‘Take your weapons of mass destruction and get the hell outta here’, to quote Team America. My blog will probably be on a black list from now on.

Some might have guessed: We’ve left the States about a week ago, to go back home. The 180 days of our visa have expired over . . . → Read More: America fuck yeah!]]>

‘Take your weapons of mass destruction and get the hell outta here’, to quote Team America. My blog will probably be on a black list from now on.

Some might have guessed: We’ve left the States about a week ago, to go back home. The 180 days of our visa have expired over and we were kindly asked to clear out of the country, with a shotgun in the back :)

I couldn’t have expected more of trip. Of course it had its ups and downs (like Katha’s knee, the many split tips  and the four flat tires) but all’s well that ends well, and since especially the end of the trip felt like a holiday, I’m feeling fresh and psyched to be home, to all that awaits me here…

Our last days in America were spent in Boulder CO, where due to Katha’s knee injury (which has improved a lot already) we didn’t see a lot of rock, but a whole lot of gym holds. Boulder is America’s rockclimbing/training epicentre; in spite of its small size more and better gyms then all over the country pop up on every street corner. ‘Movement’, ‘The Spot’, ‘Cats’ are to name, so are its climbers like the Woods, Graham, Emerson, Payne, Traversi, Hill only to name a few. In short, we had a lot of fun, met some amazing people, went to some crazy food places (mostly very organic and scary) and got our asses back to some training ;)

To be honest, I also feel very sad to be back in Europe. We’ve had the best time overseas, also thanks to all the friendly people we met and climbed together with. I miss the perpetuous clear blue sky of the West, its crazily featured sandstone and immaculate granite with razorblade crimps. I even miss America’s food – who would have thought – at least some: Krispy Kreme’s doughnuts, beef jerky, El Pasito, Whiskey Creek, Schat’s Bakery, sweet potatos. I even miss our good old GMC van, in which we’ve lived the past five months.

Then again, it is just so incredibly good to sit on a couch again, sleep in a decent bed, take a shower whenever the f#ck I want. No more daily nosebleeding because of the dry air, no more cacti spikes in sleeping bags, no more 0° Fahrenheit at night. And the best: I can finally buy books again without the worry how to get them home together with the rest of our 200 lbs of luggage…

After our one month trip to Kentucky, our trip from Boulder to Boulder covered the last five months. We’ve driven around 8000 miles (~13000 km), but hey gas is about three times cheaper then over here, and since all the roads are straight, driving was a proper rest day. Many of the ten states we visited looked very much alike, since the West is one giant sandstone desert with a couple of granite patches, but still the places we visited were all unique.

And please don’t ask what place was the nicest to visit. Everybody does, and I never know what to answer… apples and pears are not compareble, nor are Hueco and Yosemite :)

Oh, and as a goodbye present, the Boulder police gave us our one and only ticket of our stay:

'Permit not visible'. Of course it should've hung down the mirror...

I would have just preferred to get pulled over this guy:

who's freaky deaky dutch

Yep, another video. don’t worry, it’ll be the last of our trip :) Although our stay in Joe’s Valley was ended after a week, because of Katha hurting her knee pretty bad, we had a good time in this area, which was totally different than the other places we went. Both Katha and . . . → Read More: Joe’s Valley]]>

Yep, another video. don’t worry, it’ll be the last of our trip :)
Although our stay in Joe’s Valley was ended after a week, because of Katha hurting her knee pretty bad, we had a good time in this area, which was totally different than the other places we went. Both Katha and me got a little tired of trying hard boulders, and were more into a little holiday time, but we could still do some classic problems like ‘Masterpiece’ 8B, ‘The Worm Turns’ 8A, ‘Fingerhut’ 7C+, ‘Nerve Extension’ 7C+ etc…

Like I previously wrote, we moved to Joe’s Valley after a couple of days fighting with Indian Creek’s prefect handcracks, fingerstacks and offwidths – especially the latter. At first we weren’t very much astounded by its high praised sandstone, since it is so incredibly sandy – big suprise. The classic problems were fun to climb, and especially the features the rock offers are amazing, but the not so often tried boulders were so sandy they were hardly climbable without some intensive brushing. Do not get me wrong, I love loose rock, but I would rather go to the Fisher Towers to get on some muddy and sandy chimneys if I was looking for that. In bouldering I (mostly) look for good rock, it is just not very nice blowing of holds or grabbing big sloper with a fist full of sand.

That was our first impression. When we came to agreement with that Joe’s opened up as a place with unique boulder problems in a beautiful location, and again, suprise surprise, the weather was amazing.

