Preparing for January

Pictures: the windmill I went to today to buy flour for home baked bread, my parents garden in the snow today.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow we're having snowy time.

Over 15cm already and that really is a lot of snow, in Dutch terms... So the trains hardly drive, all buses are cancelled, the planes don't fly, the government doesn't w

ant you to go on the roads..

Which means I'm stuck. Stuck at my parents home. Not too bad because Hotel Mama provides a luxury stay with free breakfast and dinner. But, I just want to get home, put my nailed tyres on my bike, go out for a cycle, get the room nice and warm, work a bit on my book, and enjoy the beauty of the white snow in the garden.

And don't have my mum and dad ask me all the time: "do you now have a job, don't you have to work, are you careful with your climbing, what about your boyfriend, are you sure about these Worldcups, I don't want you to go to those dangerous areas for your climbing, and I even heard today: are you having safe sex...?"

Picture: Playing with my food, making a snowman of the 'boerenkool' we ate this evening.

December in the Netherlands is the time of Sinterklaas. And then Christmas. And the New Years eve.And meanwhile for me it's the time to play for Zwarte Piet (see picture), saw wood for my stove to keep my house warm, climb to get strong for January, eat Dutch food like snert, boerenkool and hutspot and plan which competitions I'll attend in January.

Pictures: Zwartepiet! Eefje and me as zwarte piet for the Red Cross in Utrecht.

This year the climbing-plan starts at the 4th of January with a drive to:

Kandersteg (CH) for the iceclimbing event (you're all welcome to join as it's a open comp for all categories, so even if you just climb WI2 yiu can join!)
The next weekend we'll be in Daone (It) for the second Worldcup (we'll miss the first one in Korea as we don't have the money for it..) they just made a new wall for this years comp and it looks nice!

Picture: The new climbing wall in Daone, picture from the Daone Worldcup website

In the week we'll be climbing outdoors in Kandersteg
and then January 20-22nd go to Saas Fee (CH) for the third Worldcup of the season
then we'll join the comp in Austria or the Icefight in Rabenstein
afterwards we'll fly to Romenia for yet another Worldcup (if it's not cancelled...)
and then we're off for Iceland for two weeks of hardcore iceclimbing!

Afterwards we'll be skiing and if we find a good sponsor (next to our present sponsors NKBV, Petzl, Boreal...) we might go to Kirov for the last Worldcup of the season.

Loads of things to look forward to!

Here a whole list of all the comps, events and festivals in January in February in Alpine Europe:

January 7-9 (CH) Kandersteg Iceclimbing Festival

January 7-9 (F) Ecrins Iceclimbing Festival

January 14-16 (I) Worldcup Daone

January 14-16 (A) EIS Total

January 18-22 (CH) Worldcup Saas Fee

January 29-30 (I) Rabenstein Icefight

January 29-30 (A) iceclimbing comp...?

January 28-30 (F) Gorzedrette Iceclimbing Festival

February 5-6 (Ro) Worldcup Busteni

February 18-22 (A) Glace Glisse Europacup