Success on rock, disappointment on plastic - 27. Mai 2013

Despite the bad weather, I spent most of the past weekends out on rock and even managed to climb at Magic Wood for three days. Okay, maybe rather three times half a day since it usually started to rain shortly after our arrival. Nevertheless, I was psyched to be out in the woods again and try something new. I decided to go with Iron Butterfly (7B+), a rather long problem with some powerful moves at the beginning. After working it for a bit when it was still slightly wet, I managed to climb it with better conditions on our next visit! :) The week before, we once again decided to go to the Schattental area in Chironico. Another great and sunny day where I sent Powerstripes (7B+/7C), after figuring out my own beta including lots of toe/heelhooks. The topout is pretty high and therefore a bit scary but thankfully rather easy. Thanks to Yves, Viola and Remo for the excellent spotting, the crazy beta ideas and the great pictures!

Foto: Yves Ineichen

Last week, we could have a look at the new Minimum gym which is still under construction. It looks absolutely amazing, the walls are really tall (almost a bit scary) and you can find all different kind of profiles from steep roofs to tricky mantle slabs. It should open in September and I can’t wait to climb there and set problems with tons of new holds and volumes!

This weekend, I competed at the European Youth Championships in Bouldering in Grindelwald. I’ve been looking forward to this competition for quite a while and after my 4th place in Argentière last year, I was hoping to make finals again. As expected, the problems set up by some of my favorite routesetters looked really cool and I was incredibly psyched to climb! I started well and did the two powerful problems within a couple of tries. However, I struggled with the technical, supposedly easier problems and didn’t reach the top in any of them, although I was close a few times.




Fotos: davidschweizer.ch

Foto: Kevin Heiniger

In the end, I got placed 13th which wasn’t enough for finals and I was really disappointed because I knew it would have been possible. On the other hand, this is mostly the case with bouldering and there’s always a bit of luck involved as well, especially with this format. In some problems I ran out of tries and finally out of time for the rest because you always have to get in line to try a problem. Congratulations to the strong performance of all the other competitors, especially the Slovenian Team taking home three gold medals!

For the next two weekends, I’ll be busy competing at the Swiss Cup in Grindelwald and the Swiss Championships in Geneva. In between, I’ll have the first part of my final exams at school, wish me luck! ;) Finally, in a bit more than a month I’ll be in South Africa, can’t wait!