Twin Towers meltdown

The last day of our iceclimbing trip this Winter.

It was warm outside plus 5 or maybe more. And we were tired. The last day, so we MUST climb. But what. Too warm for Kiental, too warm for any proper ice and the thing we really wanted to do was not in condition. Ueschinen then.

Dennis hardly found the motivation to ski up that bloody hill, we even took a break, drank some tea before we went on. It took ages to get up. I remembered running up there last Summer, back then it took me 1:10 to run up and down again. Now it took us more then one hour to just walk up...

Around us the snow fell off the trees and the skins of our skis were full with thick blobs of wet snow.

Finally there.

The ice was quite thick and beautiful as always. Although Ueschinen is a bit like 'sportsclimbing for Alpinists' the surroundings, the big icicles, snow and the mist in the valley makes it a bit a mythical place.

We had no goal, so just went up one of the routes we wanted to do some time. Twin Towers. We were doubting, or maybe Matador? Twin Towers had ice. So it became Twin Towers.

I decided to go up first, and Dennis was okay with that.

It starts in a bit of ice, then some good hooks and a couple torques before you get to an enormous move. There are scratches close to the hold on the wall I moved, moved and found it way too long. Tried again and made it. But then Dennis and I came to the idea of moving into the ice instead of the stone hold. The move was as long but in a different angle which could make it better. It worked, so I decided to to this in my next attempt.

After the long move I had some rest in the ice before getting onto the next long move. From a sketchy hold very long to a good hold and then very long again to a good hold. Then long into the ice and okay from there on. But no more bolt, so an grounder (?) if you'd fall from that part to the top.

It was Dennis turn. He now knew all the moves. We took a close look together to be sure about all the moves and as he's quite a bit taller then me it should be all right to flash the route.

Dennis says "Not being warmed up it was so nice to move in to the freehanging in the middle of the roof to get a rest.

From here its “only” 4 hard moves in to the next overhanging ice. I found the hooks first try made some big dynamic moves and found myself in the curtain on the end of the roof. I climbed the icicle careful being scared to waste my Flash attempet. YES made it. First M10 flash."

I always get quite nervous when Dennis climbs something and I haven't done it yet. It's the same feeling as on competitions. Knowing most girls will climb the route to the top, knowing I should be able to do that too, but now prove it and actually do it gives me a big 'block in my throat'.

I climbed up the first part. Swung into the ice and took a nice rest. I tried to breathe normally but the 'thing in my throat' got my breathe stuck. I had a nervous feeling in my stomach and my mind was playing with me like an angel and devil telling me what to do:

"It's all right if you don't make it". "You should climb it now, you can do this 2nd GO". "It's hard so you probably fall off." "Come on, climb on, it's not that hard." "What if you fall, then you failed again." "You're getting tired, move on." "You're going to fall." "You can't make it." "You're strong enough to do this."...

On and on this goes in my head. Making me forget every move, having to hold on twice as hard on every hold. Dennis had to help me on what move was coming next. Meanwhile my hands became tired, forcing me to shake more and move slower. I got frustrated by the insecurity and the idea of failing to climb it. I got slower and didn't want to be slow. Why did I feel like this, it got me quite desperate, screaming, almost crying to myself that I had to move on.

I had to do a figure of four on the sketchy hold but my axe kept on turning. Come on, do it. I moved back again, to take some rest, tried again, moved back again, tried again, moved back again and finally did it. But then my hands were bailing out on me, forcing me to shake. I was not pumped, not like you have when you climb normally, it was just my hands.

I found a hold in between the next long move, hoped it was okay and moved from there. My hands slipped almost out of my axes, desperate I was, I could hardly move my hands slipping away. "Put your feet in the ice, feet in the ice" Dennis screamed to me. I desperately moved into the ice. There I could rest again. My mind still playing tricks.

From here it was just a couple more moves in okay snowy ice blobs and a nice icecle.

