why a "new" start to the "fisch-project"?!

despite beeing allready super close on the send i have changed some 3weeks ago the start from a sds to a laydownstart. its not a BIG difference, its just one/two more moves that are not super hard. but in the end  (unfortunatley for me) that makes to boulder way harder for me.

after talking with several strong people (koyamada, robinson, windisch) they all suggested to start in the most logical and clear position. its also a way to avoid any "discussions" about the startholds in the future. so the "new" start woud be matched both hands on a very obvious rail (the rail on which i have my right heel in the pic below). it is the lowest hold. you don't need a pad, just a carpet/small foampad and its kind of a "lay-down-start".

"new" laydownstart: both hands matched on the rail i have my right heel on. pic by angela wagner

before i started on a to me also "logical" sitdownstart. sitting and with my right hand on the same rail but my left allready on the crimp further up. i am still not sure if this "new" start really makes much sense or not - its a logical possibility for sure and it stops any discussions about "the" startingholds. but the concept of "sitting down and taking the holds you get" seems also pretty ok with me. but as these days strange things happen to sitdownstarts and discussions about it (story of two worlds), its may more consequent to go from the lowest and most logical holds. its then somehow defined (and shoud be decently marked in areas where thats ok, like in the ticino) and like that missunderstandings of the start-position/holds can be easily avoided.

same move, different angle. new start both hands on the big rail. first move then up to where i have the left hand in the pic. its an "easy" move for itself, but it makes continuing SUPER HARD!!! pic by ronny birchler

i still can climb the sequence, but a consequence oft that new start is that its WAY harder now. you can FEEL the new start when entering into the crux at the end. i am not too happy about that, for me it was allready hard enough from the sds...

ON FIRE!!!

EDIT 6.4.2011: just got a message from JERNEJ KRUDER who confirmed to have climbed the sds to the "schmankerl" allredy last year. so most surley and till other notice the GLORY for the FA belongs to jerney - my respect to jernej and ronny who sent both so fast!!!

on my way back from another fisch-session (more about that soon) i joined my friend ronny birchler at a crazy little night-session in the barierra-sector. and  he really was on fire and made perfect use of the great conditions that evening!!!

after doing (some days ago) the stand-start from the very nice shield of "schlonziges wiener schmankerl" (7C/8A) he went for one of the nicest looking unclimbed lines in chironico: the unclimbed sitdownstart to the "schmankerl". its just two more moves into the stand, but it makes things complicated cause its hard to get established for the BIIIIG cruxmove.


ronny at the STANDstart of "schlonziges wiener schmankerl" in the barierra-sector in chironico. the SITDOWN starts SITTING (as many people tend to "american-sds these days) down at the obvious, large rail (at his feet in the pic above).

some strong people have tried it, but nobody suceeded till now. ronny however did short work with that nasty beast and dispatched it in the same session he tried it from the sds for the first time. so we have a new, very nice looking boulder in chironico: the SDS to "schlonziges wiener schmankerl". WELL done and it was great to be there and impressive to watch!!! 

the line is now complete and its a real stunner if you look at the shield from the trail on the way to deliverence-sector! ronny felt the sds like an 8A+. i feel very diffrent. as i tried this sds to the "schmankerl", the nearby "bogalagga" felt way more doable for me and so it was. but it looks like ronny fitted perfectly into that hard sds and he did it quickly and did not feel it to be super hard - thats bouldering and thats great. to finish that nightsession, he sent "doctor pinch" (~7C+) in something like 5min... (to get the 8A+ you have to go for the "unpaded" low-down-start)

ronny celebrating his FA of the SDS of "schlonzigs wiener schmankerl". watch closely and you see him - i know i have to buy a better phone/cam, but hey it was 10pm... ;)

ronny had a crazy week and he is progressing faster then he can climb ;) climbing very fast through three hard (8A+) boulders at his limit..., but well its not his limit anymore if he can climb that stuff in a session...