Bouldering? Who cares in a setting like this...

So we scanned the whole area, which is in fact pretty big, for problems we wanted to climb, and ended up doing a couple of classics:

The big swing in 'Masterpiece' 8B

Katha on Gurkha Knife 7C

‘Masterpiece’ is a brilliant problem on a giant boulder that sits by its own in the entrance of Joe’s Valley. There is only two problems, but they are both worth the hike and the scary topout. A striking diagonal crack features good holds but bad feet, which make this problem a bit burly, with lots of campusing involved. It felt easier than some other 8B’s but still needed quite an effort to finally wrench my foot in that starting hole.

Katha on 'Fingerhut' 7C+

Katha quickly dispatched a crimpy testpiece called ‘Fingerhut’ and the long roofproblem ‘Nerve Extension’, where a nice double clutch to the topjug offers a cool finish. Just when she was trying a very cool problem with two tiny one fingerproblems, her knee snapped so loud I thought the nearby tree broke down. After icing it, there was no swelling, and after a hospital visit in the middle of nowhere-Utah everything seemed to be alright.

No more bouldering though, so off we went to our final destination on our trip: Boulder, back in Colorado.

Katha and the amazing start hold on 'No Substance' 7C

a oversized hotdog. Me flashing 'The Worm Turns' 8A

No we’re not back in hueco, although I do miss El Pasito, Krispy Kreme and the one dollar movie theaters. This is just a small post on the Esperanza video, that has become really oversized, because its producer didn’t think of flipping his Iphone :)

Mr Bryan Boyko – aka double B – . . . → Read More: Esperanza interlude]]>

No we’re not back in hueco, although I do miss El Pasito, Krispy Kreme and the one dollar movie theaters. This is just a small post on the Esperanza video, that has become really oversized, because its producer didn’t think of flipping his Iphone :)

Mr Bryan Boyko – aka double B – is the man I’m talking about, famous for cruising through the hardest problems, but to fall at the easy topouts for many reasons like getting pumped, numbing out, forgetting beta, or a reason he sadly affected me with: victory blurr.

One day after brutally failing on ‘Terre de Sienne’ once more, we dragged our asses to the Martine cave, where to our surprise I sat down and stuck the bone move on Esperanza. Once more and then I sat down at the – quite weird but original – start of the problem, stuck the bone move again and got really confused, propr victory blurr, thanks double B. The last move made advantage of that to spit me off, but one try after that, this video was made, and in the weirdets of ways, I could do the last move, thus completing ‘Esperanza’ 8B+.

Completing I say, in spite of a slight dissatisfaction afterwards, when I found out that the topout only weighed in around V6, loose and a bit scary as it may be. In a previous post I wrote about bouldering topouts, and my opinion that it is always preferable to do one, even scary, dangerous, loose or wet ones, and since the start of Esperanza isn’t really logic in itself, the idea of course came up to do the whole thing, the Megarig as DG liked to name it. Well I tried, get fed up with it and failed, coming close, but to fall off the topjug again. ‘Megaranza’, which means ‘giant heap of shit’ in german is still to be climbed, I’ll have to come back for it.

After competing in the Hueco Rockrodeo, where Katha won and I got second – expectedly after D Woods – we finally left the Chihuahuan desert. An intermediate stop in another desert, the beautiful White Sands in New Mexico, got us into Utah, where we went to check on Indian Creek’s famous splitter cracks.

Yep, still in the south. compared to the 0 degrees Celsius in the north, the 20 degrees here in Texas seem like a real holiday, so we’re postponing our stay. Joe’s Valley and Indian Creek will still be there later on.

In the meantime Katha and I have been grazing projects, like the . . . → Read More: Still in Hueco]]>

Yep, still in the south. compared to the 0 degrees Celsius in the north, the 20 degrees here in Texas seem like a real holiday, so we’re postponing our stay. Joe’s Valley and Indian Creek will still be there later on.

In the meantime Katha and I have been grazing projects, like the little video above shows. It features four 8B’s I’ve recently done, all very much different, but of course Hueco style of its finest.First up is ‘Evangelion’, the semi highball line above ‘Slashface’, with a really nasty pocket-crimp I’m glad I don’t have to use anymore. Next is a long roofproblem called ‘Land Before Time’, which apparently had broken, of which I’ve seen no trace. It follows a bended pocket band that looks like a dinosaur – hence the name – and has a nasty loose topout. ‘The Machinist’ has since its FA by Nalle broken as well, and took me quite the effort. Working this problem the first day it seemed so incredibly hard that I could not imagine doing all those hard moves after each other, let alone save so much core power for the end of the difficulties, where dabbing a rock behind you is very hard to avoid. One good go I cruised through all the hard stuff though, to let go of the good holds on the lip – I started to panic because I felt something I haven’t felt in the last couple of months: Pump. The next go wasn’t any better, except that I made it to the top this time…

The Machinist

Last problem featured is ‘Nagual’, in which, like I previously wrote, my flash attempt ended on the topjug. This problem is wisely tried only once a day, since it’s so skin tearing one can bleed after one proper go. This time no hesitation and down it went, painful as it was.