Dennis placed a screw in the top part, making it more comfortable to top out.

And that's what I did. I climbed it. What a relief.

My first M10, and that 2nd GO.

Time to go home.

Swiss style

Just one more day left of our immense Winter trip.

2 months of non-stop Winter climbing all around. We traveled through 8 different countries, climbed 4 Worldcups and quite a proper bit of ice and mixed. Although it was not always good, satisfactory and fair we still had a good time.

Today we wanted to do something good, something that was just for us.

We drove to Kiental (after it took more then 2 hours to get the car started) and suddenly decided to stop in Mitholz instead :)

There was this waterfall Dennis tried years ago and he wanted a re-go. A free-standing in the start, an okay middle part and an impressive top bit. Graded in the old topo as 6-, in the new one as 5+ and Dennis remembered it as a full 6.

It was all dripping, leaking, wet. We didn't bring our Gore-Tex so the softshell had to do the job. Forget the downjacket here...

After climbing it we can say: it was a 6. For sure.

To celebrate the fun that evening we drank Rivella and ate Rösti. Swiss style.

- movie soon :)

Cold

Cold as in having a cold.

After almost 2 months of climbing we finally got one. Thanks to Romania and the travelling we guess.

(With the snow in Romania we got a huge delay: first we waited in the plane in Bucharest for 3 hours, then we stood in a que for 4 hours, then we got crappy dinner in a restaurant where everyone was smoking, then we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to catch our delayed flight, that was delayed for one hour and when we got to Munich we figured our flight to Geneva was canceled and then we waited again for quite some hours to finally arrive in Geneva on Tuesday evening instead of Monday midday...)

We had a restday yesterday but last night we both had the same thing. We really couldn't sleep and had a blocked nose and a heavy head all night. Addicted as we are we still wanted to climb what we planned Almenalp-something (sorry, I'm so bad in remembering route names). A mixed line that you can see from the Scout Centre in the Kandersteg Valley.

We were hopeless. First it was the walk up which normally takes 30 mins. We were struggling in the snow covered in it up to out waist and sometimes we sank in to our chest. When we were finally there took me ages to climb the first bit (M9). Figuring all the moves, some sppoky holds and the ice in the start. Although it was partly bolted it was still a bit scary to climb. We left the draws and some screws and decided we'll come back in two days when we hopefully feel better...

(sorry forgot to put the pictures from Dennis' camera on my laptop)

Update: had a semi-restday today and went climbing with Rick in Kiental. Fun!

Kandersteg pt. 28798346467....

We're back home again.

Home in our own little campervan at our favourite Winter place Kandersteg.

After the worldcup we're quite tired of all the travelling, disappointments and the no-real-climbing-stuff.

So we're here for one week before Dennis' starts his work/studies again.

No pictures here this time and you might be wondering where are all the little movies she makes every time. Well, I had quite some bad luck with electrical equipment. The only electrical thing this still works is my laptop.

First my pink camera died (the battery doesn't work anymore...) then my iPhone decided to quit (the screen isn't working anymore, for the second time, I already replaced the screen with a new one just a couple months ago) then my Suunto watch broke down (advice: don't buy the Suunto Lumi, cappiest watch ever made by Suunto in less then two years I'd already sent it back to Suunto three times, and had it replaced twice next to that...) and then on top of that all my brand new Contour camera decided to destroy my SD-cards and quit as well... So the only camera working now is Dennis' small camera and after all the bad luck I don't dare to touch it.

But at least we're climbing :)

(N)ice, finally

(N)ice!

Well, sort of ice.

We arrived in Kandersteg (CH) after an 'interesting' trip with a beautiful van that sometimes has 'issues'.

We joined the Festival (no ice although it's called the "Ice Festival") and today we finally climbed some real ice in Ueschinen.

