David climbing in the semi-final of the Boulder World Cup in Munich 2017 – (c) Frank Brandenburger

In this article (in German, published in Süddeutsche Zeitung) David argues for a reform of the controversial doping control system ADAMS. When translating the text into English here, David shortened it in some parts and added more detailed information in some other places.

The controls (urine and blood tests) in ADAMS can be carried out unannounced daily between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. There ist not enough consideration given to personal circumstances, although the National Anti-Doping Agency in Germany (NADA) must be informed months in advance of David’s daily availability. David has also been announced that in future checks could be carried out around the clock, regardless of his need for rest and night sleep as a competitive athlete and student. And NADA is not prepared in principle to do without doping controls, e.g. during university exams or in the immediate nightly run-up to them.

The „Anti-Doping Administration and Management System“ (ADAMS) is the NADA control program with which the athletes are located. David is a member of the Registered Testing Pool (RTP), the group with the highest level of performance and is therefore checked relatively frequently. Each quarter of the year, David has to enter his whereabouts and activities for each day in advance in ADAMS. This is almost impossible. In addition, there are from time to time technical access problems to the app and it has already happened that he has been misinformed by those responsible about alleged telephone availability for spontaneous changes when a SMS didn’t work. David didn’t get any training or time to get used to the system. If one is not found three times within one year at the indicated place, a ban of two years threatens. The risk is borne by the athlete. It has also happened before that David was ordered back from rock climbing in Ticino at his own expense to German-speaking Switzerland for a doping test and had to leave everything behind together with his climbing partner. Or, that he was late for university duties because the controller was unable to draw blood from his good veins as a climber.

And David is not the only one who doubts the ADAMS system. French sports federations and dozens of top athletes filed unsuccessful complaints against ADAMS before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg due to inadequacies in its handling and interference with personal rights. A GPS-supported competitor product for ADAMS would also have existed, but the umbrella organization WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) rejected it for data protection reasons. However, the ADAMS system itself is viewed very critically by some data protectors.

In the German Alpine Association (DAV), doping controls have been outsourced to NADA since 2014 for reasons of independence. Since then, regular checks have been carried out, which have practically doubled since the announcement that climbing will be Olympic in Tokyo in 2020. It is not possible for the athletes to influence how NADA handles the samples. A TV research in Germany in January showed that the sample bottles can be manipulated. Reporters had succeeded in opening and closing sealed glass bottles by freezing them beforehand. Philipp Abels, DAV competition climbing coordinator, says that every sample becomes vulnerable like this. The athlete participates in ADAMS, gives up a large part of his personality sphere and the NADA doesn’t even get it managed to make the rehearsals fair. Dr. Mortsiefer, a lawyer and NADA board member, believes that the biggest challenge in terms of control material safety now is to find partners who invest in the development of new, safer systems. He says he knows that ADAMS is very much in demand from athletes.

The fight against doping is a balancing act between ensuring clean sport and respecting the personal rights of athletes. The World Anti-Doping Code is due to be adopted at the end of 2019. Until then, ADAMS will also be revised. Perhaps in such a way that David’s personal rights then will be better taken into account…

David right before setting off for the famous dyno in „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

The two weeks trip to Siurana turned out to be a very successful one. After a couple of days of working on „La Rambla“ David could finally tick his first 9a+ ever. And right before leaving he finished the trip with a quick ascent of „La Reina Mora“, just next to La Rambla.

The trip to Catalonia was originally planned together with Ruben over New Year. But just before David got a foot injury which made it impossible for him to go. So he had to shift his climbing in Catalonia to February.

The main objective of the trip was to send La Rambla. In January David started to train for the upcoming bouldering season. Together with his coach Urs Stöcker he put up a new training plan in Zurich. Since the trip to Catalonia was actually planned earlier he didn’t train his endurance specifically. Instead he’d done a lot of maximum and explosive strength exercises in the gyms around Zurich and spent 3 days bouldering in Fontainebleau where he did some milestones of the history in bouldering, such as „Karma“ (Fb 8A), „La Merveille“ (Fb 8A+) and „Partage“ (Fb 8A+). All of them are very technical and tricky. True Fontainebleau style which everyone knows who has been to this magical bouldering area once.