Most of the 8B’s I’ve done in Hueco have felt surprisingly comparable, with the exeption of ‘The Machinist’, which felt a little harder. All of these problems took me two days. I don’t like to try for longer then an hour or so, I’d rather try something else and come back for it another day.

Katha spent some time on a classic V12 (8A+) named ‘Barefoot on Sacred Ground’ which originally dropped down from a Hueco at 3 meters, but has a magnificent highball topout, which makes the boulder even prouder. In spite of the end being no more than V5 for the tall, it seems quite challenging for the short, and caused some frustration and scary moments for Katha – being too stubborn to just drop down or choose the more secure neighbouring topout (‘See Spot Run’). For the ones that have read my thoughts on topouts, Katha doesn’t seem to think about this stuff, it just seems logical to her to not drop down, hence the effort.
On the second day, after almost sending four times, she stuck the jug, and proudly topped out.

Katha high up on 'Barefoot' V12, ignoring the tree underneath :)

There’s a lot of problems left to climb, but after a month the motivation wears of pretty quickly, it feels like it’s time to move on. We’ve decided to stay until the rockrodeo, a competition – in which we hope to participate, but are late on registration – but most of all a BIG party, all Texas style.

Last but not least I’m still trying the low start of ‘Esperanza’, but after falling of the topjug yesterday I have to get my motivation back together :)

It’s just so hard not to chill in the sun the whole day, after the cold days in Yosemite this feels like real holiday…

Katha on 'Mo Mojo' V12, tanning and climbing at the same time...

Katha and I have had a couple of good days in Hueco, both finishing some projects. I could do ‘Esperanza’ V14 (8b+), ‘Nagual’ V13 and ‘Land Before Time’ V13; Katha could send three V11′s in a day and wrapped it up with ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ v12 (8A+).We’ve . . . → Read More: Esperanza]]>

Katha doing 'Dark Age' V11

Katha and I have had a couple of good days in Hueco, both finishing some projects. I could do ‘Esperanza’ V14 (8b+), ‘Nagual’ V13 and ‘Land Before Time’ V13; Katha could send three V11′s in a day and wrapped it up with ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ v12 (8A+).We’ve been in Hueco Tanks for about  two and half weeks now and our ‘to do list’ is nearing its end; We’ll just have to enlarge it…

A couple opf days ago we had our second rainday since three months. The rain lasted for five minutes, then immediately froze leaving pads and the stuff left outside covered with ice. That same day we hiked up to North mountain, where I struggled with ‘Terre de Sienne’, the ‘Swarm’ equivalent of hueco, 13 or 14 points worth. In spite of good conditions I still couldn’t do it. These one movers just feel so incredibly hard until you find out the trick and it feels really doable – at least that’s what I hope will happen :) – A little depressed we moved to most people’s end of the day destination: The Martini roof. This not even tall enough to stand in roof features the best holds you can imagine and is home to one of Hueco’s hardest lines: Esperanza V14.

Last move of Desperanza V14

I’d tried this problem before and managed to do all the moves quickly except for one, the famous Bone-move. This time I moved my knee a bit and the first try the move went down pretty easily. Like I said, you can try certain moves forever, until you make a slight difference and it feels so easy. I sat down at the start of Esperanza and suprisingly fell off with the top jug in my hand! Bryan tried to make a video with his Ipod, and couldn’t decide whether to spot me or continue fliming, so the video is as hilarious as it is terrible.

One more try half an hour later, which felt a lot worse than the latter I didn’t let go of the topjug – which is a bucket hueco – in spite of my left hand popping of the ear hold…

the next day Katha had a pretty amazing day, finishing up ‘Sunshine’ V11 – in the sun of course – then Mo Mojo V11/12, after four falls from the topjug to end the day with ‘Le Chninkel’ V11, pretty tough 8A if for short people. For the latter problem, she quickly checked out the moves, sat down and before I could grab the camera topped it out. She does this quite often, saying it’s sooo hard to do it second try… In this style she did ‘Dark Age’ V11 and ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ V12 as well.

