back home - getting in shape (and into epic) again

after coming home from rockands and climbing three weeks in nuclear heat at home, angela and i had a quick visit to the frankenjura to get some good beer - and climbing as well ;) i still had to be a bit careful with my finger, but i had in mind that the nice compression-prow "riot act" which i fell on the second last move this spring had pretty ok holds. so i played a bit around on that one, found my beta pretty quickly this time and went down on the same move again (as in spring) because my heel slipped. well then, no present offered here again. and as i was just not yet fit enough for climbing that 8B+ twice a day i got a beer out of our fridge and was happy that i slowly got back in shape again... ;)

nice fridge climbing, nice beer, nice food - i love frankenjura ;)

then i was off to sustenpass for the "highlanderproject" again. i missed the spring/summer season due to my injured finger and i could not wait to go back and climb that ONE more move i went down over and over again over 7weeks in a row last fall. i quickly repeated all the parts and climbed it from two hard moves in. so two weeks agao i just wanted to make a try from the start to see if i already could make the heinous crux-move of the "traumland-start-move" when arriving from the far right. i made it through that move and to my upmost surprise managed to climb up to the second last move.... , climbing past the "ikarus, 8B+" - part, before i fell.  looks like i am getting in decent shape again.... and just in time for fall to arrive ;)

falling again on that move i went down for 7weeks last fall... (pic from last fall)

despite my finger still holds me from climbing as much as i would like it looks like (with 2-3days of rest in between climbing days) my finger can more or less managed the holds of the "highlanderproject"..... hopefully i will get my "cold-finger-syndrome" from last year under control. it was a great surprise to climb so far into the project, but with just two more harder moves in front it also would have been nice to just climb through them, i was not far from it. but since 8 years, there is no "free lunch" for me up there...  and the epic kicked in again already. after climbing and feeling really strong that day, the next week i was not able to climb over the first crux again....

first it was so cold that my fingers froze and one week later it was 20C again - at 2000m over sea - thats totally CRAZY!!! so i just slipped around like trying to climb on wet holds....  no chance for a send at all. i was getting a bit mad about the fact i even did not get over the first crux moves anymore. in fact, "bad" thoughts and feelings start to cross my mind.... was i getting weaker, why i was unable to climb through that move anymore... will i get fit enough again...

but then i hat to put back in mind that some years ago the temps had to be under 15C for me to just beeing able to do the single moves. now i can climb the finishing 8B-part even in 20C.... thats nice, but not what i want... i want THAT FULL line *argggghhhhhh*..... !!!