The storm and the plastic heroes

Today, Sunday I woke up early.
Normal for my Sunday, but maybe weird for most people.
This time it was not for climbing, not for running, not for the family-visits. Nope.
It was for the rubbish. Or actually, against the rubbish.

As ambassador of Respect the Mountains I was invited to join the first (out of 7) EnviroTracks.
And EnviroTrack is a fun day combining mountain/outdoor activities with cleaning up a nature reserve and a good bbq.
This time it was not so much 'mountain orientated' because it was in the Netherlands. Schoorl to be exact.
Though Schoorl can be considered a high point in the Netherlands with it's dunes of 54m!
They even have a famous dune called 'Klimduin' (climbing dune).
So in a way it was still all about respect and mountains.

I woke up and listened to the raindrops on the roof. It didn't sound like a regular Summer day.
It was more like a regular Autumn day...
I took my best rainjacket, rain trousers and my 'singing in the rain'-mood and drove to Schoorl.

A lot of enthausiasts conqured the rain and joined us for the event.
Together we were with over 50 participants :) Which was a reasonable number considering the heavy rain.
We were divided into groups, every group got it's own ambassador (Philip, Bas, the Keen Team and me) and got rubbishbags.
My group headed for the dike and the beach.





The wind was tremendous! It was hard to keep our balance on the dike and hard to pick up all the plastic, cans, bottles, fishing lines, foam, and an accidental bath-suit.
We walked over the dike along the sea and learned about the history of the area, the ship-wreck, the brackish water and were astonished by the amount of rubbish we collected from the dike.
We walked for such a short time and had loads of rubbish bags full of stuff.









At 12:30 it was time to head back and join the lunch/bbq.
We warmed up, won a price for the weirdest bit of rubbish and got ready for the activities. Kickbiking, MTB, sea-kayakking and the compass-puzzle race.
Everyone wanted to get on the sea-kayaks so the participants could choose first. Leaving me with the compass-puzzle.
After a 2 hour puzzle-walk in the rain we were back at the start. Satisfied with all the rubbish we collected in the morning, all the good ideas and motivation to keep our environment clean and surprisingly everyone still had a smile after all the wind, rain, hail and a thunderstorm.
The participants went home with a goodiebag filled with Barts, Keen, Salt and more.

We stayed, cleaned up and went for a good dinner together.

It was good to do something back for our nature and to be driven by the motivation to keep it all clean.
Let's go again and be inspired :)

If you also want to do something good and have a fun day check out the Respect the Mountains website for dates and locations of the 2012 EnviroTracks.

Back in Holland

It's been more then a month since I was last in Holland. My home-country still feels like a holiday country: good reason to visit friends and family, but not a place to live for now.

It's been raining a lot in the Alps. It's actually raining now...

Meaning we had to bail out of our last two routes: Motorhead and Salbit SW-grat. (Both in Swiss)

For me it meant: time to go back home and time to start working. Wait for some good weather the in next months.

Motorhead, in the sector Eldorado, slab, corners on good, good granite. (Trad, of course) but as the crack turned into a slippery waterfall in the rain, we bailed out of the third pitch.

We bivouacked under some rock the right before and were quite disappointed as we'd put quite some energy in getting there. So, as the forecast was better for the next days we went for our second project: Salbit.

Some days before we decided to drive to Chamonix as the weather was bad, bad, bad. We met Roeland and he gave us the advice for the Salbit and Motorhead.

It was so good to meet Roeland. He's such an motivating factor for my climbing and my dedication to climbing. He understands what I want with my life (climbing) and is not like a parent, worried- or workaholic-friend, he just sees what I want and motivates me to live my life as I want it: full of climbing. (Thanks Roeland)

Salbit, I said. We walked up last Sunday to the Salbithütte and then the Salbit bivouac. Because of the new (2009) bridge and the bivouac-hut it was a long but good walk.

We didn't knew there was such a good bivouac hut, providing not only shelter but also a bed, sleepingbags, maps and more for at least 8 climbers just under the start of the routes.

Although it was so warm in the hut, that is was better to sleep outside on my Therm-a-Rest then on the banana-shaped-mattress in my -20ºC down sleepingbag.

We woke up at 4:30h to be in time before the next bad-weather-front would come in that midday.

Quite hard to climb the first pitches in darkness (no moon, just clouds and our Tikka headlamp) but we survived and climbed on in the morning light. The wall was full of lost gear, so Dennis sometimes had to stop to hammer out a nut. I don't have a collection of nuts (enough cams though) but after this holiday I can use my own rack...

I was trying to be faster then average. This holiday I figured I'm such a slow climber and walker. Especially compared to Dennis, and he says he's slow compared to some of his friends...

And for this line we needed some fast climbing. The guys who were in the wall yesterday only climbed the first wall when we arrived, meaning they still had about 20 pitches to go out of 30 in the afternoon...Logically they didn't make it and abseiled out.

Roeland warned us, that it would take more then 18 hours for some climbers.

We were just over half-way and had the longest pitches behind us. But it was already midday. Bad weather would come in soon we guessed, having clouds and wind around the mountain and dark-grey skies in the background. And then we still had to climb around 10-15 pitches at least, abseil down and walk back to the van. We decided now, that it was still possible to abseil down, we should do that. With a very double feeling in our stomach we went down leaving the top of the route far behind us in the clouds.

We knew it was our last route of the Summer. After a month full of beautiful climbing, this was quite a bummer. We both wanted to finish with something beautiful.