Katha on 'Rumble in the Jungle' V12

Next day it was my turn again – somehow we never tick on the same day – time to finish up with ‘Nagual’ V13, where this time I didn’t let go of the topjug. In the afternoon I could do ‘Land Before Time’ V13, a problem put up by Dave and Chris, and claimed broken and impossible after. Well it still goes, and probably ain’t harder, but just as pretty.

'Nagual' V13

And to those who have made it all the way to the end of this post:

Some thoughts on bouldering ethics:

Normally I don’t like to write about topics like this, since some people might feel offended, but these are just some thoughts and questions I’ve asked myself recently. So no offence meant.

In the past few months Katha and I have mainly been bouldering – in area’s quite different from one another – and we’ve seen some crazy stuff around us. Topping out problems seems to me one of the axioms in bouldering, the goal is all about getting on top of that boulder, whether it is the easy or the hard way. Some problems exist where a topout is just not possible, and thus end at a certain point, preferably a topjug. This of course reduces the quality of the problem. Other problems have scary or hazardous topouts, where it’s up to the climber himself to decide whether he wants to risk his or her ankles – sometimes life – for it. These topouts can be high, have a bad landing, loose rock, or a combination of all, but remain subjectiv to everyone. The one topout feels like death to some but relatively safe to others. Of course padding plays an important role in this question.

With this in mind I was suprised to see and hear about people not topping out on problems that are in my opinion not dangerous – i.e. with a couple of pads and good spotters – with widely differing reasons. One of course is being scared of high problems, another reason is the presence of loose holds, and sometimes even the conditions making it tough to nigh impossible, for example snow covered or wet topouts.

In my opinion one cannot claim a boulder when it is not done in the same way other people do – or the first ascentionist did. If the topout is covered in snow, you come back another day, or you should have cleaned the holds forehand. If you are too scared to climb above a certain height, find lower problems. If you’re not fond of loose rock, try to clean the problem of it, or find a solid problem. To be clear: Everybody can choose their own ethics, but when a send becomes noticeable: a V2 topout is part to a V13 problem as it is to a V3 problem. Saying: ‘It’s easy anyways , I would have done it’ to me sounds weird.

To give some examples: No one would claim Bishop’s ‘Ambrosia’ after having done the first 15 feet – which covers V12 climbing – without having done its 40 feet high V4 topout. But in Hueco’s ‘Shaken not Stirred’ few care about the 10 feet topout, most just use the boulder behind to jump onto. Same for its neighbour ‘Esperanza’, which surprisingly stops in the hueco at 10 feet. The topout is loose, and not done by the first ascentionist, but only V6, so why not complete the problem? I of course do not say that all that have done ‘Esperanza’ couldn’t claim it, since the proper problem was ended there by Fred himself, but I just don’t see the reason why nobody took a brush before I did.

One case troubled my thoughts for a while though: Magic Wood’s ‘Never Ending Story’ has three parts, V12, V11 and V8. Part I doesn’t gain any height and just stops at a jug amidst all difficulties. The ‘full’ value is V14 but stops after part II again at a jug, to drop of towards safety. The last part is a 20 feet slippery V8 above a tiered landing, which to my knowledge has only been linked with a rope, including four bolts – most people agree on this being ridiculous: bolts belong in rope crags. I found it appaling to jump down when a topout is possible, but since none of my friends wanted to spot me on this, I decided to play along with the rest and just do NES I&II. Maybe I’ll be back. Doing ‘Ambrosia with two pads and a scared girlfriend standing below learned me that ethics are not all that count…

Feel free to give some feedback or critics on any of these thoughts.

Alma Blanca V13

As you were able to guess Katha and I are in Hueco Tanks now, where the climbing is as good as the weather. As soon as we got used to the almost perpetual background bombing of the nearby military base fighting the neighbouring missile range, as well as temperatures . . . → Read More: Huecool]]>

Alma Blanca V13

As you were able to guess Katha and I are in Hueco Tanks now, where the climbing is as good as the weather. As soon as we got used to the almost perpetual background bombing of the nearby military base fighting the neighbouring missile range, as well as temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius and last but not least the ever so stupendous State Park rules for camping and climbing, we -almost- freely enjoyed the endless range of beautiful problems awaiting us.We teamed up with Chris, Pootch and their fellow Brits, as well as Remo – aka as Rainbow Summer- and Nathalie, Germans and Americans to crush Hueco’s infamous ‘three mountains and a spur’.

