IWC Saas Fee

As usual. Nervous. Already.
Sigh...

But thats apparently how it works with me and competitions. The only way to solve it is, as far as I know, become just much stronger then I'd need to be to compensate for the weakness that comes with the nerves.

We missed the first two competitions; the first which was in Korea (too far away and thus too expensive) and the one in Romania (too horrible, after the food poisoning, hotel, train and safety issues I'd never go there again)

This weekend Dennis and I will be at Saas Fee. The comp where Dennis did his awesome speed run. Best timing and performance ever :)
He's not feeling too good lately but we have been active in training. Hopefully it will be good enough for him to get the awesomeness again, but you know... Iceclimbing is always quite a gamble. One zip and you're out...

I won't be expecting much of the speed climbing for myself but hopefully my strength will be sufficient to reach the lead finals this year.

All the results can be found here: iceclimbingworldcup.org

And the whole comp will be live on Swiss tv here: iceclimbingworldcup.ch

Russia

Kirov, the place to be (or not).

The last worldcup of this season was in the Russian city Kirov.
14 hours by train (Siberian Express) from Moscow.
Great experience, but the worldcup itself wasn't something to be proud of.
Over 50% of the competitors was Russian. > I think something should change...

Video impression here:

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Moscow - Kirov IWC March 2013

By Marianne van der Steen

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Rabenstein IWC

The very inventious mobile icewall used for the speedclimbing demo in the centre of Meran.
Quick thought: can't we use this to promote iceclimbing?

Rabenstein didn't really go as planned.
After a nice break in Arco I thought I was ready for the comp.
But I guess the stress of making it in time to Rabenstein with a broken gearbox and more 'endless-Marianne-thoughts' wasn't helping me.



Dennis asked if I could please stop trying to burn a hole in the ceiling of his campervan.

I ended 13th after a slow quarterfinal where it took me longer then expected to find the right way to use the holds and the insecure climbing in the semi's gave me a time-out before I was pumped.
The disappointment didn't help with the speedclimbing either and there I ended lower then ever too...



Dennis did slightly better when it was so warm that he got a block of ice the size of a microwave on his chest when climbing the qualifications and thus didn't reach the semi's.
But as he's looking solid on speed he made it to a 4th place :) He's now even 2nd in the overall ranking!
See his blog for more pics/stories.





That performance overruled our disgust to Romania and the awful experience we had last year on that comp... We're going to Romania again... Hoping to get Dennis to a first place in the worldranking.

That all leaves us 1,5 weeks left in the Alps.
Time for real ice!

Korea IWC

Last week Dennis got a call.
Pretty weird. In English.
But the most polite one you can imagine.

The organisation of the Iceclimbing Worldcup in Korea called Dennis to arrange his stay in Korea.
Yes, they called him. From Korea. In English.
Thats what I call being 'over organised'. But my compliments to the organisation for that phonecall!

A good friend studied Korean language and gave us a small list (in Dutch) about what to eat in Korea.

I thought it would be nice to share it with you all.
Here:

Koreaans eten:

In Korea heb je meestal een tafel met daarop rijst en dan verschillende soorten bijgerechten erbij.

Snacks:

kimpap (김밥) = sushi roll je kan de ingredienten zelf kiezen 

chamchi kimbap (참치김밥)  = een variant op kimpap met tonijn. 

Ramyon (라면) = noodle soep (kan best pittig zijn in korea :P) je kan bij alle convienet stores (kiosk) cup-ramyon halen en er staat in die kiosk dan ook altijd een heet-water dispenser dus dan heb je in 3minuten een mooie noodlesoep de smaken van de verschillende staan er vaak ook in het engels op)

maaltijden:

Kalguksu 칼국수 = dikke noodles in een kippenbouilon

Jjajangmyeon 자장면 = noodles in een zwarte saus, ziet er vreemd uit maar is niet peper of iets prima als lunch bijvoorbeeld

bibimpap 비빔밥 = soort van nasi, vraag naar 

dolsot bibimpap돌섯 비빔빕= zie vorige maar dan geserveerd in een hete kom gewone bibimpap is soms wat kouder.

Bulgogi 불고기 = vlees gerecht je krijgt er rijst bij met wat bijgerechten bulgogi is over het algemeen zoet gemarineerd vlees.