- "sur gauche" in wassen
- "einfisch/keinfisch" (one session and one in october last year) in 101-area , chironico
-  2nd ascent of the SDS to "schlonziges wiener schmankerl" (one session), barierra, chironico

so it looks like its time he finds something HARD now ;)

another PERFECT day?!

everything was set up perfectly:

- i was well rested (2restdays)
-slept well and enough
-it was sunny, dry, windy, not too cold
-i had enough skin

beautiful view over chironico. sunny, warum, windy - seemingly a PERFECT DAY

there was NOTHING that seemed to speak against THE send, BUT:

since days my mind does not stop spinning arround the terrible things that happen at the moment in japan, libya and elswere in the world. what was i doing here in the tinco moving arround on boulders when there are people so desperatly suffering and the world needs to be saved from an atomar collaps?! 

the contrast to the ticino-pic above coud not be bigger. a city in japan after the recent zunami. pic source 

its not "new" to me that a LOT of people all over the world are suffering while i am so fortunate to live in a safe and rich country and so beeing able to spend a lot of my time with playing arround on rock. but the recent new's brought that thoughts back in focus once again... and i still do not have an answer to it. at least in my work as a teacher (economics) i try to give my students a "different" view from the world (then the one you get when you just consume mainstream-news), try to show them what (and why) things go wrong in our world and how we can act to make it (a bit) better... its not much  i know, but i believe its way more then to just think and work all day on how to make 100million$ more earnings for a corporation allready making some billions in a year...

finally clearing up my mind by warming-up i recognized that i just slipped arround on the rock. it was SO DRY (the fön-wind) that my skin turned to glass and i had NO friction at all. looked like i used a bit too much of "antyhdral" for this conditions. i worked on my skin with sandpaper and water to soften it and it got bit better. down at the "101-area" my friend ronny managed to grab a very quick ascent of the "einfisch/keinfisch" (after a brief session october last year) - and he was looking STRONG and made it look easy!!! 

normally i like this signs of wind, cause that indicates GREAT friction. BUT yesterday it was just too much...

psyched from ronny's send i went down to the sds of the "fisch". BUT i just slipped arround on the (starting)holds. i needed even 3tries for the very first (easy) move. i was really puzzled, it felt like climbing on another problem then the week before. my glassy skin had NO FRICTION on the holds! on my first go on which i managed the starting-sequence my heel slipped on the transition into the second part - DAMN ! on my second go i overpowerd every move so hard that i nearly saw "stars" while making my way to the start of the "exit"-part. just to arrive there and another heel slipped.... DAMN !! 

on my third go i lost (slipped out) a hold (jug) on the middle-part... WTF ??? !!! and i even maganged to get a mini-cut in my index-tip (what normally never happens as i have so soft and thin skin).

yep, it was too dry!!! sounds stupid i know, but it was "too dry" and my skin too hard, so NO FRICTION!!! i KNOW that i am ready to climb that line, but i am really wondering what CRAZY THING will happen next to not let me sucessfully link those funky moves... too much friction was not bad, what will be next.... *arrrrghhhhhh* .... any suggestions?!

ON THE OTHER HAND, given the above discussed BAD things that happen right now in the world my "problems" at that pice of rock are totally ridiculous and that day must very well be described as a PERFECT DAY!

moon(ie)

you may have seen the "moon" on the side of my blog allready. that means i am officially pimped to a moon(ie) :)

MOONCLIMBING is my first real sponsor (after a one-time gear/clothing support in the past by bd). like that i "give up" my years of "independent-underground-homie-blablabla" - but hey; i still buy my shoes and a lot (most) of the other stuff by myself. so it was not a 1'000'000$-deal. but thats fine with me as i am psyched to work together with a smaller but very fine brand from climbers for climbers.



check out my interview: moon(ie) interview


first blogpost for moon: moon blog (1)

second blogpost for moon: moon blog (2)



just a shame that shane at moon did not publish THAT profile-pic of me. dont know why - represents perfectly my "serious style..." - i think that would have had been very "british" ;))

mister "serious". pic by angela wagner

perfect day - finally tricked the carrot!!!

i did not (yet) climbed the "fisch". but i was super close and whats better then when you can climb and discuss beta with a friend as addicted (or even more) then yourself about bouldering?! it really was a (nearly) perfect day :)

i started at the new lower start what worked ok (but its still so much harder then my former start). and my new beta for the ending seems to work as well as i fell with my ice-cold fingers allready on the hold of the last hard move - SO CLOSE!!! after a 30min break i then nearly climbed the boulder for the first time from the "standing-start". i just slipped down on the rock-over of the mantel, not exactly getting a foothold.

