Petzl Dutch Drytool Event - The Video!

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Petzl Dutch Drytool Event

By Monte Cervino

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Petzl DDE 2013 - every year a little better.

Hardly done with Expeditie Geluk I jumped into the next event. The organisation of the Petzl Dutch Drytool Event, or short: DDE.

For over two weeks I slept on the couch in the bar of climbing gym Monte Cervino.
I gave up my house in Rotterdam, and my parents lived too far away to drive to the gym so my new house became my favourite climbing gym.

My livingroom

This year I had a lot of people who promised to help out but in the end didn't show up (so thank you all who did help out!)
Dennis now lives in Germany and couldn't take off from his new job/traineeship for the two weeks so I was on my own...
In the rain I hated to go outside, in the darkness it was boring and I really wanted to keep on climbing too.

Routesetting the men's finals...

There were more then 20 routes that had to be set. Two finals, and at about 20 routes varying in difficulty between M3 and M10. Goal was to make it one big playground for iceaxe-fetishists ;)
The wall is very featured and 'wavey' meaning it was hard to find holes that actually fitted the holds.
Last Thursday it was all done, even the mens finals seemed to be hard but doable. Although... I had sleepless nights, thinking of all the moves I set, girls not even able of doing the first move, holds that turned and were impossible to fixate and day-dreaming of people falling off in the start... In my head it was almost like a terrible nightmare...

At the last moment I figured we didn't have enough time to engrave the big price with last year's winners and there were mistakes in the topo (that already got printed over 150 times...)
And we had the iceaxe issue...
Last year some *$%@##F*! stole over ten iceaxes on the event. So we had to change the system this year: no iceaxes at every route but only borrowing the axes on name and ID.

On Friday Dennis arrived. I hadn't seen him for a month thus I was so excited I couldn't sleep that night :)
And Steve Johnstone came over from Scotland.

Steve doesn't need iceaxes to climb the routes :)

Not only Steve was the foreinger, but Yannik, Jurgen, Maxime came over form Belgium, Rolf came all the way from Swiss, there were French, American, British, Spanish and Russian climbers. Making it more and more a real international event. And, Gunnar was there too. Gunnar is one of the people who took me out iceclimbing for the very first time in Iceland. One of the group who made me find the passion I have now.

Rolf all the way from Swiss!

Saturday morning we did all the last preparations before the big start.
In less then on hour time we registered over 70 competitors and I counted over a 100 official competitors and of course there were also 'unofficial' climber who didn't want to compete but just have fun and try. Incredible to have that many people drytooling!

Of course some things didn't go too smooth, I for example forgot to explain that you're not allowed to put your axes in the loops of your harness when climbing and some people were pretty frustrated about the new iceaxe system we had to apply. And this year we even disqualified one climber.

The figure-of-four chain

Steve climbing just before the hold broke

Dennis is flexible

The most awesome way to hold an iceaxe!

Tm, dm, dm, tm, dm, tm, dadaaaa, Spiderman!

Our best volunteer ever, Rutger also does compete!

It's there, there, yes, there.

At the end of the day after loads of funny, hard, interesting, technical, and challenging routes we were ready for the finals.
In the dark.
All climbers got a head-torch on their helmet and climbed in the darkness. It made it all spectacular and challenging.
First climber. Yannick. Slowly he struggled his way to a big undercling in the top of the route. Almost out of time, with less then 20 seconds left he suddenly popped off the undercling!

Yannick in the first moves of the finals

My stress level went up to 300% in one second.
Shit - hold...broken - no replacement - what now - other hold...
First one of the girls and then it was Dennis turn to climb.
I wished him to win, but really set the route in a most honest way possible, using holds that he didn't knew yet and setting moves that wasn't his natural style.
And then he figured his way to the fresh hold. Bhafff! Off! Noooo! He fell off on the fresh set hold!
If my stress level could grow any higher then it already was, it did... My favourite climber had suddenly a huge disadvantage! Next girl to climb.
All girls were pretty new to iceclimbing and I was really hoping the route wouldn't be too hard.
Meanwhile I fixed the hold and replaced it with the biggest undercling possible that was impossible to break.

Fixing the hold...

Yannick and Dennis had to wait to the end and all the finalists were getting nervous waiting in the big indoor gym.
One by one the climbers climbed further, popped off or timed out on the 8 minute climb.
Jurgen came all the way to the yet again new placed undercling and after a big struggle did do the move. Unfortunately he timed out before he could reach the spectacular chains in the end of the route.