Pachon 파전 = een pannenkoek met verschillende groentes en vaak iets van garnalen erdoor heen vaak eet je pachon als het regent soort van traditie in korea en dan drink je er makgoli (막걸리) bij.

Nu dat zijn wat van mijn favorieten die me nu zo te binnenschieten. Als je met wat anderen samen bent is je beste optie gaan voor de bbq, koreanen zijn gek op vlees, dus je hebt echt honderden opties, chicken en beer is een goed (niet aan te raden voor de wedstrijd) maar er zijn ook talloze barbecue restaurantjes meestal te herkennen aan de afbeeldingen van rauw vlees op de ramen . http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FO/FO_EN_6_3_1.jsp op deze site staan nog wat andere gerechten met een peper gradatie altijd handig :) en hier een hele uitgebrijde lijst met oa ook alle verschillende vleessoorten die je kan bestellen: http://www.trifood.com/food.asp

succes!  

Getting ready for 2013 ICE

We're training.
Almost every day.
Two times a day.
Spending all we have: time, money, goods and social life to our passion.
Iceclimbing.
In January 2013 we'll be part of the biggest 'ice circus' in the World again. The UIAA Worldcup Iceclimbing.

I wouldn't be myself if I wasn't super nervous already :)

Here the UIAA promo video.

Oh, yes, and we're always looking for fellow competitors.
Please, please register, compete and share our passion!
We still need Australia, Africa and South America to compete! Spread the world and get in contact, maybe we together can arrange something for these continents!

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UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour 2013

By UIAA - Mountaineering & Climbing

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Worldcup 2013 and 2014 Olympics

...and there it is. The 2013 Worldcup schedule.

The UIAA announced the schedule for 2013 with some new things and some old things.

Old: Worldcup in Busteni (why?) I'm surprised. If you read my post about the last Worldcup there, you can understand why I'm 'slightly' surprised. (See here, here and here)

New: Worldcup in Rabenstein (Italy). The enthusiasts of the local icewall there have done a good job last years organising a fun and proper competition and for that they're rewarded with a Worldcup! Congrats!

And this year there will be a championships again. They chose Kirov (Russia) as the location. So I guess I'll have to travel there this year (better start collecting money now...)

I'm not going to join all the Worldcups in the schedule this year and climb more outdoors. The 'ultimate' climb for me is a mixed/ice route on a natural wall. The Worldcup is fun (and sometimes not), but pureness is where my heart is.

The Schedule:

January 5-6 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup Cheongsong, South Korea

January 12 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Youth World Championship, Saas Grund, Switzerland

January 18-19 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Saas Fee, Switzerland

January 26-27 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Rabenstein, Italy

February 7-9 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup, Busteni, Romania

March 8-10 2013, UIAA Ice Climbing Worldcup and Championships, Kirov, Russia


I often have bad comments about the Russian part of the iceclimbing Worldcup.
There are too many Russians taking part and the rules seem to be bend to allow them all, the routesetters in Busteni did a bad job, the Russian judge made some really bad mistakes, it's hard to communicate with most as their foreign (non-Russian) language is limited and one Russian seemed to have a crush on me (and that was just a bit too much).
But theres one Russian who is working incredibly hard (together with others I suppose) to get iceclimbing to a higher level.
He managed to get iceclimbing to the Olympics!
For the first time ever iceclimbing will be shown as sports on the Olympic games.
Not as official Olympic sports yet, but as every sports starts like this on the Olympics, it's a good starts to something higher :)
Sochi, Russia 2014 will be the place.
Very, very, very good job Pavel Shabalin!

Meanwhile it's way too warm here to think of climbing ice.

It's sunny, warm and I'm busy with my lost luggage, the trip to Iceland, my work and yesterday evening we joined with thousands of others the Wednesday night skate. 
It all was quite slow but fun!
Totally motivated to go out skating again :)

Wednesdaynightskate with Rens, Koen, Suus and Arvid :)
Photo taken by a motorbike policeman with brown teeth.

Busteni 2012

I just woke up with a nice movie: STS on the Ben. With loads of real climbing, snow and horrible Winter conditions: lovely.

Watching the climbers I wished it was me being filled with spindrift snow and getting soaked with water and sweat that after a while would freeze again...