As we did so much last week here a little summaray:

• January 2nd: from Bergschenhoek to Heerjansdam and a stop in Land van Altena to get some help to fix Dennis' VW T3 Syncro (our home for the next 2 months). We drove on to Venlo and parked the car for a good night sleep.
• January 3rd: from Venlo to Germany, somewhere during the evening the van just quit out of nothing, a Dutch truck driver dragged us with his double truck to a safer place where we got a pick-up by the ADAC (German car insurance)
• January 4th: Thanks to the ANWB/ADAC we stood in Bergweiler at the local Lada dealer to fix the van. Around midday we were ready to go on, around 8-ish we finally arrived in Kandersteg
• January 5th: half a climbing day: drytooling in Blausee. It was raining and wet everywhere, too hot to climb any proper ice. Though the drytooling was good, where we had trouble getting up last year was just a good training session now: we are strong :)
• January 6th: ski-trip up to Oeschinensee and the mixed/ice routes Kraftort and Kraftwerk. My first second time outdoors on ski's, first time real snow. Quite interesting...We noticed all the fallen trees and stuff and realised only that evening that the fohn had it's impact last night: Zermatt closed, the train in Kandersteg closed, ski pistes all closed... Even the electricity went out that night for a while, when we were asleep... :)
• January 7th: Kandersteg Ice Festival: for Dennis (speed specialist) it was a good comp, he ended up being 7th, standing on stage in between his youth heroes. I was quite unlucky. Being first to climb in the flash competition (so for me it was an onsight) got my axe stuck in the holds twice, after me the holds were big enough not to get your axe stuck and not being a speed specialist made me end up 9th... (Out of 20) just after Anna (who won the 2011 worldcup series) Though it was good to meet all those nice people again (Rolf, Urs, Erwan, Stephanie, Felicitas...) Here all the results.
• January 8th: restday (boring!) it was dumping (snow) all day, so I made a walk to the city centre, realising everything was closed (it's Sunday) and walked back again, happy not being able to spent money in Swiss. That evening Dennis and I realised we're together for 2 years now. So we celebrated it with a good bit of Jameson and a walk in the snow.
• January 9th: Ueschinen. We wanted to do some real mixed/drytooling so we skied up to Ueschinen. Realising again how much it hurts when your hands stay cold (hot eggs/screaming barfeys) Dennis had it...really bad. I was lucky to be in a better 'hand shape'. After a good warm-up in some M8's we climbed Power Bat both 2nd go. Getting used to finding holds in natural rock. On the way up I had some trouble with 'air', being on tension over my whole body I couldn't help it letting out some 'fresh' air. In the end fell off, landing upside down in the air Dennis belayed me down avoiding the hanging ice pillars to fall on me... We were wondering who the guy was who was racing up all the M10's and M11's, he turned out to be the speed record holder for the Eiger NF. Ah, I knew I recognised him from somewhere... On the way down I skied my first real powder and actually liked it (getting better).
• January 10th: that is tomorrow, we'll drive to Geneva to fly to Korea on the 11th. Exciting!

Home...in the flat country

After one 8a, some ED/ED+, hard boulders, long walks a 1/2 marathon offroad, loads of pasta&tomato sauce, many Alpine roads and 2 months without a shower...we're back home again.

But not after a quick stop in Kandersteg (sportsclimbing, mountain running and drytooling in the sun -yes, drytooling is a sport for all year round- ) and later a stop in Ettringen.

Yestderday was so hot that it was impossible to climb. Which made us go for a swim instead. Laacher see it was. After all this sitting, driving and baking in the sun I decided it was time for a bit of movement. A bit became a lot and became a test. Wondering how fit I actually was (I noticed I could run uphill for 50 mins on 1200m height without getting tired and doing an offraod mountain run for 1:10hrs without getting any muscle-soreness or sore knees)

So how far could I run on a warm evening? It became 27km in less then 2 hours. All offroad in the hills around the Laacher See. It's not advisable to try this when you didn't eat enough and forgot to drink the regular amount of water you need on a day... Though, I did. Next is of course to run a marathon, offroad in the mountains :) Which is 'nothing' if you compared it to what runners with the Mont Blanc ultra-trail will run this week.