Well, it was the first time that David has been to Catalonia in February. It is calmer than over New Year (not so many climbers). He stayed in a nice apartment of „La Vileta“ which is run by very friendly Catalonian locals, close to the main square of Cornudella de Montsant, the village underneath Siurana. Cornudella is pretty rural, mainly inhabited by farmers’ families who live from the surrounding olive, nut and wine fields. When you go climbing or walk around in the countryside you notice its beautiful landscape and nature. In the karst there are numerous caves. Dry and rocky areas dominate with a low vegetation of herbs, shrubs and pines. There are many rare species of wild animals. Because of their trustfulness robins often accompany you when climbing.

Dad feeding a robin who came to take a look if we don’t make any troubles at the crag

Because of its 9a+ difficulty La Rambla has been a new challenge for David. It is a long (around 45 meters), overhanging and technical route. It has got a famous name in the climbing scene. First ascended by Alex Huber to a lower anchor and extended by Ramón Julián Puigblanque to the actual top. It first kicks off with a technical crack followed by more powerful and pumpy moves with a unique jump in the middle to a rest before the hardest and most bouldery part at the end.

Some years ago David did already „El Rastro“ and „Broadway“, two lines which share at least half of the route with La Rambla, so that he already knew the lower part. On the first day he once checked out the moves, brushed and tick-marked the holds and gave it a good try where he already fell in the last and hardest part at the top. There are 4 compression moves on round side holds and crimps which easily spit you off when too pumped after around 35 meters of climbing approximately 8c to this point.

David shaking out his arms before he attacks the redpoint crux of „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

After this good first day of projecting David struggled some days with bad skin (especially the pockets literally ate the side skin of his fingers). Not the best conditions to send hard stuff. During these days he always fell on a certain and probably the hardest move in the route at the top from an open side hold into a small undercling which you have to catch close to your chest after you’ve reached out longly. In the past years such failures (falling on the same move without getting any higher) sometimes awakened negative thoughts and frustration in David. But meanwhile he can manage his mind set well. This time he didn’t really care about these failures and took it easy.

To be honest, every time you fall and reflect what mistake you’ve done you somehow have a progress in your project. It does not always have to be that you’ve got some moves higher but that you have adapted your beta or optimized your clipping positions and rest points for example. It is actually a failure itself to think that there is no progression at all although you keep on falling on the same move.

„It will happen sooner or later“ was David’s devise and he kept on trying with confidence and mental coolness. In the end it took him some 6 days of work to finally stuck the last hard move and top out his first 9a+ ever.

Keep smiling although projecting might be frustrating sometimes – that works wonders (c) Iuliia Leonova

So, La Rambla represents a new dimension in his climbing and now it feels like that there are more years of personal progress in climbing still to come. There must be a reason why the years between 20 and 30 are called „The Golden Twenties“ in climbing The main task will probably be to keep the mental coolness alive and to work on the maximum strength, mainly in bouldering and in the gym.

Right before David had to leave Siurana to head back home to Switzerland he wanted to use his fitness to dedicate to „La Reina Mora“ which has the same crack start and the same top-out with La Rambla but a more crimpy and sustained middle section. It is the real straight-up on this part of the wall. Falling two times on the last hard move in the end was a bit annoying but he had chosen a not optimal beta and when he optimized this it went down first go of the day and the finish of the trip couldn’t have been sweeter. La Reina Mora might be one of the most beautiful climbs in whole Catalonia.

David working himself up the crack of „La Reina Mora“ (c) Jon Cardwell

David is happy to return back to Switzerland again to prepare for the upcoming bouldering competitions and rock climbings in Switzerland. University lectures start as well again and it is great to come back home to reload batteries for the next challenges which climbing always has to offer in a brilliant way.

Thanks to Iuliia Leonova and Jon Caldwell for their nice pictures and to our sponsors Scarpa, Haglöfs, Friction Labs, Escaladrome Hannover and the DAV section Rhineland-Cologne for the amazing support lately. As the Spanish climbers say: A Muerte!!!