In stead I'm in Busteni, Romania where I woke up in a room stuffed with climbers. Every bed occupies at least two people. I'm not sure how it really happened but I got an autograph of a climber on my chest and remember doing the same to that climber. So I had to explain something to Dennis and he just laughed. Luckily.

The party was funny and quite a bit crazy as the usual iceclimbing parties. Russians drinking quite a bit too much, the Korean can't cope with alcohol (probably because he's Asian), Radka dancing like crazy and Kendra and me enjoyed trowing peanuts everywhere.

I tried to go asleep but our bed is exactly above the party room so the bouncing music still kept me awake for a while.

After almost 2 months of Winter climbing it's now all getting to an end. I had to say goodbye to people that feel like close friends but will be far away for the next 10 months again (where would we be without Facebook). Thanks everyone for the support, chatting, help, climbing and all the other fun. I'm going to miss you all.

Meanwhile the whole day passed by and it's evening. I just took a shower in the Duct tape shower and packed my bag. We're leaving tomorrow morning at 6. We bought the train ticket and we'll fly around 12-ish to Munich and later Geneva. We're sort of lucky by buying the expensive flight from Swiss as the company that was cheaper went bankrupt this week and the French were on strike causing quite some trouble for other climbers who were also flying from Swiss.

Today we skied. My second time ever on a piste. And I did quite well I found, at least if I compare my skills to that of most of the other skiers. Gosh those Romanians we're just going straight down like suicide torpedo's without making any curve or bend... Dennis tried to practise his snowboard skills but failed as his rental board (the best he could get) was far too small and flexible with bindings that even a beginner wouldn't like. Oh, yes and his boots weren't too good either. I felt sorry for him. He loves the snowboarding but just couldn't do 'his thing' on the crappy rental stuff. My ski's were fine tough.

Later we went for dinner together with Gordon and Kendra. They're now also sleeping in the mountain-hut enjoying movies and chat about climbing. Here in the mountainhut is pretty good to stay. The people are friendly and today I learned a lot about the Romanian history, giving me more respect for the country. Unsurprisingly the issues here today are not too different from what plays in the Netherlands. That worries me sometimes. How far away are we from yet another war? It sometimes really seems it's 1935 all over again...

Yesterday evening we couldn't be bothered all of the finals (is that bad?) We missed out the speed and stuff. The climbing wasn't much better then the qualifiers and the semi's. The women had a strange weird but okay route with Maria, the Russian girl topping out. The men's finals was as epic as the rest of the comp. Three Russian finalists climbed and all popped off one of the first holds. Without consulting the head judge the routesetter stopped the competition, sent back the climbers into the isolation and changed the hold for something loads bigger. Then the three had yet a new chance and climbed quite a bit higher. They had 13,5 minutes climbing time and were traversing left to right and back again. It was long and because the climbing was long it wasn't too spectacular and interesting anymore to watch. I'm happy one of my favourites, Markus won finally after all his bad luck in the previous comps.

The final results can be found here on the UIAA webpage.

That evening we had dinner together with Katherine and Malcolm at their rental home. We enjoyed the food veggies and almost forgot the nuggets. We chatted and I figured Malc has been having quite a bit of the same disappointment in all the comps as me. Mentally we're quite a bit alike. The good thing is that we both still know we can progress and get better but it would have been so nice to show what we're actually worth...

Kendra came with the point that some climbers (Steve House) are looking for a climber to mentor and guide to become better. I think, because theres so much I can still learn that would be a good thing. So, hereby: who know a good mentor. Someone who can guide me up in how to climb proper souple WI6/7, boulder 7C, climb 8b, do proper trad like 7c's, get onto hard trad mixed M10 and more and of course get some proper ED/ABO routes on my Alpine list. Anyone? I don't mean with guide 'put me on a rope and just do seconding/toprope climbing', I guess you got that :)

This week will be our last ice/mixed/alpine Winter week. Romania was my last Worldcup of this season. There will still be another one in Kirov, but with just Russians on the comp, a lot of travelling and expensive housing and more it's not worth going. Actually I just don't have the money for it.

Hopefully without any coach or mentor I'll still be able to reach my goal of the week :)

Photo's:

Fireworks at the climbing structure in between the mens en women's finals.

