;)

even a bit "alpine-style" - the way to go to enjoy 900m first tracks in waist deep powpow ;)

and yep, it was like THAT ;)

today it just does not stop snowing and tomorrow its gonna be sunny in the mountains - yepaaaaaa ;)

view out of our appartement, if its looking like that down here, how does it look in the mountains?! 

from snow to sun, its up to you to choose - swizzy offers it all.. ;)

monday-wednesday it snowed a lot in the northern part, but the ticino in the south was protected by the alps from the bad weather.

waiting for the bus at home. no its NOT in the mountains its just some 400m avove sea level...

so getting the pads jump into the train - travel for 4hrs to the sun (2hrs by car)

shortly before cresciano. it was sunny, but windy too so therefore pretty COLD to climb

the sheeps in cresciano are wondering that somebody is WALKING up and not driving. they gave me theier nicest smile ;)

in cresciano i just played arround on various boulders, tried to stay warm and get back in shape after a 3week breake. i met paul (robinson) again who was trying the stunning dave graham compression test-piece: "confessions". we had a nice chat about this and that, dicussed some beta, looked out for some warming sun and he showed me some NICE footage of his ascent from the "dirt-leftexit". its nice to see that despite he is climbing all that super hard stuff he is still really down to earth.

the "killer-line" of confessions. if you are into comperssions-bouldering you MUST try that!!! as i have no pic from paul i post one from me ;) back in 2008 - i love the light! wished there woud be more of these in cresiano..., pic by angela wagner

paul was trying hard on "confessions" but somehow he had his problems to make the lefthand heel staying. so he went down on the crux-move again and again. after discussing some beta his left heel finally stayed just long enough to reach the crimp left hand - that was enough - controlling the wild swing was not looking to hard for him. and so he went on to top it out. nice one!!! and this time he did not messed it up on the last (6a) moves like some days before. i was allways sure that i woud be the only one to go down on that (6a) moves after coming from the sds... - well looks like i was not...;)

inspiration

found that vid today on the bishop-bouldering-blog. not much climbing-action. BUT i liked it a LOT. its beautiful - inspiring - very NICE - makes me wanna climb and be there NOW ;)

Bishop Bouldering from Colin Delehanty on Vimeo.

funny? UPDATE

some days ago i critized carlo for how he (and team america) produced the little vid called: "the greatest flasher". (depending on the perspective a "not-so-funny-video").

to be fair i have to say that carlo postet a nice comment on that topic on his webpage. i am very glad he was able to show some empathy (others seem not to be able).


"....I see how it [the movie] could be interpreted that way, and for that I apologize..."

and: "...this video was not created to reflect badly on Chris..."


like that i am positive that next time he (they) is producing a "funny-vid" he will not have to explain himself about his intentions again!

dai's swizzy lowdown - some details

as you can see on dai's blog and on the thelowdown (and on 8a.nu) dai koyamada was in swizzy again. here some more detailed info:

despite pretty bad weather (as in spring some 50% of the days with rain) dai koyamada and his friend hiro had a pretty productive time in the ticino. they climbed pretty fast through a LOT of classic hard problems. hiro did amongst a lot others "confessions", "einfisch keinfisch" and "great sharkhunt". it was very nice to meet and climb with dai and hiro as they are two very nice and kind persons. as dai is not amongst the tallest (1.65) he has to find very often his own and mostly crazy beta - that process was very inspiring to watch.

at least it was frozen, so "tricky" was ok even without iceaxes ;) pic from dai's blog

beside the well published 2nd ascent of "big paw" and a fast ascent of "confessions", dai had some other nice ascents including the second ascent of "natural collateral" (dave grahams collateral without chipped crux-hold. more to come from that one shortly).

dai on the second ascent of "natural collateral", pic by dai's blog

and on one of that "wet" days he even went to complete two lines in chironico with two first ascents. he was able to combine the hard start of "blochx addiction" with the (recently broken) "los cursos" to create "JYA V12". and as that went down so well he completed the logical lines on that boulder by starting at "blochx addiction" and exit via "souvenir (climbed by fred in 1988!)" to climb "jyabara V13". well done!

dai on the "souvenir-part" of his fa of "jyabara", pic by dai's blog

then he made a rare repetition (3rd ascent?!) of the super fingery and hard dave graham testpiece "electric ant" from the original start. hopefully next time they also will be lucky with the weaher for once too.

dai sticking the (for his height even more) incredibly fingery and hard starting-move of "electric ant",  pic by dai's blog



funny? think twice!

i have great respect for what carlo and team america climbed in swizzy during the last few weeks (despite bad weather they really rocked!). they also made and published some nice footage (despite dont really getting the concept of sitdownstarts, but thats another story).

but now it looks like they really had to spend to much restdays inside. it started a while ago when carlo "defended" his downgrading of a new boulder (bella luna) chris webb parsons put up during one of these raining days in chironico. it was not the downgrading that puzzled me, it was "HOW" carlo explained himself. he missed to show any respect for chris's ascent and to the boulder itself.

chris on his fa of "bella luna", pic from chris

carlo says its not personal, but its at least not that clever to go that harsh after chris (and his new boulder) considering "the background" (chris is dating carlos exgirlfriend) - it just gave it a bad taste.

then it was "silent", but now carlo put out a new "funny" video. first it looks like an ironic little movie about the "flash-hype" - but if you think twice and take into account the "history" of the boulder then it gets a REAL bad taste! chris statement to the vid here.

       The Greatest Flasher from Carlo Traversi on Vimeo.

the start of the vid and the "shit"-ending have nothing to do with the "flash-king" but it shows what this vid was (also) about. i am sure (they) will pretend it was never their intention to do so - but if so, they badly failed in producing this vid, cause it (start/ending) speaks out clearly what the intention was. like a child that tries to defend his disrespectful behaviour in the past by just the same disrespectful behaviour. pretty embarrassing for carlo (and team america). but well, let them grow up, getting some life-experience and when the weather gets better, climbing will hopefully get back on focus. on the other hand its "great" to have finally a "reality-climbing-soap" going on - so we dont have to stay at desperate-housewives anymore ;)

but may carlo (and team america) will try to show a bit more respect next time they produce a vid they launch to the entire climbing-community. that was not professional at all and like that you dont bring climbing (and yourself) any further - think twice!


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UPDATE:
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carlo posted a statement on that topic on his webpage. i am very glad he was able to show some empathy (others seem not to be able)

"....I see how it  [the movie] could be interpreted that way, and for that I apologize..."

and: "...this video was not created to reflect badly on Chris..."

hopefully next time he (they) is producing a "funny-vid" he dont has to explain himself about his intentions!