Jurgen climbing in the dark 

Meanwhile one of the most experienced girls, Marit, who joined us with drytool training before, wasn't too fortunate and popped off...

Marit figuring the fist wood-block

Steve, my favourite Scottish climber should get second place. He should...thats how good he was. But he was so unfortunate! He popped off the fourth hold! I felt really sorry for him...but it's how competitions work.
I was kind of happy I was not in his shoes, I'd be so super disappointed and blame myself for everything...
Corien did really well! She, as all other girls, doesn't own iceaxes but still managed to climb half way in the route.

Corien reaching for the first place

I was hoping they could reach for the top of the route where the mens and womens finals merged into a chain and a big block of wood.
Laurens was the last climber before Yannick and Dennis could give it a go. He was super nervous and I was really hoping it wouldn't mess too much with his mind. Actually he did really well and climbed up to a third place!

Laurens reaching for the third place

Yannick struggled and clearly was tired. He suddenly popped off and was out... His old time stayed, and thus ended up 4th place.
Then Dennis turn again. He looked as tired as Yannick and I didn't knew if he'd actually do better this time. He folded up, turned his leg over his arm, and in the little bulb of body an arm and an axe reached for the next hold on which he unfolded again.

Flexible folding figure-of-four fiddle.

Just before the undercling...

He was the only one using figure-of-four moves but it seemed to work.
I told the audience that he's super flexible, and all laughed, thinking of other things then the flexibility in drytooling.
He reached the hold, and then his old time started counting. He still had over 1:30 minutes left to climb and fairly easily reached the chains! The chains! Thats where I wanted all climbers to get to, be totally pumped and fall out swinging to the next chain. Dennis timed out on the first chain, but it didn't matter. He already won. So I let him climb all the way to the top. The audience loved it!

Jeroen being a serious belayer

One of our great camera-people, Martin!

The audience having fun :)

Two proud winners and a great event was the result. Thanks to Monte Cervino, NKBV and double thanks to Petzl who made it all possible to have this great event.
I reached my goal; we made drytooling accessible for a bigger public, everyone had fun, and I'm motivated enough to organise it again. Thank you all for competing!
The final results:

Men:
Dennis van Hoek
Jurgen Lis
Laurens Machiel

Women:
Corien Prins
Moniek de Groot
Maya ter Laag

Full results can be found here on the NKBV website. 

The Werners, the Petzl crew

Now up for the next challenge. I'm going to move to Germany tomorrow.
It feels like I settled more then ever at this place in Rotterdam, having the feeling I could develop, grow and learn.
Leaving behind an incredible group of friends, a climbing gym that I honestly love, a growing community in work and climbing, a job as freelancer, and a country that I started to understand better and better. Leaving the Netherlands again feels different then when I moved to France, Belgium and Iceland.
Now, breathe in, hold my breath and jump into the deep sea again.

All pictures copyrighted! Thanks to Hans van der Steen. Please ask before you'd use one of the pictures in this blog-post.

Petzl DDE 2013 teaser :)

The last chance to book your flight and join the Dutch Drytool Event!

- Video thanks to Joost and Martin

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Petzl Drytool Event Teaser

By Monte Cervino

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Video thanks to Joost and Martin

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Video

Petzl Dutch Drytool Event 2013

Almost. Almost.
Just one more route to set and some to fix a bit, and then we're done!
21 routes in just over 1 week time, that's not bad :)
Living in the gym and climbing, running and route setting every day makes me quite fit. And I love the climbing so much that sleeping on the couch is just fine actually...

I got really motivated by the progress and the help of Jeroen, Elwin, Bas, Erik, Jelle and all the happy people working in the gym.
Here some pictures of the progress...

Day 1. The first route, womens finals

Day 2. Chains in the finals, this is going to be spectacular!

Day 3. Routesetting in the rain...

Day 4. The wall is getting full of drytool-fun

Day 5. Getting tired. I need coffee...

Day 5 in the night... Barista Rens trying drytooling for the first time! In the freezing cold...

Day 6. My friends

Day 7. Rotterdam by night, whoa what a party...!

Day 8. Just 5 more routes...

Day 9. Jelle testing the Womans finals

Day 9, today, Jelle testing the womans finals whils I'm finetuning the mens finals.