The twins Dennis and Malc getting ready for the party.

How-do-they-dare-to-call-this-a-worldcup pt. 2

Unbelievable. It's not even 12 yet and I'm already homesick (not homesick as in wanting to be in the Netherlands but homesick as wanting to be in our little van somewhere in the mountains away from all this shit).

I woke up at 23:00, 00:00, 01:00, 02:00... and finally again at 07:30. They kept on walking, talking and one girl got the brilliant idea to take a shower at 03:00 midnight. So I had a good nights rest.

I was in time in the isolation and was nervous but could work my mind to focus on other things. I imagined that the thing I was going to do was just another add-on boulder in Dennis bedroom-drytool-boulder-room: long moves, tricky holds and sure I could do it and just have fun.

I forgot my gloves and luckily the mens and women's semi's were at the same time so I could ask the men for a pair of fitting gloves (no way I could ever fit in the women's gloves...) Malcolm (UK/Denmark) had a spare pair for me (Thanks Malc).

The route preview was different from usual. The Russian suspected the Europeans to help each other with how-to-get-the-right-place-of-the-hold-with-your-axe-when-climbing. We suspected (are sure) the Russians shout hits to each other as we sometimes see them move, hear some Russians shouting and then they make the moves totally different but correct. Everyone complains about that so they came with a solve. Sort of.

They made pictures of every hold that would be in the route, stuck them up in the isolation so everyone could see the holds beforehand. One little problem with that was, that all pictures were black/white printed so quite vague and they were not printed as they were put in the route so you still would have advantage if your fellow Russian would shout up how to use the hold.

It was my turn to climb. I waited in the isolation tent, trying to stay warm. My warm up was good though, trying to simulate the climb, visualising it and warming up my shoulder muscles better then average for all the sideway holds in the route.

I climbed the ice, slamming my axes in as I didn't want to fall off there (as happened in the qualification). Then the holds. The first hold was flat and you had to move to an steinpull. I didn't want to fall off in the start so it took me some time before I decided to waist a bit of energy and time to make a figure-of-four. I moved up to the undercling/steinpull quite easily with that move and wanted to go on. Suddenly the judge said "Marianne stop climbing". I was confused, why stop, was it really the judge telling me to stop climbing of was someone in the audience just joking with me. She said it again. I turned around to look at if she meant it and then she said "go". So I thought it was a mistake and then she said again "stop climbing". I got angry as I didn't knew why I had to stop my attempt, what did I do wrong? She told me I used the edge of the structure. Really? Really? Did I really use the (forbidden) edge of the structure? If I did I would have noticed. But I was still not allowed to climb on. I jumped out of the hold and angry, confused, disappointed I stood on the ground again. I hadn't even clipped the first draw! I felt okay when I started, okay, better then really nervous, for the first time I felt okay and then this happens! Gordon, Malc and Dennis watched back the footage and it seems that my foot went under the structure when doing the fig4. I didn't notice that at all and if I would have touched it I would have noticed that for sure. My boots are quite soft and I'm always very conscious of my climbing.

I have the feeling they try to play really strict on the rules with me. I just heard that in the first comp in Korea they wanted to disqualify me (that was avoided by one of the judges), later I heard that they find that I complain too much about the rules and regulations. And, I know, if I'd would have been a Russian climber doing the same thing (if I really did that 'thing') she could just climb on.

I could put in an appeal/protest but why? They already made their decision, paying €100,- would just be a loss of and extra €100,- on to of the rest of all the costs. They're never going to change their mind anyway. (And here I actually wanted to add a lot of curse words)

Honestly, how could this happen, what happened?

I don't feel like I had the chance to show what I'm worth, actually, I now feel more like questioning 'am I worth anything?'.

I feel angry, confused and quite useless right now. What the f*** am I doing in here?!

Oh, yes, yesterday Dennis and I both climbed speed. Dennis was again the best non-Russian, me one of the last in the result list. As usual. But I climbed extra slow and didn't fall off so I got full four climbing attempts. Better then last year (where I had just 1/4 climb)...

Pictures: Dennis' speed attempt and how far/low I got in the semi's...

Little Russia in Romania

Just back in our shared room.

