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

Together with two other candidates David is proposed for the title „Junior Athlete of the Year 2014″ in Lower Saxony. The announcement of the outcome of the election will be held at the so called “Winner Party” by the Youth Sports Association of Lower Saxony under the auspices of Sports Minister Boris Pistorius in Hanover on December, 13th.

Full competition report (DAV in German) with pictures

Cheers David & Ruben

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.

After 6 hours at a stretch on the highway we finally arrived at Neu-Ulm at half past midnight and went to bed which maybe wasn’t the best preparation right before the comp. David went to Neu-Ulm without any expectations, relaxed and curious how he will perform. Ruben wanted to give his best at the senior’s comp but put his main focus on the youth event. He wants to secure his previous title of the last season.

We both climbed well in the men’s qualification round. Ruben finished top 3, David landed on 6th place. So we both qualified for the final of the best 8 men.

The final route was pretty sustained and homogeneous to the end. Right from the bottom the climbing was challenging with awkward body positions and powerful long moves. So the climbers had to be very attentive already during the first part of the route. David was the first of us to leave the isolation zone. He mastered the first passage very confidently and took a little rest on a side pull afterwards. Then he turned into the „psyched modus“ and gave everything he could. He fell off the wall very high up being totally pumped. He couldn’t even clip the quickdraw anymore. Therefore he was really satisfied because he couldn’t have moved any further up and didn’t make any mistake. In relation Ruben was too hesitant and indecisive at the start. On a short climbing passage on an arete he had some trouble and unexpectedly tipped over to the right falling into the rope. He knew what he had done wrong and the next time he wants to perform more determined, confident and freed at the national men’s events. David surprised himself with a strong performance winning the men’s German Lead Cup for the first time (and within the juniors‘ category of the day). After the final Ruben placed first from behind of the men’s result list

The day after, on Sunday, Ruben didn’t let on about something and showed excellent effort in the youth’s qualification round. He topped both routes as the only competitor. In the final route he climbed multiple moves further up as the other athletes and therewith repeated to win the youth A category as he did in Darmstadt two weeks before. Good job!

Now we are very happy not staying all day long in a stuffy climbing gym because we are in the Frankenjura for some rock climbing. On November, 8-9th there will be the final of the German Lead Cup in Berlin. David has good chances to become German Lead Champion in both the juniors‘ and the men’s category. If Ruben wins again he would be German Lead Campion in the youth A category and finally would have secured the youth title for the 3rd time in a row. Of course that would be awesome but it isn’t done yet. There are excellent competition climbers waiting. But we are staying cool and confident. We are on the rocks now and try some hard lead projects. The conditions are cold and dry and we have a lot of fun together. Now it’s time for the final spurt, to accelerate for Berlin and we are looking forward to it!

David & Ruben

- Mens results

- Youth A results

David in the 1st qualification route – (c) Vertical Axis

The first German Lead Cup of this year has been a great event held in Darmstadt near Frankfurt. On last saturday there were the lead qualifs of the youth categories followed by the speed youth comp. On sunday it was the adults‘ turn (qualifs + finals) with the youth lead finals in between.

Ruben was preparing himself with intense lead training in Hanover and Hamburg besides working for several exams at school. It’s his last year in highschool. So it becomes time-consuming and of course stressful. David just came back from the Petzl Roctrip 2014 making its way from Romania to Turkey via Bulgaria, Mazedonia and Greece within 40 days with 10 different base camps (more news to come here!). So recently he has been climbing on the rocks.

We both met in Darmstadt the day before and slept in our van in front of the gym. On saturday morning Ruben headed into the gym to give the youth qualification routes a try. He topped both. For him there was no need to go for the speed youth comp because he already competed once in Munich this year and saved enough points (he became 3rd) to now focus on lead and the overall result.

Ruben in the youth lead final – (c) Sportklettern NRW

The sunday was packed with a pretty full schedule. At first lead qualifs of the adults, then youth lead finals and finally the adults‘ finals in the evening. We both qualified easily for the adults‘ final with two tops in the two routes by David. Ruben was the last competitor in the youth finals showing a superior performance with the single top of the resistent and varied final route. Especially a hard sequence at the end with a long move from volume to volume he mastered without jumping but instead statically and with control. The other athletes had already been falling off the wall some moves before so that it can be said that in relation Ruben’s performance was outstanding. Very well done besides the double pressure of school and climbing on high level! The adults‘ final had no single hold but volumes all the way up to the top. The style was rather bouldery with an interval of good rest positions and boulder problems. It was also something new which hasn’t been there before. We probably have climbed the most expensive comp route in our careers ever too Volumes nowadays cost from 50 up to more than 700 or 800 euros (respectively for a single one) and to insert over 20 or 30 of them in a single route is a noble investment. Due to a concentration mistake Ruben overlooked the first quick draw of the men’s final unfortunately getting disqualified. Indeed this wasn’t his intention but once you step over a quick draw with both feet you get disqualified. Never again Ruben! In contrast David caught a fluent climbing flow working himself up the labyrinth of volumes. He fell one move before the saving volume to set off for the final jump to the top hold. It was a tiny moment in which he lifted his upper body a little bit too high up the slopy volume so that he pushed himself out of the wall slipping off the volume immediately. It was only Mathias Conrad who fell on the final jump securing the stage win. Good job, dude! It was close for David because if he would have done one move more to the next volume he could have gone for the jump and due to his better qualification performance he could have won the comp. But don’t worry, be happy! There are two more chances to go for the victory for us in Neu-Ulm in two weeks and the capital Berlin in one month. This time we had loads of fun and we are looking forward to competing soon again

More to come soon. Cheers David & Ruben

- Mens results

- Youth A results