The Italians 2

And there was Polenta. Loads of Polenta.
We were forced to eat it. Including the fat which was poured over it.
We all didn't like it, it was just too fat... Poor Italians, they'd been cooking for us since 4 in the midday.

The Italians

In Italy it all goes a bit different then in the rest of Europe.
If you're blond, young and have a good smile, you can get everything done for you. If you speak two words in Italian it's even better.
So I enjoyed my time there :)
Here some pictures of the competition besides the climbers...

Daone Comp 2010

Gosh, it has been some days since the last post here. I haven't had internet closeby and the internet is quite slow...
Daone was so much fun, partying with the Russians (crazy Vodka!), speedclimbing and leadclimbing which was so impressive and motivating.
The day started with the dudes doing their lead climbing. Corne did his best but didn't end up very high. Jurgen tried really hard to fix the undercling, but also fell off pretty early in the route.
Dennis had a different qualification route, and climbed easily through the first drytooling part and had a big struggle in the ice roof. He fell popping off with his feet and handing just on one axe, out of energy, power to get on. But out of all of us he did best!
Later came the speed for me. I failed (I found). I was slow, not used to the snowy crumbly ice and kept popping off with my feet. I didn't want to fall so climbed slow, resulting in a 9th place. No finals for me.
Later around three I got in the isolation for the semi-finals lead climbing. I warmed up well, talked a lot with the other girls and guys and felt pretty ok, not too nervous.
When I got in the isolation where you prepare your stuff, the light and heating went down. So it got quite cold and dark. Not the best seconds before a attempt. But I still felt fine.
I struggled in the route, not yet used to kicking my crampons in the wood and matching iceaxes on one hand and clipping. I got pretty pumped, not so much in my underarms, but more in my hands! When I started on the roof I was so pumped in my hands that I fell off, leaving my axes in the ice.
My mission was to reach at least the roof and get to the rest, but just before the good rest I fell off. Too bad, but not too bad :) I landed in 14th place, which wasn't even last place!
The good thing was, that I gained so much experience and motivation to train hard and loads for the next competition year!
In the evening we had the disaster climbing of the dudes in the speed.
Corne fell. So was out :( Then Jurgen had to climb. He was pretty promising when we trained in the Globe in Holland. So I was really hoping the best for him. But he hit his arm with his iceaxe (meat-hook) Had to quit, get to first aid and get some stitches in his arm. Damn...
The next day we amazed us about some Korean climber and of course Markus Bendler both dominating the field. And then we drove off to Kandersteg in Swiss.
We dropped off Jurgen at the airport, because with his arm he wouldn't be able to climb on.
It was painful to leave him there. We were just starting to form a team, and with a three it's always different then with a team of four.
Jurgen, we miss you here!

Daone Ceremony

Arrived in the Hotel with Corne and just attended the extremely patriotic Italian ceremony.
Bla, bla, bla in Italian, children in Italian colours, old men with Tiroler hats and feathers, fire brigade kids and adults and the local-forest-army-dudes playing some music and a procession through the little village of Daone.
I have some video's, but the connection here is so slow that I can't add anything :(
Tomorrow at 10:30 the speed climbing for the women starts, and the isolation for the men opens at 8. Pretty early...and later on the day I have the lead. Busy day...
I quite excited about it all. Loads of eastern European gilrs competing, 9 from Russia (is that allowed? *Checking the UIAA rules...*) and some other countries.
They first thought I was from Iceland. I wasn't actually allowed to compete (Iceland is not member of the UIAA, why why why...?) and they were worried becuase they couldn't find an Icelandic flag for the opening ceremony. Funny Italians... After showing my Dutch passport it was all ok again and they smiled again (instead of talking emotional Italian).
Now I'll go asleep early, to be fresh for tomorrows comp!

First real iceclimb in Europe mainland!

We arrived in Daone on Wednesday evening and slept next to the big competition wall. We stole some electricity and slept well, though, we felt our throats next day (cold?)
The next day we wanted to try our brand new Black Diamon Fusion axes on the backside of the snow-speed-wall, but then we heard there was real iceclimbing. So we left for a WI5 and climbed until dark 5 pitches and abseiled back in the dark. It was extremely cold but fun!

Off to Italy!

I drove around half of the Netherlands yesterday. Picking up iceaxes (thanks Tim!), picking up a Barryvox and then iceclimbing with the dudes in the Globe. And luckily we climb for free Skabbi...
We did some speed climbing with the Icelandic Hedinn axes and they actually work quite ok. Still have to get used to them :) But even with girly pink tape they still look like brutal meat-crooks. I was pretty satisfied with my climbing, 10.7 seconds (see video) to get up. I could do better with more practice, but for a first time... I fell a lot, looked at my shoes every time and had difficulties reading the route which resulted in my axes popping out. Here also a little video of Jurgen doing good, with 6.8 seconds he was the fastest of us four today. (Knowing that Dennis just came back from Kirov with just 6 hours of air plane sleep over the last 48 hours...)
Dennis and me will drive off today around 11/12. I hope, now packing all my stuff, which looks impossible!