crazy days

frankenjura was in its prime; dry for 4days, sunny, warm, beautiful colored trees, nice people, nice food, nice beer..

in the pics two things that i really love about frankenjura... ;)

but somehow the holds on the boulder i was there for seemed to ignore the dry days completely. i climbed on it twice in greasy/wet conditions and consequently kept sliding off the holds before and in the crux. after three restdays i was there again, holds underneath the roof still wet and the holds lefthand greasy like hell. but hey; when this things is dry everybody can climb it, so on i went to battle it down... ;) BUT reality took me back immediately; i barley managed to do the standstart, kept sliding off every hold, at one point i was not able to make one single move anymore. to make things worse the rubber of my right-heel started to "peel" off and i was not able to heel properly anymore. in a boulder where i do 11 out of 12moves out of (double) hooks not soooo god news... at that point, every rational (boulder) human beeing would have had called it a day. BUT hey, if you don't try you will never know if it may.... so i went on to cut that part of the rubber off and set off for a final go. somehow i made it into the crux, ignoring the grease, pulled through the crux, felt ok - and then i fell on the second last move thanks to a sliding heel (like 4years ago...!!!). bareley able to move anymore. every part of my body seemed destroyed, my stomach muscles are still totally destroyed. so at least i had given it a 150% and against the odds i was damn close...

lost my left heel afterwards.... bummer!!!!!!!
this "riot act" drives me crazy and it is a good example that "close" means nothing - until you send...

right after i went down to the pads i got an sms from my friend ronny from swizzy telling me that the snow was all gone at sustenpass, that the forecast looked warm and dry and windy. ronny had even checked to holds on the highlander and he told me that it was mostly dry. that was great news, BIG THANX ronny!!!

4days - can you believe it???!!!

but on the other hand i was so close on riot act. i felt strong on compression again, had all the beta details and i felt ready to send. the forecast looked nice for franken as well, one restday and then the go for the send.... the "carrot" was hanging again in front of my nose... i was pretty sure i had a good chance... BUT it seemed like a final window had opened for me to give the last few burns for this season (for the next 7months...) on the "highlander" at sustenpass... so the gamble was on, what to do?

the next day was spent with great route-climbing in the sun, then we packed our stuff and headed home, going for that final 2days of the season at the "highlander"... can't wait to touch that holds after a 2weeks break - a muerte... ;)

"highlander" is calling for the season-end-battle... - will i ever get that next move?!
if not tomorrow i will get it another day... WORD!!!

but i will back at riot act, its just too good and i was just too close to let that carrot go!!!