8A’s during New Year in Ticino

During New Year we’ve been to Ticino for bouldering and repeated some nice boulders in the 8A range. We’ve edited the little video above which shows a couple of 8A’s in Chironico we were able to send together.

It was the first time we haven’t been to Spain over Christmas and New Year’s Eve since a couple of years now. It was bouldering on nice granite instead of lead climbing in long limestone walls in Catalunya. A different feeling. As every time we leave thousands problems unrepeated. That’s why soon we’ll be back in Ticino :-)

Featured problems in the video:
3° Carne (8A)
Rah Plats Plats (8A)
The Arete With The Pocket (8A)
Hineruage/Deep red (8A)
Blonch Addiction (8A)
Willenberg Dach (8A)

Enjoy and CU on the rocks ;-) David & Ruben

Election of the best young athletes in Lower Saxony 2014

elected athletes (c) LSB Nidersachsen

Elected athletes (c) LSB Niedersachsen

Yesterday we attended the „winner-party“ in Hanover. All national and international sport champions in Lower Saxony were invited. David who won the European Boulder Youth Championship in Arco (Italy) was one of the three nominated athletes for the first price. At the end he was very happy of being announced 2nd, just after Jonas Bokeloh who is a Juniors´ World Champion in cycling. The 3rd place went to Johann Wahmhoff who is a Juniors´ World Champion in rowing. Weiterlesen

Beaux à Bleau

I’m currently in Fontainebleau again and I thought why not putting up a little video again from my last trip earlier this year. I’m bouldering a lot and my skin isn’t so good. In Font I always have bad skin. It feels like it isn’t regrowing, I just ripp off more and more. Well, this is the only thing right now which isn’t working so well. Yesterday I’ve sent Big Dragon (8A) at Petit Bois, a small but beautiful spot. In November last year I teamed up with my British boulder buddy Nathan Phillips to give it a try. Weiterlesen

The Elder Statesman (9a) in Frankenjura

Today I was able to send „The Elder Statesman“ (9a) at Rotenstein in Northern Frankenjura which is just some footsteps away from „The Essential“ (9a) at Luisenwand.

The Elder Statesman is the direct version into „The Last Rites“ (8c+) I’ve sent some days ago when Ruben sent The Essential too. It is the boulder at the start which adds one grade. There is one tiny crimp for the left hand from where You have to catch a three finger pocket. This move is quite hard. The upper part is the same climbing.

The temps are cold right now (around 5 degrees C) and I had to struggle with numb fingers again. Besides this the climbing felt easy today. It could be a soft 9a.

If a project is ticked, the next one’s waiting! I am motivated.

Cheers David ;-)

Successful weekend in the Frankenjura

(c) Ben Ullmann

(c) Ben Ullmann

Last weekend Ruben went direction south to meet up with David and to try some projects which they couldn’t finish last fall holiday at the „Luisenwand“ and „Rotenstein“. Ruben had been already pretty close to send „The Essential“ (9a) and after one day of getting back into the route he did it. It’s his second 9a after „Era Vella“ in Spain and his first in the Frankenjura. The send was unexpected because of rainy and foggy weather but fortunately the rock was almost dry. Just the top-out was a little wet but still climbable. For Ruben the crux consists of a dead-point-move at the second bolt. He is really happy that he was finally able to climb this beautiful, short and bouldery line on pockets. Weiterlesen

German Champions in Lead Climbing

In the men's final route (c) Thomas Schermer (DAV)

David in the men’s final route (c) Thomas Schermer (DAV)

David has achieved the second place in the final German Lead Cup of this season in Berlin last weekend. The overall ranking (after Darmstadt and Neu-Ulm) corresponds to the German Championships for the seniors and the juniors at the same time. David has become the winner in both categories. The comparable applies to Ruben as the winner of the German Youth Lead Cup in Berlin and the overall ranking in the Youth A category. We both are very happy about it :-D Weiterlesen

The Essential (9a) in Frankenjura

The Essential (c) Louisa Firnenburg

The Essential (c) Louisa Firnenburg

Today I’ve sent „The Essential“ (9a) at Luisenwand in Frankenjura which was first climbed by Markus Bock in 2008. It’s a short bouldery route on small pockets and crimps. It actually comes down to approx. 8 meters of hard climbing.

Right at the 2nd bolt I took several gastons and thumb holds in weird angles. It is very special and definitely the hardest passage of the route for me. It finishes with a deadpoint move where I cross over into a two finger pocket while I’m really stretched with my body. When I figured out the moves I thought it is so hard just because of the bad holds but in the end I realized that it’s about the right body position. When I extruded my right leg it felt more in control and doable. Just a tiny difference makes it work. Weiterlesen

2nd German Lead Cup in Neu-Ulm

Ruben in the men final route (c) Marco Kost/DAV

Ruben in the men’s final route (c) Marco Kost/DAV

Video: Hoch hinaus – Regio TV Schwaben

After the first German Lead Cup in Darmstadt we both were staying at home in Hanover until the second cup in Neu-Ulm last weekend. For David it was time to rest and recover a little bit from all the traveling before. Since April he has been on the road. Ruben went to school dealing with a marathon of exams before the teachers let him go for a two weeks fall holiday. Weiterlesen

Increasing Haglöfs friends

Already working together a couple of months Haglöfs now officially issued a press release about our partnership.

Haglöfs is a Swedish brand to create outstanding products being in line with a 100 years history of manufacturing. Being one of the best outdoor brands in the world Haglöfs ideally meets our needs as ambitious climbers to highly perform under any weather conditions.

Another concern that we share is taking responsibility for the environment in which we are practicing our sport. The key word and one of the mayor goals of Haglöfs is sustainability. Weiterlesen

David on the Petzl Roctrip 2014

Thanks a lot to the Petzl Crew for inviting me to the RocTrip making its way this year from Romania to Turkey within 40 days through 5 different countries via 10 different base camps.

Right after the Adidas Rockstars in Stuttgart I flew down to Bulgaria together with Sachi Amma and Akiyo Noguchi to join in for bouldering in Rila. Since then I’ve been to Prilep/Macedonia, Meteora/Greece and Bafa Lake/Turkey.

It was a colorful mix of adventure, climbing and traveling with very different and inspiring people from all around the world like from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil and many European countries with all their own stories to tell. Weiterlesen