Seasonstart

The preparation for the upcoming world cups been going according to plan. Like always in this preparation phase I went through a few ups and downs. Now I am really looking forward to the season, I currently giving some fine tuning to my training and try to work on some weaknesses. April is coming close and the start is going to be the Austrian Championship on 14th of April, followed by two Boulder World Cups, one in Log Dragomer 21st und 22nd of April and the next one in Vienna 27th and 28th April.

Fontainebleau

These years team trip was once again in Fontainebleau. We only stayed one week but climbed for three. The days were packed and we always stayed until the night guited us home. The guys climbed a lot of hard problems and Anna and me manged to climb a few classics. One day was again inside, in the french military base, where Jacky and his team set some cool competition probelms.

New Year Party in Spain

Straight after Christmas a cool group of 10 friends went to Spain, excluding Stew who went for a more traditional celebration to England. The whole trip we had amazing weather, sunshine, sometimes wind and a lot of fun. We stayed in an apartment close to Lydia. From there we visited different crags, such as Oliana (WOW-pumpy!), Margalef (WOW steep on pockets and OUTCH sore on the skin) and Santa Linya (big cave). Early on in the trip I found out, that for climbing something hard my stamina was not good enough, but form the training point of view I managed to go home after every climbing day with arms as heavy and hard as stones. In total the trip was definitely one of my greatest highlights last season. Now back home the training starts again:
BY SPAIN, HELLO DIRTY, DUSTY BOULDERROOM :-\

Autumn in Tirol

Tyrol is the best place to hang around in autumn. The weather is stable, sunny but not too hot. Stew and I spent as much time as possible on the rock. During our France trip I built a good level of stamina and managed to climb my hardest route ever; "Fortuna" 8b in Nassereith. This route is powerful, tricky and a fair bit of stamina is required. At first it felt impossible for me, consequently it felt even better to be able to climb it.
Last week I managed to climb my 4th 8b named "a g'sunde Watschn" in an fairly new area in Oetztal. In comparison to Fortuna, this route was more my style and I climbed it quite fast. However, it is almost November now and the opportunities to climb routes on the rock will slowly be over.

(photos are all from Elias Holzknecht in Niederthai: Stew on "passport to honesty 8c" and me on "le miracle 7b").