Roc Trip Europe and The North Face Boulderactive 2013

It has been a busy 2 weeks at Kinetics since i got back from Europe on the 2nd of this month. We have had some staff leaving due to the start of school. Finally have a little time to sit down and do a short post on my trip to Europe last month!

Check out the right of the campus board!

I flew directly to Frankfurt, Germany for an exhibition and had the opportunity to visit some local climbing gyms. Check out these 2 pictures of BoulderWelt! Nice, clean, big and most importantly, plenty of routes which are changed regularly.  Check out the right side of the campus board! The owner told me they had a really tough time building that training system!

Huge area for climbing with tonnes of easy routes!

The central part of my plan for this Europe trip was to head down south to Ceuse in France and try to send Bah Bah Black Sheep, a 15m long 8c/+ which i have spent many weeks on in the summer of 2009. I dropped by Magic Wood to climb for 2 days as it was en route to Ceuse.

At Magic Wood!

Magic Wood is probably the only bouldering area climbable in summer in Switzerland as it is much higher in altitude. At about 1400m above sea level, the afternoons can get pretty hot but the nights are cold and everyone wears down. Good conditions for hard sends are hard to come by unless you rise early or climb with headlights at night.

Darkness Cave

My personal take on the grading in Magic Wood is that the harder climbs are quite stiff. I wasn't exactly out of shape but the 8a or harder climbs at Magic Wood felt much harder compared to Cresciano and Chironico. Perhaps it was a combination of my not-so-smart climbing, attempting these conditions dependent blocs in the mid day heat. 

I did some of the easier climbs and roamed around a bit to have a look at the classics like New Base Line, Never Ending Story, Supernova, Electroboogie etc. before deciding to have go on The right hand of Darkness V11/8a. This climb is located in the Darkness cave along with plenty of other climbs like Rememberance of things past 8b+, In search of time lost 8c. Dark Sakai and From darkness to Sunshine. 

coffee is cheap in Europe!

I had to leave empty handed without the send in the bag. There was 1 move which i couldn't do and on top of that, i split 2 of my finger tips which hurt like a bitch! Until the next time and in better conditions for sure!

The good thing about Magic Wood is that there are so many quality climbs located so near to each other compared to many other crags BUT the landing is often not fantastic. A good spotter and plenty of pads will come in handy for sure!

fruit pizza at La Freissinouse

Moving on to France, i caught up with Paul at Les Guerins campsite. According to him, the weather hasn't been fantastic and is set to continue. What a bummer....

Out of the 8 climbing days i had there, 4 were raining and we had to run down in the drizzling rain. The rain was so heavy on some days that many climbs were not dry by the next day, something i have never experienced before in my previous 2 trips there.

Massif de Ceuse

The crux of Bah Bah was wet and i wasted 6 climbing days on it, trying to climb on the wet holds. Needless to say, i did not once make it anywhere near my previous high point back in 2009. I changed tack and gave a not-so fantastic flash go on Sueurs Froides 8a+ after sussing out the beta from someone who was 1.9m tall. Not a very smart move. The crux of the climb was this big move to a bomber jug. Good thing i checked out the ending prior to my 2nd try as it was still possible to fall at the top! Send it on my 2nd try.

Taking a short break after the 1 hr hike up

I spend the last few days checking out some other climbs which i might want to get onto for my next trip and one of them was Dure Limites, this 8c which the 12 year old climbing phenom, Ashima sent on her 2nd go. YES SECOND GO aka TWO TRIES. Boy this climb is HARD. Definitely not a holiday 8c and apparently even Sasha had a hard time on it especially at the top. (Note to all: There are no holiday grades in Ceuse!!!) 

Lunch - potatoes, green beans, mushrooms and lardons!

I did have a good time visiting the supermarkets and gorging myself on French cheese and pastry during my time in France!

Ashima!

My plan for this trip to Europe was not to stay at Ceuse for the entire duration but to visit a few other crags, one of which was Le Gorge du Loup, whereby the famous Kinematix 9a and PuntX 9a (only 14m long) is located. Apparently this place requires a down jacket because it is located in a gorge and the wind can get really strong even in the summer. BUTTTTtttttt, there was no wind on my first day there and it was hot!

Le Gorge du Loup is famous because of the crag 'pupuce surplomb'. There are about 70 routes from 6a to 9a and more than 50 of the climbs are above 8a. The cliff here is overhanging and the style athletic.

I hopped onto the mega classic 8a/+ Deverse Satanique and gave it a good onsight burn before falling at the 2nd last runner.

Le Gorge du Loup

There are no extremely hard moves but the route was SUPER PUMPY and i was so exhausted that i couldn't even raise my hands for at least 10 minutes after the fall. Most of the climbing is on tufas which resembles a shark's fin.

Although i got it in the bag on my 2nd go, it was a close call. I did not feel fully rested even after an hour and a half and almost fell off while clipping the anchors on my 2nd try. Deverse Satanique will rank as one of the best 8a/+ i have ever done!

I had my sights on a 8b+ beside it, Hot Chili Beans Volcano after watching some locals work the moves. The climb begins bouldery and links up to the ending of Deverse which is about 15m-16m. Totally my style!

Unfortunately the next morning it RAINED and i bailed. Took a long and slow drive back to Germany to return the car and fly back to Singapore, which concluded my Europe trip for the summer of 2013.

Yuji and I at the competition!

Boulderactive this year was held at Suntec and all in all the competition felt a lot more smaller scale compared to previous years (the wall was also much smaller). I touched down in Singapore on Friday and had my qualifying round the next day. Having climbed on a rope for the last few weeks, i know i was neither competition fit nor boulder fit so i will be happy to make it into the finals. Imagine my surprise when i actually qualified first. Routes were not hard but some were a lil more technical. In fact, the last climb required not much pulling and would probably be not more than a 6b in fontainbleau.

Having met my goal of qualifying, i wanted to just enjoy the climbs in the Finals with no expectations. I personally found the 1st two routes really hard, in particularly the 2nd one. 

I was really huffing and puffing after the 1st climb and that is usually not the case in the Finals of local bouldering competitions. In the end i think i received a 7th placing (out of 8) even though i was one of the few extremely closed to sending the 3rd climb. Finishing it would have elevated me to 2nd. That is the nature of competitions =D.

It is time for a good break from hard climbing and get my elbow to recover fully from this nagging tendonitis.