Help mee de verdwenen Nomic's terug te vinden!

Beste mede-klimmers,

afgelopen november 2012 organiseerden we in samenwerking met Petzl, klimhal Monte Cervino en de NKBV het Dutch Drytool Event.

Vele mensen deden enthousiast mee ondanks het slechte weer.

Helaas was niet iedereen even eerlijk deze dag.
Er zijn 5 paar ijsbijlen verdwenen.
Dat is dus tien Petzl Nomic ijsbijlen. 
Met een nieuwwaarde van €240-250.

Een simpel rekensommetje leert dat er deze dag dus voor €2500,- aan materiaal is ontvreemd.

Zoals jullie kunnen begrijpen zijn de distributeur van Petzl (die de bijlen gratis te beschikking had gesteld voor het evenement), het bedrijf Petzl zelf en de andere organisatoren hier niet gelukkig mee.

Het verdwijnen van de ijsbijlen had onder andere als gevolg dat er geen leen-bijlen meer ter beschikking gesteld waren na het evenement.
Voor iedereen zonder ijsbijlen is het nu dus onmogelijk om de routes te proberen, terwijl het introduceren van de sport bij een groter publiek juist ons hoofddoel was van het evenement.
Ook zal er voor het volgende evenement veel strengere eisen gesteld moeten worden aan de deelnemers, wat het misschien minder aantrekkelijk maakt om deel te nemen met het evenement.
En, logischerwijs heeft een verlies van €2500,- gevolgen voor de toekomstige financiering van het evenement.
Om het nog maar niet te hebben over het geschonden vertrouwen.

De distributeur van Petzl in de BeNeLux was desalniettemin zeer enthousiast over het evenement en wil degenen die het materiaal hebben meegenomen een laatste kans geven:

Breng vóór 28 februari 2013 de bijlen terug bij klimhal Monte Cervino en er zullen geen gevolgen zijn.

Worden 10 de Petzl Nomic ijsbijlen niet terug gebracht voor deze datum, dan zal er aangifte worden gedaan.
Let op: alle serienummers van de bijlen zijn bekend bij Petzl. Sommige van de bijlen waren prototypes ("sample not for sale"), wanneer je klimt met prototypes zonder toestemming van Petzl, ben je niet verzekerd.
Koop of verkoop je bijlen met een gestolen serienummer, ook al heb je ze niet zelf gestolen, dan ben je alsnog medeplichtig (heling).
Vinden wij de bijlen na 28 februari 2013 terug, dan zullen we alsnog actie ondernemen en o.a. aangifte doen tegen degene die de bijlen op dat moment in bezit heeft/te koop aanbiedt.
Twijfel je aan de herkomst van de ijsbijlen die je hebt gekocht of gekregen, aarzel niet contact op te nemen met mij of Petzl BeNeLux (info@petzlbenelux.be).

Ik nodig iedereen uit om mee te helpen zoeken en er voor te zorgen dat we onze eigen reputatie hoog kunnen houden: klimmers stelen toch niet van andere klimmers?!
Help mee het Dutch Drytool Event een nog groter succes te maken in 2013.
Alvast bedankt, namens alle organisatoren,


Marianne van der Steen

Dutch Drytool Event 2012

We did it. 

Again. 
Better and bigger. 

This weekend was the international drytool weekend. 
France had the DTS.
Scotland the STS.
And we had the DDE.

We don't have a website. We just had a Facebook Event Page and managed to get more people then the STS and the DTS together!
91 competitors subscribed. 
Next to those who subscribed there were also some who just paid and climbed without the competition element. 

This whole week we'd been hanging on our favourite Dutch mountain to get the 20 routes ready for the big day. 
The last two days we'd spent on testing and adjusting everything. 
Goal of this event was to have as many people as possible to try drytooling. 
So we weren't looking for the next Dutch talent, weren't trying to gather a drytool team... We just wanted everyone to have fun :)

On Saturday all was set for the day. Tents, wood for the fires, flags, banners, ropes, sound...
It all looked cosy and nice. 

Before the storm ripped the flags and tents...

And then the storm came. Super strong wind gusts even ripped the banners off the wall. 
All big tents were blown away, broken or ripped (those tents are always on the terrain, this never happened before!). 
It was all too wet to get the music safely started...
When it started raining that morning we though: 'We have to cancel the event!'
But then the rain stopped and over 70 drytoolers were waiting to subscribe.
The show must go on. 

