Trainingslager Obergurgl

All the hard work from the Austrian team last year should be paid off and to get some recovery our team met up again in Obergurgl for a bit of skiing, wellness and good food.

Long weekend in Arco...

...and we were not the only ones

Metamorphose 8a+

Yesterday I climbed Metamorphose (8a+) at Piburger See. If you like crimps, this is a route for you! The crux involves 7 really crimpy moves on bad foot holds followed by a pumpy last section. The crux is a little harder now since a good foothold snapped....the route is still one of the best in Oetztal.

Competition August

Competition dates and finishing position

31/07/09 - 01/08/09 Boulder Austrian Championship in Mayerhofen ... 2nd place
08/08/09 Boulder Austrian Cup in Zwettel...1st place
15/08/09 Lead Austrain Cup in Imst...5th place
21/08/09-22/08/09 Lead WC Imst ...21st place
28/08/09-29/08/09 Blocmaster International Boulder Event and Austrain Cup...8th place

Between the competitions I had a lot of climbing days outside. I was especially pleased with the sent of Titti Twister 7c+ in Niederthai (2nd go), Oetztal Szene 8a in Piburg (2nd go) and Ares 8a+ in Nassereith.

France Part 2 -Céüse

On Tuesday the 14/07/09 Babsy and I arrived in Céüse and met our friends Eli and Häns. The excitement was gigantic. My goal for this trip was to get fitter, so I decided to climb as many routes as possible between 7c and 8a+. My second goal for the trip was to get braver, especially on run outs and far bolted routes. Therefore I was in the perfect place to be, every day I felt fitter and slowly started to deal with my fear of falling. Midway through the trip Häns leaved the team and Stew completes us again. We also had two days in the climbing area called La Palm, which was a personal highlight for me. The routes were long, friendlier bolted than Céüse and I loves all the tufas. In the End of the trip I climbed 3 7b+ (flash or 2nd go), 2 7c’s (one flash), 5 7c+ (onsight, flash or second go), 2 8a’s, unfortunately no 8a+ but overall I am really pleased and the team was lots of fun.

France part 1

Just a few days after we arrived from China it was of to France. First stop was Chamonix to enter the leading Woldcup. I knew that my chances to get into the Semifinal are pretty small but I was there anyway so I thought I may as well enter. There were two routes in the Quali and that means 2 times I got really pumped.... I finished 35th, but it was a good opportunity to see Chamonix (unbelievable busy but very pretty).

WM China

On Saturday the 27/06/09 it was off to China. The 24 h travel to Xining was only the beginning. All the athletes were based at the same hotel complex. After the first day people started to feel really ill, suffering from headaches through to diarejrra. The symptoms spread like wild fire and infected at least 80% of all athletes within two days. From that point onwards my hot-bot-nuddle-soup diet started. But it was not all bad about China I had a pretty successful competition with a 12th place in bouldering and a 19th place in leading. Another favorite was the cheap markets, just that this was always linked with a crazy taxi ride...

Sauron 8b, Niederthai

On Monday the 1st of June I went back to Sauron, a hidden 8b in the forest of Niederthai. I had some good tries, but my head was not right that day. I felt put off by my cold fingers and the spaced clips, however I found a new sequence on top that seemed to work really well for me and I knew that on a good day I can climb this route. On the weekend Stew and I planned to go to Magic Woods, but due to the bad weather forecast we stayed at home. On Friday I went with Stew to Niederthai that he can try Mordor 8c+/9a and he had 3 amazing attempts (past the crux but always fall off at the last hard move) on it. On Saturday it was my turn and we went to Sauron. The weather forecast was rain in the afternoon so I knew we had to set off not too late. On my first go I felt nervous and my fingers went extremely colt that I thought they fall off any minute. I had to rest in the middle of the route and then climbed the rest. After that go however my fingers went so warm and I had an amazing second go, but I fall of right at the end going for a semi-jug. It was already raining by then. My third go had to be soon, because the rain gone stronger and the jug on top was already getting wet, on top of that it gone cooler and a big foggy cloud came through the hole and top. I felt so psyched and concentrated on this go that nothing of this put me of. I climbed my first 8b, an absolute MASTER PIECE. n Monday the 1st of June I went back to Sauron an 8b hidden