This morning it was cold enough to try climbing. Around 8 in the morning we had our warm-up and around 12 we had to leave because of the pressing humid heat.

In between we climbed quite some things including 'magical project' Mut der Verzweiflung. I tried this route before and once I knew how hard it was and that it had never been climbed by a woman (at that time, now it's been climbed by German local Melanie). I'm not so good in 'tempering myself' so nervous as I was every time I'd get upon the route I just failed. Getting scared, pumped, unfocused, basically just far too nervous to climb it...

But now after a Summer full of trad (7a on 3000m height) I was just far too fit to miss out on this 'simple-almost-below-sea-level-climb-on-a-hill-instead-of-a-3000m-heigh-mountain'.

I toproped it as warmup and 'walked' through all the moves with surprising ease. And I knew I had to get on lead. Nervous. Shit. Trembling, shaky on my legs even before I made any move. I got pumped after 2 moves. Shit.

I belayed Dennis, went for a walk with him (he knew I got nervous...too nervous to climb...) and ate a waffle, drank some water and relaxed.

Ready this time.

I climbed it, had the right locks on the right places and even had time to relax and shake my arms. Not that I got pumped, it's just a habit: Chalk up, shake, look, chalk, shake, move, look, move, shake, climb, chalk, shake, chalk, move...I'm a slow climber.

But I did it. Gear on the right place and never scared, pumped or in trouble. So cool, it felt like climbing 6b!

I have to say, this is so much easier then 7a trad in a long long multipich :) Officially Mut der Verzweiflung is graded as 7b/7b+. I'm not so good in grading routes. I'd guess it's more a 7a. But thats just because it went so easy right now. Guess I'm fit :)

Now, home again, I have to work again. Earn some money and go out again as soon as possible!

Here the three last movies of the 'Summer climbing trip 2011'.

Kandersteg, on our way home...

Yesterday we left Chamonix after a very nice movie evening (Jackass) with -almost guide- Roeland van Oss. On the day we climbed together on some really really long granite sports routes (37m long 7a+ and more)

Since the last time we had quite some new adventure involving a big wall called the Grand Charmoz. We climbed the Cordier West Pillar. Not too hard but really beautiful climbing. Especially the cracks in the top part of the line are amazing! And also the piaz in the middle is pretty cool.

But it's time to head back. Work, earn some money and go out again :)

Today we'll do some drytooling in Kandersteg (as we can't find any long hard trad multipitch here, ideas are welcome) and then we'll drive to Ettringen.

6th on the Worldcup

Finally, after a year of recovering, climbing and dedication to the sports, I did it...I climbed the finals of the worldcup iceclimbing!

And I wasn't even too bad. Out of 8 who reached the finals I became 6th! With a very, very close distance to the 5th, 4th and 3th place :)

Meaning: I'm improving!

Now, we're already far away from Saas Fee again, back in Kandersteg. With enough ice this time to climb some real ice routes.

I find it difficult, sometimes scary, tiring, cold but...fun! And it's logical, we're on an iceclimbing trip so we should climb ice :)

This weekend we'll climb a competition again, Rabenstein it will be. Not a worldcup but a high-class competition with many worldcup climbers.

And then it will be Romania we'll head for. For the third worldcup of the season.

Together with Dutch climber Ferdinand Schulte we'll try to do well in Busteni.

Picture from 'the First'

Weather issues

Some people just love sun, warm weather and a stroll around the village.

I just can't wait to climb again!

We have a rest day today. Which means being bored all day: baking a pie with Cheongsong-apples, reading Donald Duck, knitting Dennis' sweater, sleeping a bit, eating the pie, washing clothes, taking a shower, drying the clothes, eating more pie, reading a bit, knitting again, sleeping again, a little walk and...watch how all the ice melts away.