Storm!

And so with went on. 
Quite some start-up problems but thanks to Rutger we could actually do the registration in time (sort of in time).
Dennis dragged half of the climbers outside in the wind and introduced the whole group to their new friends: Nomic and Nomic.

I took the last group for an explanation and forgot to explain how to actually hold Nomic and Nomic. (Too much stuff on my head I guess). 
The wind wasn't really cooperating either...

The easy and the harder routes

Spot the leashes!

Rutger trying hard in the swinging logs

To my own surprise all went pretty smooth. No big accidents, all just happy faces and around midday the bar&kitchen crew had pea-soup ready for everyone. 
At three 'o clock exactly it was time to get ready for the finals. In less then 15 minutes we had a list with the finalists. 
8 men and 6 women were there to climb the finals. 
On Toprope. 
We decided lead climbing with this wind would be too hard and maybe even dangerous. 

I hear you thinking...'why was this all outdoors, don't you have an indoor wall there?'
Yes we do have an indoor wall. Pretty big one actually. 
But as almost all is overhanging indoors, we got a bit of a safety issue there. When you'd drop your iceaxe it would land in the middle of the gym where all people are belaying... And we wanted to keep all the routes open till the Summer season. 
And say it, drytooling indoors sounds like AID climbing on toprope. It's just not real...

We first thought to just have 6 people in the finals in total. 
Maybe one or two women. 
There wasn't really enough space for another route on the main wall (next to the 20 we'd already set) and we thought it would take too long if we'd have more then 6 people climbing. 

But it's also quite unfair to only give a chance to the men and not to the women. So the best 6 women were invited to climb the finals too!

The hard thing with that was, that non of the women were actual iceclimbers. Placing a good swing in the wood in the start of the route was quite an issue. 

Loads of hooking in the female finals

Only Rachel managed to get passed the wood section, passed the long move from the log and onto the technical traverse. 
Totally out of time (climbing time was 5 minutes) she managed to reach all the way to the high end of the wall. She popped off a small hold but was obviously the best female climber in the comp.

1. Rachel Nilwik
2. Jascha van de Bunt
3. Karin Hoekstra
4. Monique de Groot
5. Sanne van Merrienboer
6. Aniek Lith

Fot the men it was a different story. They managed to pass the wood section in the start.
But as only some were real drytoolers, they weren't too secure on the technical traverse.
I made the route in such a way that real drytoolers would have an advantage on the sportsclimbers with iceaxes. Knowing how to place your axes and move securely on the sketchy holds was a pré.
Most climbers popped off early, but some managed to pass the traverse.

Ferdinand in the finals

Laurens got pretty high up, but Roeland just passed him before he was out of time. Laurens was climbing for the first time with iceaxes he said, not bad to gain the 4th place :)
That time thing was quite an issue. All climbers knew that they had 5 minutes. With one minute left we'd call 'one minute'. But the judges thought five minutes would be too little time to get all the way to the top.
Dennis and I were pretty sure the time was enough.
And with normal lead climbing they don't call 'one minute'. Never.
So when Roeland was climbing he never heard the sign 'one minute'. And then I called him out after 7 minutes as his time was up, for real.

Roeland climbing the finals, Dimitri van Heezik (photographer) and Tim van der Linden (NKBV) in the wall and Dennis brother Arno enjoying hot chocolate in the cold.

Roeland doing something 'rare' for his climbing style: making a dynamic move

Confusing thing there. It really pissed me off, as I just wanted the competitors to have a hard but honest finals.
It got dark fast, so we provided all competitors with headlamps so they could still spot all the tiny footholds.
We had two friends from Germany, here for the comp. All the way from Germany!
Jan had a bit of bad luck in the qualifications but Markus made it to the finals. He really went 'a muerte'! He flamed his way almost to the top. But got out of time...

Markus 'a muerte'

Then the last one in the finals. Jurgen Lis from Belgium.
Breathing heavily, pushing hard but steady he was quick and solid. Passed the hard sections and found himself on the last moves. Two jumps, or dynamic fig-fours. I was nervous. I knew it was possible...but could he make it. From the small donut shaped hold he had exactly one minute left, feet on the wood, he pulled, jumped and at the same time swung his axe in the final hold. He made it!

Jurgen op the top!

And so it turned out that Jurgen, the organiser of the Klimax Drytool Event in Belgium won the comp in the Netherlands (after Dennis, won the comp in Belgium).
Full results list here.