When I look back, I'm very critical and serious and see more clearly what I can do and what it is to climb trad multipitch like I did this Summer.

Dennis is an experienced climber, a better climber in trad and alpine. I'm just a sportsclimber, a boulderer accidentally "falling up" to the tops of mountain trad lines. Without Dennis guidance I guess I wouldn't have climbed the things we climbed. Though, I became more fluent, faster, better and more confident the more I climbed. On the end of the trip I had the feeling I was just getting started. Up for more, up for more serious things.

Now back in Holland I know I have to work on some things: ice/mixed climbing, stamina and fluency. I have to become faster. faster in walking, climbing, iceclimbing. So I've been running, cycling, finessing and climbing.

Though, climbing is a bit a difficult point. I need somebody to climb with. I'm fed up by going to the gym every time again and figuring that I can just only go bouldering. I need a bitch, a belaybitch. (So, if you need a belaybitch as well, please mail or call me).

Meanwhile I'm writing again and arranging all the things to have a place to live and work.

Which is actually quite hard, hard to find a cheap room or apartment, hard to find a place to work. I'm trying to find something close to Rotterdam/Barendrecht/Dordrecht/Zwijndrecht...

Suggestions and help is welcome!

Spring!

In Iceland you have just two seasons: Summer and Winter. The in-between-version doesn't exist. Understandable. It's often just cold there: t-shirt weather is nice, but far not as nice as t-shirt weather in the Netherlands.

So, I'm enjoying the sun!

Giro d'Italia

This weekend is Giro weekend. All around Utrecht and Amsterdam there are little cycling events. And there is of course the big tour: Giro d'Italia. Italia/Holland, yes, I don't get it either...but it was fun to watch.

I took my brother and dad and five different camera's with me. This is the result: video/slow motion and pictures. Though, the best pictures stay on my dad's page.

Weird: Back in Holland

Strange to be here again. Back in Holland.

From harsh winter weather in Seydisfjordur to mild Spring/Summer weather in Holland today. From being in Icelandic culture, talking Icelandic, eating Icelandic to Dutch again. It's strange, a pity, weird, good, all at the same time, to leave behind what I've been working on for 2,5 years...

I drove straight from my arrival in Esjberg (Denmark) back to Holland. On the way I had two very nice hitchhikers which I dropped at Hannover (thanks for the pie!)

After all the twisting and slipping on the road to Seydisfjeordur, my car was trembly and I was worried that my tyre would fall off or something. But 865km to Muiden and it was all fine. It probably just had to be balanced again or something.

It, means my van. I've been thinking of a name. Þorkell sounds funny, as nobody in mainland Europe can pronounce the name. Or Stjáni blái, the Icelandic name for Popeye. As my car is blue (blái) big and strong, I thought it would fit.

The trip on the ferry is extremely boring, as expected. I was happy having my cycle tour in the Faraoe Islands and the possibility of fitness and swimming on the ferry.

On the way home I got only stopped once. The police had to figure my numberplate and couldn't place it.

I was very jokey and told them it was probably a hard game figuring the origin of my numberplate.

I forgot to write on my car:

Bankroet ehf (efh=Icelandic for the Dutch 'bv') (bankroet=bankrupt, but roet=ash)

Waarde(loos) transport (value 'less' transport)

I'm thinking of making a big sticker for on the window. Nobody will get the joke though, only when they recognise the numberplate.

Now I'll have to start building up my things again here in Holland. Finding myself a place to live, friends to climb with, finish my studies, find a job...

This is my tick-list for now:

- change car into official campervan

- get the tyres balanced again

- get through Dutch MOT.

- get Dutch numberplates

- start paying Dutch car tax/insurance

- write/finish my studies (takes more then a month I guess)

- get fit in climbing again (train 5x a week)

- get myself a job (IRATA)

- have enough money to go to Iceland for a visit

- go to Berdorf, Ettringen, Freyr, Frankenura...and go to the Alps this Summer!

- learn to dance Salsa

- clean up the mess in my room (sorry mum, I'll really clean it up...)

- become rich ;)

Travelling in Holland

First walking, then cycling and now by car everywhere through Holland. Last week Jort and me met up and went to some of his costumers (Boreal, Moon, and more) we talked a lot and had fun.

We ate some massive plate of spare-ribs and I dropped my camera right in the sauce...luckily the thing is waterproof :)

Happy new Year!

So, 2009 is gone and we're already more then a week in 2010 (weird number) I've been busy iceclimbing, drytooling, bouldering and climbing all around in Holland. And of course enjoyed the nice weather here: really cold and snowy.
Do you have any good plans for this new year? Loosing weight, climbing even harder, find a girlfriend...?
I'm pretty simple and just try a lot, try a lot of climbing, do a lot of travelling and just have loads of fun! No real plans so far. But I'm sort of lucky: I don't smoke, I'm not fat, I already do sports so don't have to start them up :)

Snowy Christmas

Here in Holland there is snow. Even much more then in Reykjavik now. (Weird)
A couple days ago I went for a walk with my dad, we talked a lot and practised our hobby (and my dad's addiction). Photography. We saw some classical Dutch winter-views and took some nice pictures. Here some "raw pictures", with an edge around it and some adjusting they look really nice...I'll show them later on the website zoom.nl
Afterwards we went for a climb in the gym in Bussum. I was proud of having my dad as a belayer!
Now, Valdi is in Holland too, so we can have some fun together.
He's been really lazy today though: slept till 12 'o clock. I hope he'll be active enough to go for a climb :D or at least play belay-bitch, tryggjatik, zekerteef.