Austrian Comp series

After the BWC in Japan the Austrain Competition series started.25th April Austrian Championship Leed in Graz ....6th place01th May BWC Hall ...25th place

08th+09th May Austrian Cup Bouldering in Kitzbuehl...3rd place
29th May BWC Vienna ...23rd place

I am semi-pleased with my recent results. The Austrian national competitions went pretty well however with the Worldcup results I am really disappointed, because I felt that my preparations for them went really well. I am used to not perform at my best in Hall but this year I really messed up. Although Vienna disappointed me the most because I actually climbed really well and flashed 3 problems. However on one problem I found the beta to late and my time run out on the decent. That put me into place 12 in my group and I finished overall in place 23. Again not in the semifinal -unbelievable.

BWC Japan

On Tuesday the 07th of April the Austrian, Dutch and Italian team, Stew and I went to Japan. The competition took place in Kazo a small town an hour away from Tokyo. The qualification went pretty well for me and I managed to climb 3 of the 5 very hard problems. In the semi-final it did not turn out that good anymore, the problems were unusual hard and I had a hard time to get 3 bonuses. I finished in place 17.

Our extended team stayed a week longer in Japan to experience a bit more of the culture and to climb. We all dumped our bags in a climbing wall in Tokyo called pump2 which was our base for the week. Then we went for two days climbing, which was amazing. On the first day we went to a really tufary crack called Togiama and on the second day we went to a secret climbing area from Yugi. I got a lot of climbing done and was surprised of my decent stamina. Then it went back to our base and we spent another day sight seeing in Tokyo. The next two days we went bouldering in Shopera. Unfortunately it rain all day as soon as we arrived and I did not climb very much. However, the second day was beautiful and I enjoyed to climb with the girls. On the same night we went back to Tokyo and after waking up the next morning some of us had a training session in pump2. Sadly the next day it was time to fly back home. I was really amazed by the way the Japanese climbers took care of us. They organized everything for us, beginning from where to stay and climb, drove us around in their cars and helped us ordering our food.

...Finally sunshine....

After a long period of snow in Austria, Stew and I decided to drive to Chironico. The weather forecast was not lying, it was unbelievable warm and sunny, but very windy. Our first stop was in Chironico sector Boogalagga were we warmed up, than I went to Dr. Pinch 8a. After Stew demonstrated how easy it can be, I had do workout the right sequence for the top. Than I started to try the problem from the bottom which felt surprisingly okay, just after a few attempts I managed to keep my feet on when I went from the pinch to the sloper and I climbed the boulder on that go. Well happy. After that we moved on and Stew tried Boogalagga, unfortunately his tip split again and instate he climbed the 8a next to it with the same top-out. On the rest of the day we just messed around on some problems we passed.

Next morning we got up quite early and went to Chironico sector les doigts verts again we had an extended warm up and then i wanted to try les doigts verts because I am already so close of doing it but it was to hot so I decided to leave it and do lots of new problems instate. After an amazing day I climbed Auto pilot 7b+ (flash), Richiamino settimanale 7a+ (flash) and Karma Police 7a+.

Update

After the Worldcup in Moscow I took climbing a bit easier, by doing some stamina training. From 23-25 November the Austrian Climbing Team had a relaxation camp in Obergurgl, skiing, massages, spa, food and drink in a 4 star hotel...thats luxury. In December Stew and I went to Tessin, it had a lot of snow and just a few things were try. I climbed Hannibal Lecture 7c, La Boulette 7b (flash). After that trip our training started again, gym + specific strength training. Half way trough the training (01.01.09-06.01.09) Stew and I went to England to do some bouldering. Unfortunately the weather was not so good and we ended up going indoors, but it still was fun and it felt good to climb some set problems. On 15.01-16.01.09 the Oetztal Team had to organize a big children comp-a lot of work but always a success. End of january we started our new boulder training. 13.02.-15.02.09 we went in a big team to Cresciano to climb lots of funky problems. On 28. January there was a Mammut climbing party in Tivoli where the whole Oetztal Team attempted. That was a great night with lots of boulders (80 in total) free drinks and food, some pictures and many climbers. The rest of the time gets used for training, training, work and sleep....