Switzerland 2012

It has been eons since I last posted an article on my blog. I am right now in the midst of my maiden trip to Ticino, Switzerland for bouldering. However, allow me to go through briefly what happened between my last post and prior to this trip.

The IFSC World Youth Championships took place in Sentosa towards the end of August, shortly after the Asian Youth Championships in Iran. It was an excellent opportunity for our youths to see how they fare when they are up against the very best in the world within their respective age groups. Gabriel, Adriel and I continued on as the Team Manager, Speed Coach and Lead/ Boulder Coach respectively for this competition. 

The Lead Wall at World Youth in Singapore

I did my best in trying to provide feedback on their individual performances and what they can do to improve, even though I have zero knowledge of some of our youth's capabilities. The team was BIG, due to the fact that we were allowed to send in more athletes than other countries for being the host country. This number will however be shrunk in the coming months to enable a more focused approach to the competitions facing our National Youth Team in 2013. Some of our youths will need to understand that it takes commitment, dedication and a lot of discipline to improve. Consistency is the key to success. Relying on last minute training a couple of weeks prior to any competition is not going to help, at least for most people.

The Singapore Youth Team!

 

Based on the level of performance by our youths at the competition, we concluded that only a handful have the potential to squeeze into the senior team by 2015 for the SEA Games.

There were a couple of bouldering competitions prior to this trip but I didn't want to push my luck and take part in them as I was still recovering from a pulled pulley while doing a dyno start during the last route at Pumpfest. Besides, with all the work and meetings piling up, I was losing motivation to climb and get fit ,let alone compete. Thank goodness the injury recovered just in time and gave me no problems until now. Finger injuries take the LONGEST to heal.

Before diving straight into Switzerland, I would like to say a big Thank You to The North Face Singapore for kindly providing me some important apparel that has been keeping me nice and warm in the 8 degree weather at Ticino.

Quality gear from The North Face

The Summit Series® Men's Warm Merino Crew is the baselayer I have been wearing when I am out on the rocks. According to wikipedia, the Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool as they are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep. As such, it is commonly used in high-end performance athletic wear. 

THE baselayer to wear when it gets cold

 

Blended with FlashDry technology, this baselayer enhances sweat removal and helps in regulating temperature, thereby keeping me warm and dry. I usually wear this below any T-shirt when temperatures drops below 10 degrees celsius.

The other piece of equipment which has been keeping really warm is the all important Summit Series® Men's Super Diez Jacket. A down jacket is the most important item all climbers cannot do without when it's cold. I have previously reviewed the Nuptse Jacket and how the down feathers inside the jacket function help to regulate heat within out body. You can read it here.

The North Face Diez Jacket - 900 Fill!

The Super Diez jacket as compared to the Nuptse is a basically a giant step forward. It is made with the highest level of down available at 900-fill as compared to the 700-fill Nuptse. At 395grams, it weighs superlight and is almost half the weight of the Nuptse which itself weighs a decent 690grams. It is also extremely resilient especially when you brush yourself against rocks whilst trekking to the crag as the lightweight filling is combined with Pertex® 10 denier nylon ripstop exterior. I was initially skeptical about this jacket in keeping me warm as it looked and felt extremely lightweighted and my worries were unnecessary. The jacket can also be stowed into its own pocket and when stowed, it basically takes up 2/3 the size of a 1-litre Nalgene bottle!

A brief overview of the bouldering area in Ticino created by Les Warnock and Alex Savage

Before I continue about what has been happening, here's a little information about the bouldering here in Switzerland. Ticino is the epi-centre of bouldering and is located at the southern portion of Switzerland. Here, you can find many boulders littered in areas like Magic Wood, Cresciano, Chironico, Brione etc. Cresciano, Chironico and Brione is supposed to be in season now as it is lower in altitude as compared to Magic Wood. When I mean in season, I meant that the temps are between 6-12 degrees, excellent sending conditions due to superb friction. Some of the hardest boulders in the world are located in Cresciano and Chironico alone. Dreamtime (previously 8c, now 8b+ after a hold broke), The Story of 2 Worlds 8c, Confessions 8b/+, Big Paw 8c and From Dirt Grows Flowers 8C etc. are all located in these 2 areas alone. There are also plenty of easier classic climbs for beginners thus providing an excellent range for all climbers on Swiss Gneiss (granite).

Mega Up-size Nutella anyone?