It was busy last night with 6 others grinding their iceaxes when we tried to sleep and the couple sleeping above us moving the bed in a good rythm (don't want to know what that meant).

In the middle of the night I woke because of some alarm/phone. I noticed I felt pretty sick. Really sick and sore stomach and no idea why. Tried to toilet but nothing worked. Finally I got back to sleep feeling a bit better then during the night, luckily. At least I was able to eat my breakfast.

The isolation was packed. Steph explained it as being in the emergency hut on the Mont Blanc with Russians lying everywhere. I think it came pretty close to that.

It was first too cold and later too damp and warm. The warm-up was too small for all the climbers and the single toilet was occupied constantly.

I was 18th to climb (of 24) and warmed up okay-ish. The route looked quite strange with stone holds that we were not allowed to take as steinpulls because they might brake. The fourth hold was a sidepull that didn't look too good. I asked the other girls about the hold and they said it should be fine as it was just qualifications and it was low in the rout. I trusted them thinking of my new climbing plan: faster climbing without hesitations on every move.

It was my turn, Catherine helped reminding me of my new plan in the isolation and wished me luck. Gordon was climbing on the mens route and fell off somewhere in the start, then Markus got a second turn next to me (after he popped off in the top with a twisting hold).

I climbed just a couple moves and found it hard to find the holes in the snow/ice (snice). Suddenly I hung in the air when my left axe ripped out of the snow. As it's a qualification and haven't clipped the first draw yet you're allowed to start again. Losing precious time (we only had 5 mins for the whole route) I got really stressed. It slowed me down, stressing me even more. Two times more my axe almost ripped out forcing me to really hack in the ice, losing even more time and thus stressing me even more. I reached the top of the icewall and now had to get focused on the other style of climbing: drytooling. Focusing on the holds reminding what I told myself: move faster. The idea was to make a move in 3 steps. Preparation, movement and stabilisation. Only the movement to the next hold has to be steady and slow, in the other two parts I could speed up. And so I tried, realising I probably had just a minute left after the fall in the start. I came to the sidepull move, felt the hold, surprising myself that the hold was worse then I thought. I had no time, I had to move. As stable as possible I moved onto my axe, doubting the stability of it. I was getting onto it as my left axe popped off the not-so-good-hold before it. For two seconds I hung on the sidepull but as the hold stands sideways I slid off in seconds dangling in the air again. No second chances here, and just happy the belayer actually held me.

I was too astonished to even think of crying, being angry and having any feelings at all. How could this happen, how?

I instantly lost all faith in my new method. Wondering why I actually got all the way here to climb four moves on some crappy stones in glassfiber/epoxy.

They tricked me again, making me believe this worldcup would be better then last years here. "Yes, they changed". Yes, they changed. And made it worse.

The Russian routesetters made some big (huge) mistakes. In the mens route they had the same problem with half of the men falling off the same hold (including Dennis) and loads of climbers ripping out off the ice, losing precious time just like me. The routesetters are old, heavy, one tiny one big and they don't even test the routes making it a big gamble.

Dennis spoke to one of the routesetters after his disappointing climb. "And what do you think" Dennis asked the routesetter. "Not so happy I thought after 4 competitions people are strong, it's too hard" he replied. At least he realised...

Hopefully better at the speed or maybe a second chance tomorrow...

Thanks for

nothing.

Ow by the way, as I guessed the livestream isn't working.

Pictures:

They sell crap in the stores here. The registration yesterday. Ursus beer, better then water and the menu, piept is chicken we figured after we ordered. The opening dinner, tables full of cold meat. The isolation warm-up wall still being build when we're already trying to when we're warming up (perfect timing...)

Busteni 2012

Again in Romania.

Sorry to say but it really is the last place you want to visit. In some ways even worse then the trip we had to China a couple months ago.

But we're here.

The train ride was not as epic as last years' and we arrived safely in Busteni without having to share Dutch cheese with the conductor a criminal and a nazi and a walk over the rails to get into the Busteni train station.

This evening is the 'opening dinner' and ceremony (eat a lot of different types of meat in small slices, great if you're vegetarian. I'm sure they have vegetarian chicken, beef and pork. You know, chickens don't eat meat so they must be true vegetarians)

We're lucky being here. The French are on strike meaning most of the flights are canceled and next to that theres so much snow on the railway and the roads that even if you arrive to Romania it's still hard to get to Busteni.