It's so warm here that we haven't had a chance to get our axes in the ice. Just drytooling these two days. Not that it's bad to do so, we got pretty tired of our training, but, we're in the Alps, so we want ice.

Next Friday will be the Saas Fee Worldcup competition, so soon we'll drive to Saas Fee and get ready for some hard-good-fun climbing again.

If you're online, you can follow the whole comp live on the worldcup website here: WEBCAM

Seoul, Beijing, Frankfurt and Kandersteg: from rice to nice

Today, Kandersteg, after a big week of travelling.

There was hardly any ice left, it was even so warm that we could climb in a top!

Here my report of the last days in Korea and China and the iceclimbing Worldcup...

Going abroad is always something for me. It’s a must.

Getting to know different lifestyles, cultures, people, nature, views.

Going to Korea, not just Seoul the want-to-be-Western capital but also Cheongsong, the not so rich apple-farmers region. And later we even had the chance to visit Beijing. Strange to see how two countries, almost neighbours can differ so much and both be beautiful in their own way. And that next to the climbing, the actual reason I traveled all the way.

The finals, the last and most difficult thing of a competition.

Nerves, coldness, waiting, I missed it all, just missed it. I ended as number then less then a move away from the finals.

Finals with an exciting time battle for the two strongest men: Markus and Hee Yong.

And a painful judging mistake in the womens finals.

Already in the semi-finals we were surprised of the inconsistent judging considering clipping and back-clipping draws in advantage of a Korean climber. I was told in de qualifications that I touched the edge of the wall, I was sure I didn’t touch it so didn’t worry about it. Later I noticed some people were disqualified because of touching the edges, not even using the edges. Strange...

In the finals Angelika was last to climb. She climbed impressive during the semi-finals, making us confident of her strong position. She was the winner, for sure.

She missed a clip because of the wind that blew the twist behind the wall. Therefor she climbed back a couple moves, clipped it and climbed on. Her rope tightened as the judges found she had to come down. She refused and climbed on, and at the next draw here rope was tight again, she was forced to quit her climb. Over 11minutes in a cold isolation it was her turn again after Markus just finished his route. Cold, stressed, nervous she stood there again. What a shame it was she had to wait even longer because yet another draw hung wrong on the edge of the wall. Even colder she started her climb.

She climbed, clipped and fell! At the point she was just drawn out of the route! We thought a hold broke, Angelika wasn’t too sure about it. Exhausted, disappointed, cold, angry, confused she wasn’t even in the motivation to climb again. The routesetters were not even told to check the hold afterwards.

She became 7th and Maria Tokolina from Russia took first place.

What a shame!

If we ever want to get climbing more professional we should have consistent, fair, understanding, experienced and equal judging. We shouldn’t accept the judging as it was on this competition. This doesn’t count for all judges, we know who was fair and honest and who wasn’t. Please, UIAA, for the next competition, give us fair, equal, honest, democratic, experienced, liberal, professional judges.

Just a week went as fast as a flash. Just back in Europe on our way to Kandersteg I’m daydreaming still of all the views I’ve had in Cheongsong, Seoul and Beijing.

On the airport I wondered: where do all those people live? What will they do when they’re back home from work? Will there be a husband there, a grandmother, maybe a child? What will they eat, drink? How would they dress when they’re back home? What post do they get, as much newspapers, advertisement-junkmail?

I’m interested in how people, communities and governments create life and how it differs from what I consider as ‘normal’? Going out of your own town, country, continent makes all you know just relative.

So there we are, competition long behind us (one day) and eating some strange fish, leaves, raw beef, and a soup of hot water and some rice corns.

Back in Seoul is was overwhelming to see the enormous shopping streets full of Western look-a-like stores, proppers in front of the stores, big masses of young people and that all next to little alleys full of little stands with fake North Face jackets and fish snacks.

Unfortunately there was too little time to visit the O2-gym of climber Hee Yong Park. It has a big iceclimbing wall and drytooling wall, as we should have in Europe in every gym.

