last day - last try - finally i hit that hold

i was THERE - i got that last hard move (hold)

BUT

 could not hold the swing...

i tried everything to make it happen; rested for three full days to be fully rested and beeing able to climb on totally dry holds for once (that really helps!!!), did some light activation the day before (easy climbing), had fueled my carbo-tanks, slept good and enough over days... it was the perfect go... just this millisecond more power... but well then, it would have had been too perfect... not enough drama... the last day before my summer break... after 10years.... sever injury(s)....  i even had figured out some new "no-cold-tips-anymore-beta" ;)

a method to push the blood out of my fingertips (and therefore getting good circulation for the next few minutes) without having to climb an 8A+ boulder for "fingerwarmup"

next day i was off for my summer break 

(to rebook the flight would have had been some 700$... but weather forecast for sustenpass was bad... so off i was...) 

getting some nice (little) waves in balangan (bali)

- nice summer to everybody - 

can't wait to get back to swizzy though... miss my girl!!! and i have to finish up some business up there on sustenpass this fall... more epic to come for sure... ;)

note how "not-cool" that is;
neo (with under 3% bodyfat you FREEZ (must be cool to do so?! or why i see so many dudes shivering in the lineup, spasms...?! may i should get a nice belly for some comfy warmth...;), knee protection (ok broken meniskus), booties (1m water over a sharp reef), big board (as a beginner, do you want to catch waves or just look cool?!).
 but i  am the only one who touched the reef and did NOT get nasty scars (ok, not cool again to have no scars...) and as i am getting 36 and have the loveliest girlfriend you can imagine... i do not need to be sooooo coool for 24/7 anymore... happy surfing... ;)

1move left... 1day left... epic in full swing again!

the warmup felt heinous, it was pretty warm (close to 20C) but super windy... lost twice my toehook in the first part (8A+) cause i could not build up enough tension on the bad sloper (friction)...

... third go i pressed even harder - made my toehook stay - arrived at the undercling-move - did that one statically - felt super solid in the "traumland-part" -  did not get too cold fingers - did not get any swing preparing for the second-crux - still felt good - just two more moves to go - i went for the first one - got the crimp - YES!!!

EVERYTHING went perfect up to the very last hard move. i climbed just perfect, no stupid mistakes for once and felt strong and in control... just to have switched power off from one second to another exactly where i am on the pic above... on the last hard move...

- setting up for the last hard move - from one second to the other it was like somebody had turned off the power switch - lost all my bodytension and my fingers just did open the grip - all that happened so fast that i had not even a chance to try to "fight" against that sudden loss of control and power - so i went down like a wet sack of potatoes... BUMMER, did not experience such a sudden loss of power for quite some time... WHY NOW??? at least this time it has been a question of power and not because of cold fingers/wet holds/locking knees... or whatever...

second go i made it into the last moves of ikarus again but had super cold fingers again...  so i did let go to save the power for the final day before i will leave for a  3week surftrip... epic in full swing again - not that i expected something else... after 10years you get kind of "used to it"... ;)

setbacks... and a send :)

first try of the day; made it trough the undercling-move first try... BUT ICE-cold fingers - did let go here to save power for a second try... no way to climb through the upper crux with such cold fingers...

second try of the day ended here as well; made it again through the underclingmove but i pushed my left knee too much to the outside and down (watch the pic) - so my meniscus started to shift again and kind of locked... had to let it go again...

at least my girlfriend angela made use of the first really dry conditions since weeks in murg(s)tal and sent the very nice moves (on heinous holds) of "painful love" and did her first 7B+/C. i was again pretty impressed how much power she brings on such little shitty holds... WELL DONE!!!

angela stretched out to the max in the curx of "painful love 7B+/C" in murgtal.
movie-still from the send - believe me; you don't really want to hold on too much on that two-finger-right-hand-undercling/sidpull/pinch-pocket ;)

feeling strong BUT...

first try of the day... on the second crux again.. frozen fingers again.. thanx josé for the motivation - was pretty close - again...

despite doing the first crux on the first go and feeling really strong and light i fell off the second crux again. this time again with ICE COLD fingers (at nearly 20C) - again... ???!!!