And then once there we noticed hardly anything changed: tramp dogs, chaotic infrastructure, and in the mountain hut the organisation seemed totally waisted on some moonshine. Pavel (Russian, UIAA organisation and former expedition climber) trying his utmost to explain that there still loads to do... This midday we discussed the horrible isolation tent where we cooled down before our climb and sat for hours, hopefully that will be improved. Now I hope I can sleep tonight without getting nightmares of the belayers we had last year...

They say on the website you can follow it all live. Haven't figured yet if it's true. Here at least the website of the comp: iwcbusteni.ro

The program is a bit different then we're used to. Women climb the qualifiers and the semi's on the same day and the finals on the next day. You can find the whole program here.

Pictures:

In Romania they sell beer in 2L plastic bottles

The sign to announce the ICW

Secondhand Dutch clothes are being sold in Romania in shops like "First class European"

Caminul Alpin is where we stay, close to the Ghetto Hotel...

Champagny: worldcup climbing with -30 C

After the 'real-ice-sessions' in Cogne it was time for the Worldcup again. This time it was Champagny-en-Vanoise. For the first time in 10 years a Worldcup on French soil/ice again.

We enjoyed the lovely -25C on the first day when we arrived and got warned that it would get worse/better in the next days with tempeartures dropping to -40 in the night and finally when I was happy to climb the semi-finals it was -30 C. Though, I could handle the temperatures quite well and enjoyed the climb: loads of ice, a real ICEclimbing competition and not just the drytooling as on the previous comps.

Again I was too slow, not pumped at all but a time-out made me land on a 12th place, just not good enough for the finals, again...

Dennis had quite a bit of bad luck (again) and made a mistake by skipping a hold, it just, just, just took him out of the semi's. He was so close!

We'd put in an appeal (long story) resulting in more confusing things which made me to skip the speedclimbing comp that evening.

Dennis did climb the speed later that evening. It was FREEZING cold and hard to put a good time. He finally became (un)lucky 13th. After the bunch of Russians (that are probably used to the cold...)

Yesterday we went skiing, for the first time on my own (brand new!) ski's :)

I did okay, I guess, but I'm wondering how all these people go down the piste so, fluent, souple and gracious. Still need some time to practice I guess.

Now up for some more iceclimbing, a visit to the Petzl factory (thanks to Erwan) and then fly to Romania...

(note for the pictures: yes the thermometer is working...)

Video time

Of every memorisable thing I do I make a little video. Like a diary in moving frames.

So nothing spectacular, but it might give you a view on what I do out there :)

This one is of what we did in Korea.

The next one is Saas Fee (will be visible on Vimeo already)

Real ice in Cogne

Finally, after a whole year of horrible ice (Kandersteg, Iceland...) we wanted to climb something proper.

We heard Cogne in Italy was the only place this year that had some ice. All other areas were far too dry or warm.

So, we skip the comp in Rabenstein (which would be too far anyway) and just climb ice for 1,5 weeks.

The first day we had a proper warm-up in a-route-of-which-I-forgot-the-name-already. The ice was thin at some places but very nice to climb. Mixed in the middle, totally dry top-out and proper ice in the start. After a paper-scissor-stone game I was the one to start, I had all the proper ice pitches and the dry top-out, Dennis had one ice pitch and the snow in the middle. Lucky me :) Though, Dennis was the lucky one to climb the mixed pitch in the middle.

Today we wanted to take a look in another line that didn't look too hard but it was stuffed with climbers so we went straight for the 'Hard Ice' and the M7+ left to it. (Couloir Lillaz or something)

Dennis was the one to start today, as I started yesterday. He went into the M7+ which was pretty scary dry and full of really loose blocks to pull on. We wanted to get into the ice after that but it was all wet delaminated 'shait'. Not something I wanted to get onto. Plus I was totally frozen seconding the first pitch. My hands were so, so, so cold. Once the blood got back it felt like they were exploding and falling off and....it just was really painful :(

Thinking back I still feel sick of it.

Hopefully no that I once had it it won't come again this bad this Winter...