David in the 2nd qualification route in Frankenthal

The last stage of the German Lead Championships took place at Neu-Ulm (Bavaria) last Sunday. As last year, this year’s championships consisted of 3 competitions, in Germany known as German Lead Cups. The first cup was hosted at the brand new DAV climbing gym at Munich Freiman and the second at a rather old but gold climbing gym at Frankenthal in Pfalz close to Mannheim. For us two it was a nice series with various challenges because the Cups had different route settings.

We’ve never been to the new gym at Freiman yet so we didn’t have any idea how the wall with its structures and angles would be like. In addition, it was outdoors but luckily it wasn’t that autumnal like now. Usually artificial holds get more slippery when cold. The qualification routes were sustained and demanding. Ruben easily qualified for finals and David nearly missed it with an 8th place. The final was well set but could have been a bit harder. Jan Hojer and David fell at the last move to the top but Jan won due to better results in the qualifications. Ruben finished 1st in the juniors ranking and 5th in the men’s category. He definitely could have done better but he hesitated while clipping and lost power and flow.

Frankenthal is a steep and powerful wall and the 2nd cup was set in a very dynamic style with at least one jump in almost every route. The qualifications went well and we both qualified for finals as 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, the final route was very unsustained. It was maybe an 7c+ climb until a huge jump to the left where almost every finalist fell except Jan who fell two moves later. It is always a pity when one move spits off more or less every athlete so that the pre-round counts for a final result. However, we were close on the jump (David made a foot mistake and Ruben got stuck with his hand in the rope while jumping) and definitely able to stick it so it’s hard to complain. Ruben finished 1st in the juniors again and 3rd in the men’s event which was one of his best results so far. David missed the podium as 4th place which made him a bit frustrated.

Observing the final route in Frankenthal together

Last weekend turned out to be kind of a speed final in a lead final route. The qualification round saw a bunch of double tops with a tricky slab. Regrettably, Ruben fell too early in the first qualification route and got a time-out in the slab. He couldn’t make finals with a 12th place but nevertheless he won the juniors game and therewith became German juniors lead champion winning 3 out of 3 events. And that was also enough to save a 5th place in the seniors championship overall. Pretty good season for him this year!

Sebastian Halenke was the first to top the final route. And since Jan Hojer, Chris Hanke and David also topped it, it was all about time to secure the victory of the day. David, being the last one to come out of the Isolation zone, actually had the most pressure but eventually it was a tactical advantage because he knew from backstage that the route must be doable and that he had to climb fast. In the end he clipped the anchor by 15 seconds slower than Jan who was literally running up the wall without taking a single rest. A 2nd place in the day ranking assured David of the vice title in the championship behind Jan which was tactically the priority because Jan more or less secured the title already by qualifying for the final. Props to him for a strong performance on all three events and especially to our team mate Lena Herrmann who became German lead champion after a break of competition climbing and some 8c’s on the rocks lately!

Ruben resting at volume in the final route in Frankenthal

We had a lot of fun this year competing at the nationals but from our point of view there are still some things which can be suggested to make lead competition climbing in Germany more attractive. Not only for the athletes but also for the audience. This is why we want to mention some points how to improve the quality of the events based on what we’ve experienced this year:

• In our opinion this year there hasn’t been a superior route setting. We would like to have harder routes, especially in the finals. Predominantly, we climbed at a grade of 8a+ but we actually need final routes at a level of 8b+ to be hard enough to separate the finalists. And it shouldn’t come down to only one move which spits the majority off like in Frankenthal or too many double tops even in the finals like in Neu-Ulm. More sustained and harder routes would add value to the events! And this is what awaits the athletes in the world cups. Young talents start training the characteristics of the routes in the lead nationals but this won’t prepare them to be successful in the world cups later.
• We would also appreciate a strong field of competitors next season again. Especially in Neu-Ulm it was nice to see the whole German lead team and the strongest competition boulderers of the country. But athletes must have great reasons to come and compete at the nationals. So far there hasn’t really been an attractive amount of prize money and we think it’s time to raise it. It’s not an economic and rational choise as a competitor to spend hundreds of euros for the travel and the accommodation and to spend a whole weekend of time to maybe collect some prize money in the end to not fully be able, even as a finalist, to re-finance the effort. If nothing changes it is only a matter of time that the cups become less and less attractive for the strongest athletes to come.
• We also would like to get rid of all the waiting times during the competitions, particularly when the youth events get integrated into the seniors‘ competition. Please, let us seniors compete on Saturday and in a shorter time. Qualification can be done at around midday and finals in the early evening without a long break of several hours in between the rounds. That requires a tight timetable but it’s definitely possible to organize that. This is also more attractive for the spectators because if they would have to watch finals on Sunday night they would overthink it twice because they have to start work on Monday again. If the finals would be on Saturday night that would have a day in between. And based on a tight schedule they wouldn’t have to stay a whole day in the gym waiting most of the time.
• And finally, meanwhile we know a lot of competitors and their teams, parents and relatives who support them during the competitions. We don’t see so many new faces though. Especially random spectators. It is only a small group of insiders who actually visit and watch the competitions but we think the competition format can be entertaining for a wider range of people. It would be nice to see working live streams and better advertisements in prior for the competitions to reach more people. From our point of view the DAV (German Climbing Federation) should invest more effort into their event marketing and promotion.

That’s it for this year’s competition climbing. We are already looking forward to the next season. Now we are already in Catalonia for some off-season rock climbing. We’ve got some great projects that we want to work on and it’s always nice to see the big rock climbers‘ family from all around the world at the crags again. It always means great climbing together and good vibes. We are excited and keep You updated with our climbing experiences there.

Find the whole result list of the juniors and the seniors German Lead Championship via the links!

Cheers D&R

Juniors podium overall – 1st Ruben, 2nd team mate Lars Hoffmann and 3rd Paul Hettich (missing)

Seniors podium overall – 1st Jan Hojer, 2nd David and 3rd Martin Tekles

The Panel (f.l.t.r.): Karl-Heinz Steinmann, David Firnenburg, Andreas Kuhnt, Britta Schweigel, Ingo Leven, Prof. Dr. Semmler-Ludwig, Martin Schönwandt, Prof. Dr. Derecik (c) Andre Bertram

On September 23rd, 2015 David was invited to the podium „Freeride, Parcour, Slacklining: Trend Sports with or without Expiration Date?“ by the Academy of Sports in Lower Saxony (GER). The panel dealt with trend sports and their influence on youth life styles and organized sports (General report in German). David was supported by Axel Hake (IG Klettern / DAV-Landesverband Niedersachsen). 

David explained that sport climbing has exceeded the initial stage of a fun sport towards a trend sport on the way to a well-established sport. There is already a recognized organized, competitional and economic infrastructure including gyms and distribution channels for specific sports products. But compared to established sports there are aspects missing such as an extensive support system for athletes, media presence as an advertising medium and a tourism and leisure economic marketing. While some regions, for example, in the Alps are already further developed in such aspects than they are in northern Germany, on the other hand, however, there are already some of them, such as Arco, that are overrun by climbing tourism with its downsides.

From Hake’s perspective who was invited to the auditorium it actually should be also important, in addition to the opportunities for young people arising from the booming gym situation and the increasing use of artificial climbing walls, to raise the possibilities for climbing in freely accessible natural areas, because they represent, just for the “gamer generation”, a close to daily life available space and a low-threshold access to natural movement experiences. Unfortunately, such freely available natural areas are on the wane in northern Germany. There is still much work to do for sports politics to achieve the potential of the forests fully recognized as a recreational sports resort and important source for youth health and athletic experience of self-efficacy and also personal limits without a social barrier.

Another essential point in the discussion was that the sports clubs and associations should use just the trend sports in the context of school cooperations to win children and teenagers and to bring them „into motion“.

Overall it was a successful event which has commanded a lively discussion with many impulses to continue.

The Auditorium (c) Andre Bertram

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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