 

Yam and I are currently into our 2^nd week here in Switzerland and the weather has been CRAP for this entire 2^nd week. It has been raining everyday and most, if not ALL climbers have bailed from this region. It was totally different during the 1^st week when we got here though. The weather was great with the occasional sun(which apparently is NOT common at this time of the year!). 

All my gear for this trip

Our first 5 days days were spent at Cresciano – Chironico – Rest Day – Brione – Chironico. It was a major effort trying to find some of the problems we had our eyes on within these areas primarily because the explanation in the topo wasn't descriptive enough. My legs were still aching from the hiking even after the rest day on our 3^rd day there. The SNAP crashpad we had wasn't helping also as it separates easily in the middle and is extremely heavy. Did I mention both Yam and I were carrying 2 crash pads each and had to pay 150 Euros per person just to put it on the same flight as us on the day of our departure! And THAT was only 1 way. We are now thinking of shipping it back to Singapore by sea when we leave for home on our last day to save on another 150 Euros.

Anyway back to the climbing, I have managed to have a decent 4 climbing days, sending Frank's Wild Years 8a+, Marlyn Monroe 8a, Teamwork 8a, Confessions of a Crap Artist 7c+/8a and Fake Pampelmouse 7c+/8a and many easier climbs. Most of the climbs mentioned were sent within 2-3 goes. I also had a couple of goes on Dr Pinch and Freak Brothers both graded about 7c+/8a. These 2 climbs felt really hard. Maybe it was the tiredness setting in as it was the 2^nd day on but regardless, all the above climbs were nothing short of excellent in terms of quality of the rock and movement.

Yam warming up on an unknown 6a/+

 Alex gave us good beta on Marlyn Monroe and Teamwork, allowing me to make quick work on both problems. We met her and Katherina at Brione, along with Jack from Denmark and Miguel from Spain when they were working on Fake Pampelmouse with us. Alex made short work of the climb, sending it within 3-4 goes. Katherina sent Kit Dynamite and TeamWork, both 8a, within an hour of each other prior to leaving for home the next day! These girls sure are STRONG! Here's a little video by Alex Savage on some climbs in Ticino.

Swanky Swizzy from Savage Films on Vimeo.

Anyway we have yet to explore the rest of these 3 major areas but I am keen to check out and climb a couple of the easier classics before hopping onto anything harder than 8a+/V12. Don't forsee any reason in spending my entire trip on a single project when there so many classics lurking around the corner. Even though I did try out a couple of moves on Boogalagga 8b, which is the stand start to Big Paw 8C, I would like to check out Confessions 8b/+ and The Dagger 8b/+ before deciding which project to hop onto. Have yet to locate these 2 boulders at the Cresciano area.

There is another alternative start to Boogalagga which begins from the right and links up at the mid section rated at 8a. It begins with a heinous mono with the right hand which resulted in Yam straining his finger. The extend of the injury is not yet known until he actually tries climbing again as it has been raining.

As of now, we have had 5 days of constant raining, which means 5 days of rest and the weather forecast for next week is supposed to be sunny! In the meantime, I have been working on piecing some of the videos together and hope to upload it when i get back to Singapore. In the meantime, we are hopping the sun comes out soon and dry the boulders!

Asian Youth Championships 2012, Hamedan, Iran

Came back a couple of weeks ago from the Asian Youth Championships held in the city of Hamedan in Iran. Gabriel Tay was the interim General Manager whilst i went up there in the capacity of the youth team Coach. Forming up the Singapore Youth Team will be Nadrah and Vanessa from Outram Secondary, Iris and Kenneth from Xin Min Secondary and my own student, Desky from Changkat Changi Secondary.

I had initially thought that this would be a good break from work but i was in for a surprise....

 Team Singapore at the Departure Hall!

We were held back by delays at the transit in KL and upon arrival in the capital of Iran, Tehran, we were delayed by another hour or so at the airport due to visa problems. We only arrived in Hamedan after a torturous 3 hr ride, at about 5am in the morning! So it was only 1 hr of sleep before everyone rose for breakfast and head out to the competition venue for the qualifying round which began at 9am.

 The competition wall - HUGE, about 18-20m high

The competition walls was HUGE and mightily impressive, though somewhat mostly flat on most sections except for the final 8 metres at the top. Having a route that reaches the top will consist of at least 40-50 plus moves!

 Singapore's Flag Bearer - Kenneth Lim

Results for our young climbers can be view on the IFSC website but all in all, the overall result of our climbers was O-K. As usual, the powerhouses of Asia, Japan and Korea swept most of the top 3 placings for Lead climbing. Our youth climbers may be one of the best within their respective age groups in Singapore but compared to the Top 3 of Asia, we are still quite far away.

