sweet summertime

sustenpass some 10days ago...

fall is coming and i can't wait for it to arrive... the crisp, clear and dry air... but the white stuff in the pic above from last week will hopefully hold back for some two more months...

nevertheless summer was nice. to give my knee some time to heal up my broken meniscus i decided to stop climbing for a month and instead had some great surf sessions in indo...

STYLE is everything ;)

but 3weeks is not even close to what i would need to be finally able to surf the waves that would make REAL fun for me. i would like to RIDE big walls for quite some time and not just a few seconds on some small closing-out-waves... but something tells me i may would never surf some 7+ft uluwatu... but never say never... ;)

small but very fun day in balangan... this wave is so fast (closing).... i need to improve my backhand or try goofy-foot next time ;)

back home i was greeted by rain - what else ;) but the next day i already was off to ailfroide in the french alps to spend a nice week togehter with my girlfirend. its a very beautiful place high up in the mountains. you can leave your car at the campground and within minutes you can go for a multi-pitch, sportclimbing and bouldering. so we mixed all up. went for a multipich in the morning and for some boudering at the evening... followed by some nice food, beer wine... we met some nice people and had a great time.

bouldering in the morning before it got too hot. then off with a rope for some....

first multipitch for angela ever - well done! 

then a little drive up the valley

There are a few very good looking hard lines but usually when its going to 7C and harder the holds are painful, the moves are not flowing. But may i was just on the wrong boulders and it was a bit warm for the harder bouldering as well. Nevertheless I had great fun playing around on very good intermediates and it was perfect to get used to bouldering on rock again. 

bit more bouldering in the evening

to finish the day with a nice french meal... - can't get much better... ;)

up and down and up again....

there was no rock climbing for the last 3weeks... but i still had a great time...

back home after surfing i had some good trainings sessions at the gaswerk and as soon as the weather turned better i headed out to for some fun days in magic wood at the second half of august. lots of people, but funny people...  first day was especially funny: at the start of the day i was not able to climb 7A.... at the end i did laps on a 7C.... nice progression for a day... ;)

cruising in magic wood - just the best :)

after two visits at sustenpass at the end of august i was super happy as my meniscus felt WAY better (still not ok... but way better) and i already was climbing through all the hard parts of the "highlander"-project from just two moves in... at my first day back on it...  with my meniscus allowing me to climb easier beta again... so i had all september and october  in front of me...

...but when checking out a SICK new project at sustenpass i managed to just slice all the skin off my tip...

was deeper then it looks here...

so off i was training indoors again...

so i had to rest and let my finger heal and then started to train again indoors...  i "lost" 3weeks of september at sustenpass...  - but i rented out a bike and had a great time crosscoutntry-biking in our backyard with my girlfriend... we even found boulders on one tour... - thanx to angie for the tour and the pics :)

what a nice backyard - and some big boulders waiting in the trees to the right ;)

and as it was so much fun and the bike just the killer (scott carbframe, 150mm/fox34/talas, remote for fork and rear shock, hyrdaulic remote seatpost, sram-xx1-crankset/derailleur). the "problem" then was: when you once have had the pleasure to ride such a bike, you don't want to miss one feature of it... so i consequently had to get THIS bike - took me some effort to find one with a reasonable price, but i found one... all mine now... :)

finally my tip has healed enough and weather forecast looks great for the next week... so i can't wait to go back up there to sustenpass... ;) we don't talk about my last weeks visit to the dentist which resulted in me walking home with two teeth less... let this heel quickly... i NEED to go back to rock.... before winter hits up there at the mountains!

back home - training again...

with added weight... ;)