First World Cup :) - 28. April 2013
Foto: Christoph Sommer
I spent a few nice days in Ticino and even though I realized I’m not quite in the shape I was last year, I enjoyed climbing on rock and being outdoors. Meanwhile I successfully finished my matura project at school where I chose to create my own climbing magazine. Have a look here! In the beginning of April we set everything new at the Minimum gym, the last time before the amazing new Minimum will open this summer.
A couple of weeks ago, I got some news which definitely gave me something to write about: I would compete at my first World Cup in Kitzbühel! :) I’ve been excited for this moment ever since I first watched such an event, which made me want to be part of this myself so badly. Training had been going well lately, my injured finger got a lot better and I felt ready for this whole new experience. Before we left for Kitzbühel on Thursday, I had a great climbing day in Ticino with Remo and Viola. Since it was pretty warm, we decided to go to Schattental. I’ve never been there before and was astonished at how totally different it was to the rest of Chironico. Everything was a lot greener and the river close by made it even more beautiful. We tried some great problems and Viola took really cool pictures with her new camera. I managed to climb an amazing line which I think is called Schnittstelle (7B) and used to be 7C before it got chipped or a hold broke. I think it now is around 7B and still one of the best roof climbs I’ve ever done. Before leaving back home, we took a short swim in the refreshingly cold water of the river, such a great day!
Foto: Viola Sommer
After the few hour drive to Kitzbühel, we were all totally overwhelmed by the sight of our hotel. It looked like a castle, had a golf course, three restaurants and a huge SPA area. Clearly there had been a mistake somewhere but although we didn’t need all this fancy five star comfort, we still enjoyed it and were pleased with all the amenities.
A-ROSA Hotel Kitzbühel
The next day were qualifiers, guys in the morning and girls in the late afternoon. Our guys did quite well with Cédric going into semis first-placed and Remo as well as Beni topping four out of five problems. Unfortunately, the parcour was set a bit to easy and their good performance still wasn’t enough to reach semi-finals. Now it was our turn and even feeling slightly nervous, I was incredibly psyched to climb. Since I started not until 22nd, there was still plenty of time left. My finger was fine and I felt strong during warm-up. Time passed quickly and soon I was out in front of the first problem. It was on a vertical wall requiring some balance on a heel hook in the beginning, then standing up to some smaller holds and finally jumping to a rather flat top hold. I lost my balance on my first attempt but luckily topped it second try. It felt good, at least I wouldn’t end up without a top at all.
Second was a rather powerful boulder where I got the bonus first try but then my foot slipped while reaching for the next hold. This remained my best attempt, time was up too soon and I had to focus on the next problems. Already the sight of the dyno on number three made me smile and feel optimistic. I didn’t get the holds right on my first attempt but managed to reach the top on my second try. The fourth boulder went okay and I had the top hold in reach on my second attempt. I tried jumping to it, which was a bad idea since it was quite slopy. On my next try I found a better solution and could reach the top with one hand. Unfortunately I already had really sweaty hands and slipped off with both hands on the top hold! :(
After that I was pretty exhausted and didn’t even reach the bonus hold on the last problem. At first I was a bit disappointed and of course angry at myself for so stupidly falling at the top on number four. Yet I was actually quite satisfied with my climbing and my overall performance wasn’t too bad. Regrettably, my mistake on problem four cost me a place in the top 30 and I ended up only 37th. However, it could have gone worse and hopefully this wasn’t my last World Cup. Petra did really well and won the qualifiers in her group, so strong!! Unfortunately, she ran out of time in the semi-finals and missed finals but still ended up 14th. Cédric qualified for finals and in the end got placed 5th. Congratulations also to Anna Stöhr and Jakob Schubert from Austria to their home victory. Watching all these strong climbers in the finals got me really motivated to work on my weaknesses and improve physically as well as mentally. Now there’s only a month left until the European Youth Championships in Grindelwald, I’m really excited to climb in front of a home crowd and will give my best, as always… :)
Live Stream Replay (find me at 2:05:10 starting with the 2nd boulder)