 The kids were shack out on the 1st day there!

Security was pretty tight throughout the event as the organisers did not want anything to happen to us. Even when we want to walk out as a group for a stroll around the hotel, we had to be accompanied by some form of security. As such, everyday was spent at the competition venue and the hotel. We would usually move out to the comp venue at 7am and reach back to the hotel by 10-11pm for dinner. Needless to say most of us were suffering from sleep deprivation.

 My fav picture - everyone's happy!

The qualifications consisted of 2 routes, flashed format. Routes were mostly easy with all climbs ending around the 15 metre mark on the wall. Routes for the Semis were longer with the Finals being the longest which extended all the way to the top! At almost 55 moves, completing the route was akin to climbing the 15m wall in Yishun Safra continuously twice! Needless to say most of our young climbers fell off around the 30th or 30+ move on most of their climbs. This is probably due to them training on routes that consist of 30 moves or less back in Singapore.

 Lunch time at a local restaurant in Hamedan, Iran

The handholds on all routes including the finals were mostly good. The sequences were straight forward and easy to read, with no tricks. What our climbers lacked was anaerobic endurance. I reckon to make it into the Top 3, the girls will have to be comfortably onsighting 7b with the guys at about 7c. This figure is going to increase drastically at the World Youth Championships held at the end of August in Singapore. The qualifying climbs alone for all categories is unlikely be less than 7a+/b. With the top climbers (including the girls) capable of onsighting 8As comfortably, you can expect the routes to be reasonably tough!

 Team Singapore

As of now, the only commercial gym with enough hard and QUALITY routes suitable for our youths to train for WYC is at Yishun Safra, thanks to Paul who has taken time out to manage the route setting there. There are plenty of hard 6s and some 7s. More 7s and 8s are definitely needed. It would be fantastic if we can have a wall akin to Putrajaya, but a decent bouldering wall is also sufficient for training anaerobic endurance like what the top World Cup climbers do.

Team Singapore again......

We also managed to snuck out for some outdoor bouldering in the countryside for a couple of hours on our last day. It wasn't much but Gabriel and i thought it sure beats bringing the team out for some shopping in town! Besides, most of them hardly climbed on real rock before!

It was definitely a good experience for our young climbers who were privileged to represent our nation and travel overseas for an International competition and see where they stand amongst their peers in Asia. Hopefully this will help spur them on to train harder!

3 out of 3 and Switzerland!!!!

NUS-The North Face Boulderactive and NTU Pumpfest came and went really quickly. I was really maxed out in the build-up towards BA as Kinetics Climbing was one of the main sponsors for the event and were sponsoring tonnes of holds and prizes for the competition. Plenty of planning and logistical work plus we had to entertain both our guest route setters, Yuji Hirayama-san and Kim Dong Hyun.

The awesome dinner at Melban Seafood!

Knowing they had limited time in Singapore, we brought both of them out to Melban Seafood on the 1st night to have a good meal. Big Thank you to Kinetics Climbing for footing the bill!

The presence of both of them attracted a strong field of regional competitors for this competition, thus i thought that it would be a fantastic job just to scrape my ass into the finals, let alone win the competition.

Tonnes of new holds from Kinetics Climbing!

The blokes over at The North Face SG were throughly over the moon when i managed to pull something out of the hat and win this competition. Zam from Malaysia was 2nd and Danny from Hongkong came in 3rd place! The routes were enjoyable and i will be posting some videos of my climbs soon.

From Left, Danny from HK, me and Hafzanizam from Msia

Everything was not over after the competition. The next day was Kinetics's 1 Year anniversary and we had the privilege of having Yuji Hirayama to conduct a private bouldering clinic and a slideshow after which there was some food for those who stayed late! =D

Judith, the Female Opens Champion of Boulderactive 2012!

Yuji, in the midst of his Slideshow which preceded his QnA session

A wonderful ending to Yuji's stay! (photo credits: Freddie Wee)

Pumpfest 2012 Mens Opens Winners, Khairful Hafiz was 2nd with Yam placing 3rd.

I couldn't resist the carrot of $500 in cash for the winner of Pumpfest 2012 which explains my participation in this competition by NTU. Had initially told myself that if i did well for BA, i will skip the rest of all the competitions in Singapore for this year!!!

Winning Pumpfest capped a 3 wins out of the 3 competitions which i took part this year - SMU Gravical, NUS-TNF Boulderactive and NTU Pumpfest.

