The view of the climbing wall from the tribune

On the 25th and 26th of May the European Youth Boulder Championships took place in front of the North Face (Eiger) in Grindelwald (CH). The event was inside a ice hockey hall so that the competitors didn’t have to fight against the cold outside (once or twice even small snowflakes were falling to the ground). The top of the Eiger was unfortunately covered by some clouds but for David Grindelwald is a place where he could imagine to stay for a while. Its fresh air and calmness made it pretty easy to move freely and to regnerate after a long stressful climbing day at the competition area.

It felt very good again to meet, climb and stay with all of our friends. The comp was calling for boys and girls from Siberia to Ireland, Southern France, Denmark, Slovenia and many many more countries which formed a big climbing society. It was well organised and a tribune in front of the climbing wall made it much more comfortable for the audience and team mates to watch and support the climbers.

Because of his lasting injury Ruben was cheering David and his friends up the wall. By the way: He is now able to start climbing slowly again which makes him feel very motivated to prepare for the upcoming big climbing comps and rock climbing trips this year. But as I said: very slowly and carefully!

The small town of Grindelwald

For David it went quite well. He made it through the qualifications being 6th place. Not just in the juniors category the qualification round was ordering strong talents watching the finals from the tribune. In our opinion the Laporte family and crew did a really good job while setting the problems. There was not so much steep and powerful climbing. The boulders were demanding skills like balance, coordination and sensibility. Those problems don’t gurantee that every strong athlete climbs them to the top.

In the final David had problems with being flexible in reading the first boulder. All the time he was trying the same method (anyway he nearly could finish it) overseeing a helpful foot position to do a dynamic move staticly. The fact that the other two boulder problems were very hard that just the winner Domen Skofic could top the second one it made it undoable for David to change his place because the rest of the athletes in his category topped out the first problem. However he was very happy to make it to the final round. He gained a lot of experience again and it was a great challenge which shows that there is always something to work on!

Thanks to all the people who support and think about us. It is very helpful and otherwise it would be pretty hard to experience such nice moments. We are very grateful!

The next comp will be in Auerbach/Southern Germany in mid of June. David will finish the driving school in the beginning of the next week and is going to climb with Alex Megos in the Frankenjura again. Excited of what is coming soon!

Greez David & Ruben

Northern German Climbing Team in Grindelwald