Comps, Rock and Lectures - 13. Oktober 2013

Shortly after my return from our amazing trip to Rocklands, it was already time for my second World Cup and the last Bouldering World Cup of the season in Munich. Although I felt quite strong after a whole month just bouldering outdoors, I struggled with the problems in my group and didn’t get a top at all. The problems didn’t suit me very well and I ended up with only three bonus holds. The boulders in the other group looked more like my style but that’s part of the game and there’s always some luck involved as well. Unfortunately all the swiss guys except for Cédric missed the isolation closure due to a lot of traffic, which, given that the chief judge was not willing to compromise at all, meant they weren’t aloud to compete at all. Cédric didn’t make it into finals, so we had all our hopes on Petra, who easily made it into semis and with three flashes squeezed into finals! There she showed a great performance but fell at the last move on almost every problem, which got her placed unlucky 7th. Nevertheless, I’m really proud of her and happy to call her my team mate :)

Already a week later, we were on our way to Eindhoven for the Bouldering European Championships. I couldn’t wait to compete at my first adult Championship and got even more psyched when I saw the beautiful city of Eindhoven and the whole venue. Sadly qualifiers were extremely hard and I barely made it off the ground in any of the boulders except for the last slab, where I unluckily fell on the last move on several tries and then ran out of time on my last and best attempt. The three bonus holds I reached meant place 33 for me, which is actually not too bad and was enough to lighten my mood.

Obviously I’m also one of those people to stick out their tongue when they’re focused… ;) Foto: www.euroboulder.com

Looking at the results, everybody seemed to have struggled with the difficult problems and in the other group four bonus holds were even enough to get into semis. For me semi-finals would’ve been possible, since a flash on the last problem would’ve gotten me in. Yet I wasn’t the only one to fall on that very last move and almost is just not enough. Petra climbed well but unluckily missed finals. Remo did great and made it into semi-finals alongside Beni. He did even better in semis, where he was one of a few to get a top at all. This meant 9th place for him, which is a nice result to end his time as a competition climber. From now on, he plans to focus more on outdoor climbing and maybe still get involved in competitions but as a route setter.

Back home, I couldn’t wait to go to Magic Wood and see if I had really improved my abilities on rock. The first few weeks after the competitions I felt weak and tired, somehow my body just didn’t want to recover. So I took it easy with my training and slowly started feeling strong again. This is when I got back on From Darkness to Sunshine (7C), starting from the obvious jug down in the darkness cave. I was suprised by how much better I could pull on those small holds compared to last time and I suddenly felt that this is it. I fell on the same long move a couple of times before I could finally put it all together and with my last tiny bit of endurance managed to get to the top :) Thanks to Viola and especially Jeannine for their support and help with the beta! Viola impressed us all that day by sending Höhenrausch (7B+), one of the most beautiful lines in the woods and still a project for me, congratulations!

Two weeks ago, the last national event of the year was held at the „Zürcher Züspa“. It was the Swiss Championship in speed climbing and although I didn’t seriously prepare for this competition, I could improve my own personal record to 11.99 seconds and finished 2nd!

Foto: davidschweizer.ch

After that, it was time for an event we’ve all been waiting for quite a while now: The incredible new Minimum gym finally opened its doors to the public! We’ve been setting some really cool problems during the past month and I’m happy to say that the whole opening was a great success!

Foto: Adi Schiess

Besides climbing there where two great concerts by FROM KID, probably my new favorite music for chilling at home, and Rizzoknorr, who kept everybody dancing all night. I don’t know if it’s because it’s still so new or due to the bad weather or if it’s always gonna be like this, but over the past weeks there were already hundreds of people climbing there every day. I’ve been training there regularly since the openening and I am amazed by how much stronger I got over this short period of time. The walls are mainly steep and quite long, so a two hour session already gets me completely wrecked. Yet I can say I probably never felt this strong before.

With this confidence I went to France for my very last European Youth Cup. Starting from next year, I’m gonna be too old and it’s just World Cups, for which I can’t wait, although I know it’s gonna be tough! So I went with the intention to simply do my best and have fun. Although I climbed well, I placed 7th and missed finals by one place. Of course I was really disappointed, especially because I knew if I had done the second problem, where I fell four times on the last move, my placing would’ve been way better. Yet again, this is how it works and I can only say I’m glad this was the last time for me competing in this stressful chaos format. Looking back on the whole season, I’m happy to have gained some experience in the World Cups and to see what’s possible. I’m already really motivated for the next season and I’m ready to train hard and improve physically as well as mentally. Right now, I can’t wait to climb outside as much as possible and just take a break from all the pressure that comes with these competitions. Still so many projects waiting…

Last but not least, I’m proud to now be one out of 18 chiropractic students at the University of Zurich! I started my studies a few weeks ago and mostly enjoy it, not least because of all the interesting new people I meet every day. Up to now, I still have enough time for training and I’m pretty confident I can keep it that way, except maybe for the short period right before the exams. Also I’m now living in a lovely appartement, with great people (plus a cat) and only 10 minutes walk from University. Life is good, isn’t it? ;)

Foto: Thomas Scheuner