Together with Stephanie we were thinking...to stand strong, become stronger, we should have a long competition wall somewhere in the alps, for us to train on before the competition season starts. A 30m. wooden wall to kick our crampons in, with holds as we find then on the comps in Saas Fee, Cheongsong and Busteni. To become strong and experienced before the seasons starts instead of during the competitions.

So hereby a call to all gym/wall owners/millionaires in the Alps/Netherlands: please sponsor us with a training wall :)

Tuesday already, time to leave for our 3+23+11 hour trip to Frankfurt. Over 23 hours on Beijing airport. To our surprise we figured we can get a temporally visa for China for this short amount of time. So there we went: to Beijing. By train and subway we arrived in the centre.

The first thing we noticed was that the Chinese are far not as polite as the Koreans. No bows, but spitting on the ground, even in the shopping malls, not waiting till all left the train but already try to get in...

The second thing....waiting for the customs we saw three Saudi women and one man. The women were fully covered in a Burka. And suddenly I realised how lucky I am by being born in the Netherlands instead of Saudi Arabia... What a freedom I have...
The third thing...we walked up the stairs out of the subway and stood in front of a big temple. Waaauw, welcome to Beijing!

What we missed a bit in Korea, the classic ancient buildings, were overwhelming in China. Just all looked like in a Chinese movie. All stereotype looks I had of China are true. People really do walk in the traditional dresses (not all though) Peking-duck really is sold here, the temples are real, and it’s not as dangerous as they write in the books.

The Tianmen square was closed. But secretly we walked into the forbidden city in between some Chinese that went for a piano concert. A bit alert we suddenly stood in the forbidden city between huge walls and even bigger ancient buildings. Oh, shit, how do we get out again without being noticed?

It was cold, we walked fast looking around, walking passed the security like it as completely normal that we were there. We walked on, passed some security standing on blocks, looking over all people in not understandable Chines we were pointed at and realised it would be better to turn around...we passed a gate again, all security suddenly woke up, pointed us back, we sudden walked back, they closed the gates and we were out again, safely. Hmmm, that was actually quite easy, lets not try it again.

We didn’t feel that lucky... :)

On the way we bought some cookies and tomato juice, drank it inside the shop as it was really cold outside, even for iceclimbers it was cold and we walked on again. Without a map, but armed with a note with some chinese writing. The most important word there stood was ‘airport’. In case we got lost, we always could ask a cab to drive us to the airport again...

Suddenly we got in a big, big shopping street full of expensive clothing and jewellery. We found a MacDonals but were looking for a pizza place. With just about an hour to reach the subway again (after 10:30 the subway would stop riding, so we had to get in again before) we decided to enjoy a burger, all better then the rice, cold boiled vegetables and noodles we had the rest of the week. And much better then the weird creatures moving around on bbq sticks sold on the streets...Never seen living scorpions on sticks as food, never seen flying lizards, sea-horses, tarantulas, cockroaches and chickens-with-head-and-feet as delicacy...What is our European food actually simple compared to the Chinese market we saw (except of the Icelandic sheep-balls-in-sour, boiled lab-head-with-brain of course)

Time to go back to the airport and sleep.

We watched a episode of the ‘Doctor Who’ series and fell asleep.

On 11:50 the next day we finally had our flight, home, to Frankfurt.

My phone stolen/lost and tired we arrived. Ulrich picked us up and gave us the best meal we’d had in that week. Thank you for your hospitality!

Now, we’re almost in Kandersteg, just a kilometre to go. We’re here again. Where my iceclimbing ended in February a year ago. Time to pick up what I’d left behind.

It’s 2 ˚C, too warm for the ice, but hopefully good enough to give us a good drytool training time for the next competition.

That will be Saas Fee in more then a week time...

Let’s train, let’s get strong, let’s enjoy what we enjoy most: climbing!