Enough of competitions.

Was involved in a chain collision less than 2 weeks back. Moron of a driver was probably dreaming when she rammed her car straight into my stationary car on the PIE. Impact was so great that it caused me to hit the car in front. Check out the carnage below. Her car is the really smashed up oned below, right in front of the black Mitsubishi Lancer. Mine is right in front of hers. I was perfectly alright but when she came out of the car, she looked like a nuclear bomb just dropped on her. I wasn't that far off, her air bag got deployed which explained why she looked as if she was going into shock.

The Carnage!!

The plan to head up to Hueco Tanks in Nov looked really unlikely with the price of air tickets alone hovering at around $2600. No matter how much i want to climb there, it seems like this trip will have to wait. Yam suggested Switzerland and it looks like we will be heading there this year instead. I hope to meet up with Martin Keller whom i met with Spy in Krabi way back in 2004? Martin has since been on a roll and has completed many hard climbs in Cresciano, Magic Wood and Chironico. You can check out some of his pictures here!

Martin on Confessions 8b/+. Check out his blog!

Washed Out!

double champions at Gravical 2012!!!

Back on a high from the SEA Games in November last year, i was off to a decent start to 2012. Felicia and i both managed 1st placing in the Womens and Mens Open Category at Gravical 2012 respectively. With all the routes vetted by quest route setters Tonde Katiyo and Florian Escoffier, you can be pretty sure that there are no loop holes in the routes that were set. Anyone can claim themself to be a route setter but to truly be a good one, an important ability is to be able to envision if or not the route is possible or whether if a particular move can be done. Needless to say, one must be able to climb and test the moves!

Having spent so much time on plastic in the last couple of months, i had to get outdoors and booked myself an air ticket back to Yangshuo in early March. With 2 of my friends(Audrey and PM) coming along and 3 ex students(Charmaine, Eunice and JunXiang) from TPJC, this trip promised to be real fun!

check out the wet streaks on the wall at Lei Pi Shan!! most of the climbs were dripping!

Yangshuo was meant as a short getaway for me and at the same time finish up some outstanding climbs that were left undone. Unfortunately, i came back from the trip feeling as tired as before and above all, got nothing much done. The initial plan was to quickly send the route Thunder within the 1st two days and then get onto either 9 Deep 1 Shallow or Blue Magic (all of which are about 8b/+). You can read more about my experience on Thunder in this previous post here.

Torrential rain prior to our arrival made most climbs really really wet. Some of them were literally dripping with water. We could only climb at Lei Pi Shan on the 1st day due to the weather and Thunder was dripping with water. Even the 1st pitch rated at 7b+ was dripping. Though the weather improved throughout our stay, it was wishful thinking on my part that the entire route will dry quicky and i didn't even have a slight chance of getting onto the climb on this trip. The girls didn't have it any better as Lei Pi Shan is probably one of the worse place to begin your virgin rock trip as most routes are 7A and up.

Guilin mee fen, the usual S$2 breakfast

It was disappointing but as nothing could be done about the weather and the climbs, i ended up at Wine Bottle Crag and The Egg the next 2 days, doing climbs nothing harder than 7b/+. For climbers looking to boulder on a rope, you have to get onto Mr Greenwood, rated 7b!!! (though i reckon it feels more like 7b+). This climb is only about 8-9m but the action is relentless from ground up but more importantly, it climbs well! I remember hopping onto it during my first trip here a couple of years back and the only recollection of the route i have was that the route is HARD and i didn't send it on the day itself back then.

This time around i tried to 'flash' it but to no avail. This route is still a tough nut to crack, even though i believe myself to be much fitter than back then. I send it on my 2nd go though, making it look like a 6C (according to Charmaine) as i knew how best to hold the terrible holds on the face climb.

JunXiang, meanwhile was on a high having just send a 7a nearby and seeing me on this 7b/+, was keen to have a go on it on toprope. Unfortunately he suffered a recurrence of his shoulder subluxation (partial dislocation) even before the 1st bolt and that was the end of his day. He had to take 2 rest days eventually.

rest days spent either at the cafe or just walking/biking around

The next couple of days were spent at White Mountain and Lei Pi Shan where I decided to get onto Blue Magic to work out the moves and gave it my 1st redpoint burn after sufficient rest. The redpoint attempt, though feeble, allowed me to discover better sequences and hidden holds.

the majestic White Mountain, this left section houses most of the 8Bs and 8Cs and a possible 9A

Unlike Thunder, which is almost 35m long and requires at least 14 quickdraws, Blue Magic is only about 9m, requiring about 6 draws. It is super bouldery with a decent rest right in the middle section. Good conditions are definitely important as the 2 main cruxes consist of slopey holds and bad pinches. The 1st crux felt the hardest, consisting of getting into a powerful side pull/undercling position and throwing with your right hand into a decent hold with really bad feet, on almost 40 degree inclination. The 2nd crux though a lot less powerful, requires one to pinch a really bad sloper with the left hand and hit a reasonable crimp with the right on flat terrain with good footholds.