After that we climbed the first pitch of 'Hard Ice' figuring the second M10 pitch looked too weird, scary, loose and some ice was missing... So we bailed again (not motivated to try the A2 option on the right) The first pitch was quite a thing, harder then it looks.

The stalactite had almost formed a pillar. I recon it takes just a couple more days of good frost and then it will stand.

Tomorrow we have Tuborg on the list and then we'll head for the real stuff (harder ice and hopefully we find some proper mixed things here in the valley, suggestions are welcome)

Finally, real ice: it's all cold, hurts on your hands, is cold on your feet, painful when it hits your shoulders, shins of face, scary when it's all delaminated but all together it's still a thing I love :)

Worldcup Saas-Fee pt. 2

Disappointed with the result (13th) which should be 12th, if you'd strictly follow the rules (a Russian climber should have been disqualified) I had quite an unfortunate climb: had my axe stuck in a hold, waisted quite some time there and wasn't able to fix a hold straight away, waisting more time...

Dennis did well until he popped off (tired, bad hold, bad luck)

Hopefully better next time :(

Worldcup Saas-Fee

Whoe :) Again anaother day of worldcup climbing.
Just climbed, was really slow, nervous and pretty insecure but just reached the semi's.
Dennis was quite impressive and managed almost to top the route.
Tonight speedclimbing and tomorrow semi's and hopefully finals as well...

Worldcup Korea pt. 2

Grrrr...

I came here to be in the finals and failed. Not much more to tell then: I'm much stronger then last year but miss the right training (wall, people) to get better and do the right thing I guess.

12 & 12 in both lead and speed. Not bad, but not good enough.

Wednesday is Zoo day, and then it's time for the next cup: Saas Fee.

Really tired...need sleep...now

Korean Iceclimbing Worldcup 2012

Finally we arrived in South Korea for the first worldcup of the season.

We arrived together with two members of the Swiss team and I just lay down in bed. A bed. A bed...a real bed.

We got our rooms, Dennis had to sleep in the guys room, and I was sleeping in the girls room. Our room was 'traditionally Korean', which means hard blankets on the floor and some sheets. No bed at all...

Luckily we had the chance to move around a bit and now I ly in one of the guys rooms together with Petra.

And that is luxury after the rice, seaweed, cold, screaming kids on the hallway and the busride (got really carsick)

Hopefully better tomorrow.

Now I need some rest :)

Worldcup Boulder Eindhoven 2011

The day after. Or actually already two days after the finals of the Worldcup Bouldering in Eindhoven.

Because of a mistake. (Won't tell you any names or details) I was climbing in Ettringen during Dutch the qualifications last April. At that time I was pretty quiet and light about it as I thought 'well, just happens and outdoor climbing is better then indoor climbing'. But somewhere in my brain there is a little voice that keeps on telling me 'Girl you're stronger then last year, you should have been there. And why don't you just write it down or say it that it's not your fault that you weren't there on the walls.'

And now I just told you.

I was told only the best three climbers would go for the 'Wildcard' for the Worldcup in Eindhoven. Later, after the qualifiers in April I figured it was the best 4 after the national team members. Bit painful...

I have no idea where I'll be next year (Yosemite, Iceland, Canada...?) But if I have that chance to qualify again, I'll try to do so :)

So, no competition climbing for me last weekend. Though I suddenly still got involved.

I'm national judge and the organisation was short in judges, so suddenly I was there.

I had 'to get into' the rules and system, but that was quite easy. And the positive thing was, that I had a first row view!

On Saturday evening I had so much engery after seeing all the climbers, that I decided to go and climb as well. And Monk it was. A full evening with all kinds of funny, strange, difficult, slopey, long, short boulders. Satisfied I left for the hotel in Mierlo.

Saturday, semi- and finals-day. The Dutch only had Vera and Nicky in the semi's.

Though, it was a busy day.

Mountain Network, a Dutch company that owns several climbing gyms in the Netherlands, was responsible for the venue (structure and the stage). And as the Netherlands is quite unpredictable weather wise you always have to count on at least some rain. This weekend was not just forecasted with 'some rain' but with LOADS of rain. So you'd expect a proper roof above the climbing walls and isolation. But nope...some sail that flappered in the wind was the only thing to protect the climbers and boulders from the rain.

There were even rumours that the competitions would be canceled because of it!