An international stage: Belgium first, Germany second and a fake French guy third ;)
(Fake French: Roeland van Oss is UIAGM Mountain Guide and lives in Chamonix, France)

1. Jurgen Lis
2. Markus Urbanowski
3. Roeland van Oss
4. Laurens Machiel
5. Ferdinand Schulte
6. Yannick Lis
7. Job van Hemert
8. Thijs Ruijgrok

The best

A lot of things can be improved I think.
Next year we need music (not possible this year because of the wind/rain), an online subscription system including online payment, more time to explain the routes to the new climbers, maybe more super easy routes as warm-ups, and maybe we should make the thing two days, so we can have more quality time (for explaining more about hardwear, safety and where to climb outdoors)
Suggestions are welcome.

It was SUPER to see everyone climb and share the passion for dry/mixed/ice.
Thank you all for being around!

Special thanks to:

• Rutger Elink Schuurman to help with the registrations, even today he's still working on it to get a clear result into the NKBV competition system.
• Jeroen de Winter to host the competition in Monte Cervino and helping out with the routesetting
• NKBV Tim van der Linden, Dirkjan van Heumen and Joost Hofman for promoting, judging and the medals for the best three climbers. 
• Petzl BeNeLux for providing 43 iceaxes, helmets, climbing holds, and soup
• The Monte Cervino crew for belaying, serving hot chocolate and soup, putting up the tents and more
• Ramses Beer, for providing the best beer (Poolvos and IJsbeer) for the finalists.
• Mark Heine for providing the portaledge (altough we didn't use it)
• Jeroen Bliek for the music that we couldn't use unfortunately
• The old iceclimbing team for giving us the inspiration for this event.
• And you all for being around.

And oh, yes, we're still looking for sponsors for the 2013 worldcup/ice season.

Any support is welcome :)  (warm blankets, heaters, hot chocolate, or just money so we can recover in warm housing after a hard iceclimb)

Please e-mail us to talk about the possibilities!

Dutch Drytool Event 2012

This week I'm working harder then ever to get my favourite local climbing gym ready for the biggest climbing event of the year: Dutch Drytool Event.

Super stormy weather with rain... Perfect to go out for some routesetting...

Last year I organised the event in another gym. 
They promised me all kinds of things. Money, being part of a climbing team and I was free to keep some of the routes so I could train for the worldcup. 
After a week they took out almost all routes, forbid us to climb and completely ignored all promises that were made. 
After an pretty angry short letter I wrote they got even stranger... A very weird disparaging phone call I got was for me the end.
I lost all my training routes, was not allowed to climb in the gym any longer, was not allowed to be part of the climbing team and got none of the money (€500,- in cash and €500 in clothing/goods) they'd offered. Only if I'd excuse myself for my angry letter...

Right.

Time for a more positive and healthier gym.

Monte Cervino was very willing to host the event.
Petzl got some money left on the end of this year and sponsored ropes, helmets, loads of iceaxes, 'snert',  (pea soup) and more.
The NKBV (Dutch Alpine Club) sponsors it all with help in advertisement, money and on the day we'll have official NKBV judges and people who do the hard administrative part.

The former national iceclimbing team (Elwin & Fedor) testing the routes

Dennis, Jeroen and I made 20 (!!!) routes this week. Some are super fun and 'adventurous' with big tyres and wood. Others are hard with long moves and tiny footholds.

The main wall today. With the finals and two of the other hard routes .

Goal is to have something for everyone.
If you've never climbed with iceaxes before you should be able to climb at least 2 routes.
And if you are a semi-pro with your axes you should fall off at least 2 routes ;)
This day should be the most awesome introduction to drytooling for you.

And yes, we have a final round too. Only the best 6 will get there. The route will be around M10 (+++) with technical, long, and tiny things to hang on in between of course.

Facts:

Sunday November 25. 2012 >> That is this Sunday!

10:00h       Registration:
10:30h       Start + explanation of all the routes & more
13:00 - 13:30h Clinic iceaxe/icescrew sharpening and hardwear care
16:00h       Finals
17:00h       Movie

€12,-         Costs (incl. iceaxes, helmet, snert and free clinic)

Address: Hoeksekade 141, Bergschenhoek

More info and updates on our Facebook Event Page.

No excuses: The weather is good, the iceaxes are good, the food is good, the music is good and you are good!