In the meantime, all of us were watching this young local, Qiu Er, who was working on Spicy Noodle 8C+. In case you guys are unaware, Spicy Noodle is the first 8C+ put up by Chris Sharma a few years back. I was really impressed as Qiu Er climbs really really well plus we managed to catch him onsighting Single Life, 8A at Lei Pi Shan (the extension is called Lighting) just a few days back. At only 18 years of age, the future generation of China sure looks bright! Watching him on Spicy Noodle had me salivating as the moves looked really good. This is one climb i will check out soon.

fish steamboat at one of the popular restaurants in Yangshuo!

We had a rest day and came back to White Mountain again - it was still drizzling a bit but we can't complain too much. At least it wasn't pouring.

I got straight back onto Blue Magic after some warming up and fell off at the last move! That was surprisingly as i was struggling at the 1st crux due to the humidity and the slopers felt almost next to impossible to crank off from. Plus the rest points in the middle were soaked. I was pretty doubtful the climb will go under such conditions even on my next attempt.

True enough, i flailed all over the 1st crux and fell off. The last go of the day was deja vu, though i felt much better on this attempt, i was still peeling off right at the last move. The weather needs to be drier for this climb to go. Not wanting to leave my draws up on the route in case of bad weather the next day, i unwillingly took off my runners.

Meanwhile, JunXiang having rested sufficiently, was on a roll, sending Yangshuo hotel 7b in a few goes. He would probably have done it on his 2nd try had he not screwed up the start, which required climbers to scramble up a mini roof to the 1st bolt.

Though i woke up feeling pretty crappy the next day, we headed to White Mountain anyway. Thank goodness the decision to take down my draws the previous day was spot on as Blue Magic was soaking wet from rain the previous night. It's not funny having to climb on wet rock to remove runners let alone one that is bouldery. You bet that will be one hell of an experience that no one will forget in a hurry.

a happy JunXiang after sending his 2nd 7B on his 2nd try in as many days

Realizing i was down with a slight fever, i spent most of the day sleeping on the canvas under the crag. In the meantime, Eunice completed a 6b+ while Charmaine managed to redpoint a 6a+ nearby. Both of them could have completed more climbs(and harder ones!) had they pushed themselves.

JunXiang, however was in his world of his own. Having warmed up on a Merry Christmas 6C (onsight), he then proceed to give a good flash attempt on China White 7b. Although he fell off at the top, it was a pretty decent effort. He followed up with the send on his 2nd go after a short rest. For someone who has been climbing for just slightly over a year, his tick list on his first outdoor trip is nothing short of amazing; not forgetting he suffered a recurrence of his shoulder popping.

1. China White 7B, 2nd try
2. Yangshuo Hotel 7B, 4th try
3. Chuck If Ya Want to 7A, 2nd try
4. Empty Jug 6C+, 2nd try
5. Merry Christmas 6C, Onsight

Not too bad a tick list for his 1st rock trip don't you think?

the Yangshuo gang sans Audrey and PM

In my opinion, the routes that he completed were not even pushing him to his limits. Had he been given the luxury of more time to project a route, he might have been able to climb a 7C. Although i enjoy seeing my students do well in competitions, i derive more satisfaction from watching them push themselves while climbing outdoors.

I have had the opportunity to witness many young Singaporeans cranking down really hard on plastic only to fail miserably on outdoor rock. In fact, JX doesn't even boulder as hard as some of his peers in Singapore. What stands him out is that he understands how to climb efficiently but more importantly, he is one of the most disciplined climbers i have ever met.

That day at White Mountain was pretty much our last climbing day. Though we had planned on heading to Lei Pi Shan the next day prior to leaving for GZ, we ended up slacking in the hotel as JX and Eunice fell ill whilst i was still feeling a bit weak from yesterday. The trip back Singapore was dreadful knowing i have plenty of work to clear leading up to Boulderactive 2012.

Time to start planning for Hueco Tanks in Nov/Dec this year!