First testpiece for me was ‘Slashface’, a former V14 (8b+) and probably one of the most notorious boulders here and around. It feels like my fingers are still wedged in that painful crack hold…

Slashface V13 (8B)

Next up was Nagual – former V14 as well – where we smartly arrived in the two hour timegap this prblem heats up in the sun. I gave it a not so much expecting flash burn, but fell with the topjug in my hand. Hesitation was the problem, since I dabbed slightly in the first move, and didn’t know whether to drop off or not. Hence the flash wouldn’t have felt very fair, so I just have to come back for a second try…

En revanche I could quickly do Alma Blanca – one more of Fred Nicole endless testpieces here – given V13 (8b), which felt a bit easier though.

Add some V12′s, like ‘Full monty’, ‘Bleeding Brothers’, ‘Loaded Direct’, ‘Tequila Sunrise’, ‘Pelerin’ and a couple of V11′s flash, and you see why my skin hurts ;)

Katha seeking the shade on Bloodline V8

Katha is destroying everything within ther armspan, doing two 8A’s and one 8A+ in a single day… Girl power at its finest.

We still have so much stuff to do, in spite of the three weeks we’ve already been here in 2007, so we’ll stay till the end of febuary to head to Joe’s Valley and Indian Creek.

Need a toothpick???

I’ll post a video as soon as I find some internet that uploads faster than 1 kb/sec.

From Bishop our next stop was… Vegas what else. We checked in the Stratosphere, a fancy hotel with a 350 meter high tower, including a small fun park on top, real Vegas style…

Stratosphere, Vegas

The day after a night in casinos, IMAX’s and too many light bulbs . . . → Read More: Desert Utah… National parks with the family…]]>

Fisher Towers, Moab

From Bishop our next stop was… Vegas what else. We checked in the Stratosphere, a fancy hotel with a 350 meter high tower, including a small fun park on top, real Vegas style…

Stratosphere, Vegas

The day after a night in casinos, IMAX’s and too many light bulbs we drove into the nearby Redrock Balck Velvet canyon, where we ran up one of it’s 700 meter classics: Epinephrine. In spite of its low grade (5.9) the route covers 4 pitches of smooth chimneys, that add a bit of spice, lots of fun :)

Epinephrine, Redrocks

That night we picked up my mom and oncle at the airport, who came to visit us for a week or two. More Vegas of course…

Castleton Tower, Moab

The following two weeks our van was being followed by an oversized RV Camper with two smiling dutchies inside. The plan was to drive to Utah, to visit its beautiful and many national parks, and Katha and me would do some desert climbing not to get too fat and chubby ;)

Two weeks later we visited Zion, Bryce, Arches, Fisher Towers, Castle valley and some other parks, and Katha (and even I) was fed up with the desert chimneys and off widths, handcracks and buttcracks, and most of all: The Sand. You start to feel like a dustbin, in all different colors of sandstone.

Some classics we did were: Monkeyfinger 5.12b, Ancient Art 5.10, Castleton SW 5.9.

Bryce Canyon

Arches, Moab

After a bit of snow in Colorado we finally headed down south, leaving the family to enjoy the grand canyon, and with a slight stop in Albuquerque, where we met up with no other than fellow Innsbruck local Cody Roth :)

After some beers in the local microbrewery we now have finally arrive in Hueco Tanks, where we will be cruising the crimps for the next couple of weeks…

so psyched.

Katha and me on top of Castleton Tower

Like I promised, a video of me doing the sitstart of the Buttermilker and flashing one of Bishop’s finest boulders: Xavier’s roof.Here’s a video of Katha doing the same boulder, but using a complete different set of holds on her beta, which doesn’t make it easier at all :)

Okay enough videos, a . . . → Read More: The Buttermilker V13 (8B)]]>

Like I promised, a video of me doing the sitstart of the Buttermilker and flashing one of Bishop’s finest boulders: Xavier’s roof.Here’s a video of Katha doing the same boulder, but using a complete different set of holds on her beta, which doesn’t make it easier at all :)

Okay enough videos, a little list of the highballs I’ve done in Bishop, so to speak as to close the chapter…

• Ambrosia V11 !
• Evilution Direct V11
• This Side of Paradise V10
• Golden Shower V10
• Saigon Direct V9
• Flight of the Bumblebee V8 !
• Mesothelioma V7
• Big Easy V7
• Granny High V7
• Secrets of the Beehive V6
• Transporter Room V5 !
• In the Bank V5
• Golden Rule V4
• Jedi Mind Tricks V4
• Bushlanding V3 (FA? left of Spectre)

and a variety of  easy stuff…

Oh and I posted some desert photo’s on Facebook (I’m ashamed that place is more up to date as here…)