last year this position felt not too comfortable at all, now i can (must) shake out my left hand. that is cruical to get rid of the ice-cold fingers to be able to go 4 the following crux-move. pic by angela wagner

this two attemps first look like "failures". but these "failures" gave me some new important insight (still new beat-details after 40 or so days on climbing on that piece of rock - i love 3D-bouldering.. :)

- i climbed twice over the "carrot-move". so i definitely TRICKED THAT CARROT-MOVE!!!

- i now know i have to "invest" some power in getting that foothold at the very end really precise

- and i found a "hard-resting-position" two moves before the crux in order to get rid of my cold fingers lefthand.

so again, for may the 10th time i think i am READY to SEND. but this time its DIFFERENT. i have reached two new high-points (from the sds and standing) and i just went down because of cold fingers - and against the cold fingers i found this new "rest-point". so lets play some ROCK N ROLL ;)

but it looks like the carrot has not given in yet: watch the weatherforecast for next week:

.... anyway next weekend the weather shoud be perfect: sunny, warm, windy. i am "waiting" since a year... so one week more ore less does not matter at all. even though i would prefer to go back immediately - CARRRRRRAMBA ;)

tricked the CARROT?!

i climbed two more hard moves - that shoud be enough you may think as i was allways talking about ONE more move. correct. BUT the two more hard moves were at the (new) start!!!  (more to that new start in another post)

after 4restdays i felt strong, good skin and it was perfect friction. i think i woud have done THE CARROT-MOVE from my (old) sds, but with the new start i went down on it again. despite the two extra moves i was getting closer, but it got me again... damm carrot ;)

the carrot still gets me, but we will see who is laughing in the end ;)

BUT then a friend talked me into have a look for an alternative to the "carrot-move". i did first not listen to him, cause the (easier) BIG-boy-beta does not work for me and i felt (still feel) it is just a matter of two/three more days to be able to do that "carrot-move" on link. but with the new and harder start in mind i was not totally against any better beta ;) after working arround a bit i really got an idea of a possible alternative. i finally found another way to the lip, but coud not get a cruical toe-hook out without loosing the holds. after 3hrs and after climbing may 20times through the hard part of the "einfisch/keinfisch" i found a way to get my toe-hook out: looks like i tricked the "carrot" :)
the new beta makes instead of one hard move (the "carrot-move") arround five (complicated) moves and it is overall just slightly easier then the old beta. but (the most important) is that there is no brutal onemover anymore where you go down cause you have just 80% and not 90% left in your tank. now i can switch into fight-mode and i can continue to fight my way up. it will get a hell of a fight thats for sure - and you know:  i love that perspective ... :)

the CARROT-MOVE

the move/sequence i can do literally for wurmp up

the move/sequence i can do when i am pretty tired too.

the move/sequece that feels possible up to a second before executing it when coming from the lowstart...

the move that feels so close and at the same time so far:

THE CARROT-MOVE:

emi moosburger going for the CARROT-MOVE!!! pic by angela wagner

thats WHERE i went down some 15+ times allready. but to be realistic: i have to climb into that move with 90% power left. otherwise i can not even dream to DO that move.what makes things a bit complicated is that its not a little nice hike in the park to get there. you have to climb a tricky and powerful  8B/8B+ boulder to just set up for that f**** CARROT-move.

its pretty steep, the heel left is pretty small and the move up requires serious body- and squeezingtenion in between the open holds if you want to stay on the holds.
i can do that move/sequence from the original "einfisch/keinfisch" literally for wurm up. but if i climb into it from the new start, perspectives dramatically change in seconds! i manage to climb pretty ok into the handholds needed for the moves, but bringing up the heel left just takes the power out of my body and arms. the cold fingers do not make things easier too.

to get used to that i started working the sequence when i was tired. and i can do the sequence and the move when i am not feeling (much) fresher then coming from the low-start. its really just a matter of staying fresh for two more seconds.

so close but so far at the same time...