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!