i was fighting that problem for more then 7weeks already in fall 2011... and also on the "fisch-project" or on "the dagger" i kept falling for weeks with ice-cold fingers at the very end... its really annoying when you fall down again and again not because of bad beta or beeing tired but just because you can't fell anything anymore!

i tried EVERYTHING to get/keep fingers warm. i climb quite a lot for warming up but i have this  problem since years and its coming up whenever i climb more then 15 (hard) moves in a row. the problem is not the temperature its due to the pressure ont the holds that i push all the blood out off my fingertips (therefore the "cold sensation") and i just can not climb through small holds when just feeling "nothing". what works best is resting on a bigger hold and shake out. but when there is no resting hold... what worked best for me was to jog around for 10-15min to get my system/blood working till i started to sweat. that gave me some 3-4more moves before loosing sensation again. but even then i sometimes fell off with ice-cold fingertips and a sweating body and as i am dealing with a torn mensiscus at the moment i am NOT jogging right now...

second try of the day ended on this big move... was a great fight especially as i greased around the whole way up there

remembering back the last session when i was up there in the crux with (for once) NO cold fingers,  i may have a solution (i tried before as well). last session i went down 3times at the first crux, rested just for 10-15mins between each try and went again. on my 4th try that day i made it trough the first crux and had no super cold fingers on the upper crux. so it really does look like i have to climb an 8A+ in order to get cold fingers - rest not as long as i would like to - and go for the full line not fully rested... but may getting into the second crux with some blood left in my tips.

at least my fitness-level seems to increase again... nearly climbed the "ikarus-part" twice and afterwards did "reve de faire" and 5min after its standingstart to get used to climb the endingpart with tired arms... the numbers of the boulderproblems climbed that last day; ...7B,8A,8B+,8B/+,8B,8A... but it seems no matter what... i just don't get this last (two) moves together... i would prefer to do it just once with the two moves then 10times in a day up to this two moves... ;)

on a sidenote: it really does not help if you have to try to dry (but they continue to seep nevertheless...) half of the holds in the cruxes, but it makes you stronger... ;)


ps: such sad news, hopefully something like that will never happen again and the community can learn... rest in peace little tito :(

the perfect go - but there was this tiny DÄB...

well my knee did not like the heelhook-move on the "kein schneehäschen" too much - so that lowdownstart has to wait till fall (when my knee hopefully will be better again)...

good news is though that i finally figured out all the details of my new beta on the "highlander" so that my knee and hamstrings are not getting in troubles. i have to climb it def. HARDER now, but i am glad i can CLIMB at my limit again... ;)

despite beeing able to do the undercling-move even with some moves in front every time - it still gives me trouble when climbing into it on full link. it's not just hard it's also a pretty strange move...

the move giving me still troubles on link... so hard and strange to push into that undercling right hand...

 after falling down 3times at the underclingmove on link i was getting bit tired but went for another try. arriving at the crux-move my feet went off the biggest foothold of the entire boulder. it was just a very slight DÄBat the pad, but it was one. as i already felt pretty tired i just went for the move - doing some "training" and wondering if the move would work this time. and here we go; the "rabbit chasing the carrot-szenario" again. the two tries before i was fresh but could not do the move. then i was tired, i had a little dab AND  i just pulled trough it...  WTF????? but that was not everything: i went further up, then my toe slipped (as many times before), my legs and lower body started to propeller and i was prepared to go down to the pads (as many times before)...

getting some swing... (watch sven's face ;)

but to my big surprise i just pressed the swing away - i was not moving 1mm on the lousy holds - felt unreal... and so i was getting my feet back on the wall aiming for that last two moves - i had no cold fingers, perfect grip AND enough power left for the two moves... that WAS IT - IF NOT...

...i did had this tiny DÄB... - i must admit that i was tempted for a moment to climb on. i mean it was just a little tiny dab, nothing that helped at all...  

but i just jumped down... you really do not want to climb your 10-year-project with a dab, do you?!

what will go wrong next time?! i thought i already am trough all the possible failures... but this piece of rock still has its surprises for me...

see you again on the weekend highlander - *grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*