2nd ascent of "DEADALUS" - its ON when its ON...

one week ago: sustenpass dumped with snow

sunday: no snow anymore, 14C, bit clouds, sunny, some wind, nice people around, good relaxed atmosphere - PERFECT!!!

having a great fun day at sustenpass. do u find dai in this pic?
pic © ikuko serata (from dai's blog).

then dai koyamada made use of the very nice conditions and grabbed the first repetition of "DEADALUS, 8B+". you should see the vid - its pure pleasure to watch him climb that proud line! 

next was the 3move problem "viagra 8A/+" and to finish up the day with style he climbed through "le reve de faire, 8B". more info on his blog.

dai koyamada flying up "deadalus, 8B+" without burning his wings. 
ikuko serata gets the action on vid. 
pic © angelawagner.ch (click on the pic to see it larger)

i am into "epic-mode" again and managed to go down on the last hard move on the "highlander-project" - a great fight, a new highpoint and it was CLOSE - grrrrrrrrrr!!! 

the second-last-hard-move - on the next move (the LAST hard) i went DOWN. 
pic © ikuko serata

Piatra Open, Romania

from a good friend i got an invitation to the "piatra open", but unfortunately i can't take part as i can't take the necessery days off. thats a pitty as i think its a nice and fun event-concept (bouldering AND climbing). the bouldering/climbing areas are looking very nice as well!

bouldering at "sihla" looks NICE!!! pic from the sihla-info-website

sihla should be a very fine bouldering area (brione"esque" stone). and in the past, paul robinson participated at the contest as well. so may somebody likes to go for some bouldering and climbing adventure, here are the infos:

date: 1-3october

location: piatra neamt, romania

contest-website: www.piatraopen.ro

website from the bouldering-site (sihla): http://www.sihla.info

a video-short from sihla:

Vulpiprezent' from Mariș George on Vimeo.

perfect weather BUT...

PEFECT weather and forecast for swizzy for the next days. perfect timing as i am getting in shape again after summer-breake. it's exactly what i was in need for the "highlander" - 10days of stable nice weather... 

BUT before the nice weather, sustenpass got dumped with snow (like last year)

at least its melting fast, but the first week of nice weather is just "useless" (in terms of climbing-days)

Bildunterschrift hinzufügen

so i headed down to chironico for a brief after work session. it was/is still way too green and warm for decent friction. nevertheless in the morning/evening its not too bad, especially with the dry "fön-wind" we got the last two days down there....

chironico, still too green and warm (which is normal for  september)

whatever friction - on a breake from his project to climb "the story of two worlds" from a (the only logical) low-down-start - mister dai koyamada did not seem to bother too much with the warmth and made an (fast as usual) ascent of the superbe line of "second life" (~8A+/8B), chironico. 

what a LINE!!!
dai koyamad on the big-span-crux of "second life", chironico. pic © Ikuko Serata (from dai's blog) 

i used the evening to get dialed the "micro-beta" for the "fisch-projek"t again. despite having spent countless sessions (60+) during the last 2years and just have been away for 5months i needed some time to get all the details (bodypositions etc.) again - my beta is somewhat (too) complicated... 

i climbed the "einfisch/keinfisch" (~8A+) - part few times and nearly made my way through the standing-start from the "fisch-projekt" (~8B). this was nice work for a first "recon-misson" - especially considering that i failed (several times) on a 6B+ slab on the wurmup ;)  but it also showed me how freaking f**king hard the whole "fisch"-line is - need to get STRONG again!

on the "einfisch/keinfisch"-part of the "fisch-projekt". (older) pic © angleawagner.ch

back in the game!!!

not just me, also angela after her acl-rupture. we went up to sustenpass to meet with dai koyamada and his partner, later the locals ronny and paul also joined in.

the ladies on the warm-up

i felt absolutley terrible while wurming up; no body tension, no power  - no nothing... - just tired. but i got inspired by angela who stated after her first touch of rock that it was GREAT friction and a absolutley low gravity day today. also everybody had great fun wurming up in this beautiful alpine setting...

presenting: DAI KOYAMADA, one of the strongest in our little sport on a terrible hard FA of a"feet-first-up-a-slab-and-mantle- down" problem, GRADE we still don't know...  ;) pic © angelawagner.ch

after a one year brake cause of an acl-rupture, first no surgery, then surgery and so on angela just restarted with climbing. over the last few weeks she did some easy route climbing (and two visits to magic wood). then on this nice afternoon at sustenpass angela made short work with a nice little (but heinous sharp) crimper-line she was unable to complete 2years ago - the FA of "der heiler" (i woud prefer "der schlitzer" cause it was so sharp). grade somewhere between 6A and 7A (cause I was not able to repeat it - but i also had a weak day (watch below!) ;) WAY to GO angela!!!

angela on the FA of "der heiler", ~ 6A/7A, sustenpass

dai returned after some short time from the classic 3mover test-piece "sputnik" (8B), which he sent super quick... - i could not believe - it was still so warm and he just dispatched it in a few minutes - too strong - WAY to GO!

dai koyamada crushing "sputnik, ~8B", sustenpass. pic © Ikuko Serata, from dai's blog.

arriving at the "traumland"-boulder, i showed dai some beta and the topout to "traumland" and "deadalus". climbing up there i was blown away by the friciton. there was still some wind, which was unusually not dissapearing when it got dark. but i still felt weak and i was (still) convinced it was best to make a restday.

showing dai the way to go for "deadalus,  ~8B+", sustenpass. pic © angelawagner.ch

...after some beta-readjustments dai finished his climbing-evening with an ascent of "traumland, 8A" and he got his beta together for "ikarus/deadalus, 8B+" as well. i think we will see soon a first repetition from this nice line! but dai must have gotten a bit tired (no wonder after two days with climbing in the high 8ties) as he found "traumland" way harder then "sputnik"... - perfect illustration (again) that grades are not more then a (very unprecise) localisation of difficulty!

dai koyamada on the crux-starting-move of "traumland, ~ 8A", sustenpass. pic © angelawagner.ch

then i coud not longer resist to the good grip and started a "training-go" on the "highlander-project". "training" because i still felt like s***...

9:30pm, 1900m, 13C, windy, light by dai, motivation by angela: PERFECT!!! pic © angelawagner.ch

... even while climbing i felt not strong at all, but at the same time i never got tired as well. my "training"-go ended up with me repeating "ikarus, 8B+" and going down on the second last move of the "highlander"-project cause of a slipping toe-hook - BAMMMMM!!!

at the first moment i was a bit disappointed. i am 99%sure that with my "old (now broken) foothold" i woud have had climbed the "highlander". and i had missed that perfect conditions which are soooo important (and rare) for me (not too cold, not too warm, not too dry, not too greasy) on this line. but on the other hand it was great to climb so far (despite feeling weak as hell). it must have been the perfect friction and the extra motivation from the nice people cheering me up that night. and the best was, that i was not even tired when i went down... i never had such an experience before, normally i really cant climb anything hard when i feel so bad - but thats (bouldering)life - and if its going that way i just take it and shut up ... ;)

thanx for the light and motivation dai! two moves before my toehook slipped..., but i still got the "ikarus, 8B+"-part ;) pic © angelawagner.ch

i can't wait to return to see how far it woud go when i am fully rested.... 2moves left, 6more weeks to go... WAY to GO ;)

but first sustenpass got some snow (like last year, but luckily not so much of it) - so i have some time to recover before crushing later next week!