And then there was the structure itself. Four times I found a little pin on the floor under the walls. It was not just a little pin, it were crucial little things that work as locks and so basically keep the structure together. With such a pin missing, the structure can basically drop down with just a bit of wind. So four of these missing...

I climbed up with the excuse to fix the holes in the roof and also placed two pins back...

Now I can go on and on with complaining about the structure and safety (for example how to work with scaffold-hooks and how this was all a perfect example of how not to work with it...) but, I was writing about climbing and not about safety issues in stage building. (Though...hopefully it will all be better next year...)

This post is not finished (yet) due to some internet problems here, it keeps on disappearing. Really annoying. So tomorrow I'll write some more :)

Busteni adventures 4

Finally, internet again thanks to Stephanie, who gave us the key to her room. Enough to write some e-mails and get some pictures online.

The qualifications long behind us, even the semi-finals were already yesterday. Just the finals left, but not for me...

(Here the up-to-date info and livestream from the event)

This was our last competition of the season. We don't have the money to go to Kirov, which is the last competition of the series in the beginning of March. And even if we'd find a Millionaire today we still couldn't go as you need to get your invitation and visa in advance.

I'm questioning all I did the past year and wonder what I should do next year, train again, quit and work, study, do nothing, become fat and boring?

Looking back on the competitions this is how I feel:

• disappointed and ashamed for not reaching the finals here in Busteni
• disappointed and ashamed because I fell out of the speed route after 2m. of climbing in shitty ice and now see that really slow climbers are way higher in the ranking
• disappointed because the lead-routes were made as speedclimbing routes, not a hard, technical or difficult move, just the speed counted
• disappointed and ashamed for all the work being put to send me all the way to Romania, spend money, change flights, spend more money and then, don't reach a thing
• disappointed and ashamed for spending a whole year on just climbing and not even reaching a top 5 ranking
• disappointed and ashamed to see that the iceclimbing worldcup is full of women (and men) who'd never even put a single icescrew in the ice!
• disappointed because I didn't finish my studies and don't have the feeling I get any support from my supervisor
• disappointed and ashamed because I don't know how to explain my results back home
• disappointed and ashamed because I don't have the feeling anybody will understand my results
• disappointed because iceclimbing doesn't have enough countries competing to become Olympic
• disappointed and ashamed because my results are not good enough for any proper sponsoring
• disappointed because I don't know what to focus on for the coming year, climbing, studying, working?
• disappointed because I don't have the feeling I can combine work, climbing and studying as money is always the biggest issue
• disappointed because, what shall I do now, focus again on the worldcup theatre or find a normal job and work?
• disappointed....
• ashamed, because what made me think I'm good enough to be the climber I want to be, and ashamed, as I don't know how to explain this back home...

Sorry, I'm just not too positive about it all...

I was hoping to close the season with something better then this all.

At least it was fun around the whole Worldcup Circus. We climbed real routes and saw a bit of the world: rice in Korea, ugly people in Romania, Swiss precision (not), Italian chaos and cancellations, German friendliness, and now up to Icelandic fun?

Wild bear detection counter for today: still no bears spotted!

Here our video from the Rabenstein Icefight, again, as I noticed it didn't upload correctly the previous time. Check out the Rabenstein website with video's, photo's and more about the event!

And the Icelandic duo Robbi&Gummi made a funny little 'introductionary' video about iceclimbing and their sponsor (Marmot). They proved Marmot jackets are almost waterproof, almost...

Busteni adventures 3

Day three in Romania.

And still no climbing.

I gradually start to get trouble with my addiction (climbing) as I haven't climbed for 5 days now...

Hereby I intend to feed my addiction on another way: by being online all day on the slug-slow Romanian internet. I can tell you: it doesn't work...

This evening will be the official opening (originally planned on...yesterday) and then finally I'll climb, on Saturday.

I'm wondering how good/bad it is to take such long rest from climbing.

In case the internet completely breaks down here, the program (no idea if it's the right program) can be found here. And in case I'm climbing during an internet-wave, here you can find the live-stream.

And, because it's always good to look back on fun activities, here some video's from Lukasz for Planet Fear. (Still wondering why I'm not 'starring in the video, but hey, whatever :)

Wild bear detection counter for today: still no bears spotted...