Rock and Plastic

Yesterday was JB3 in Monk, Eindhoven. The boulders were nice, the atmosphere was good and I climbed lousy. The first half hour went well I flashed 5 boulders but the remaining hour was bad. I only managed to flash one more boulder and that was it. I ended 7^th and I am disappointed with the result. I guess I am out of shape and will need to train a bit harder, maybe next time better.

I also spend a couple of days in Fontainebleau. The weather was just perfect. A bit of sun, not too hot and not too cold and for once it was not raining.

My last visit was in October so it took some time to get used to the technical climbing that is so typical for Bleau.

The first day I sampled a lot of boulders in Bas Cuvier. 

Nothing worked out though. One boulder I particularly liked is l’ Aerodynamite. After lots of jumping I managed to stick the upper hold of the lower two and was able to match the lower one. But then things get tricky. I find it really hard to get my feet up in the little starting hold. This problem will definitively need some serious working at before I will be able to figure out how to get on top.

The second day we started at Sabot and visited Zen. The boulder was moist and quite wet under the roof so not really an option. It looks really great so I hope it will be dry when I return later this year. After some warm-up boulders I had a go at Lucifer which made me come back to earth. Watch the movie below using this LINK.

Lucifer taught me I really need to work on my slab skills.

Having had a lot of jump training from Jörg I had a go at Smash. I need some more training Jörg; I came 2 cm short of sticking the grip ;). Opposite Smash is the boulder le Quark/Elucubration a fairly easy 7a that went down smoothly.

I worked in Kendo in October so we walked over to Mont Pivot but on the way I saw some really nice boulders in Oiseaux and spend the rest of the day trying hard on some problems in this area.

The next day we returned to Oiseaux. It is really nice and calm and the surrounding is beautiful. I managed to climb Action Directe assis after only a couple of attempts. I tried very hard in le Perroquet Vert but to no avail. I really like Oiseaux, the problems are nice so I will definitively return. 

Hopefully the weather will be fine during Easter so when I return to Bleau I can hit the boulders again. My sponsor NIHIL is organizing a team meeting during the Easter weekend and I am really looking forward to it.

More pictures with this LINK

One week of red sandstone

I just returned from a trip to Albarracin, where I spend a week with my parents and 2 friends bouldering on the beautiful red sandstone.

It was really cold and the rough wind made it even worse. Frozen hands and toes during the day and no WIFI and horrible matrasses in the apartment during the night made for a tough week.

Some of the sectors were closed due to bird nesting season but the open sectors had plenty of nice boulders to enjoy. The bouldering is different from Fontainebleau. It feels much more like bouldering in the gym: big holds and powerful moves. The most technical boulders can be found in the sectors Aeroline and Arrastradero while Techos as the name suggests is full with huge roofs.

I did a lot of 6C and 7A grade boulders. This holiday was about volume more than doing projects. It was simply too cold for that. However, I tried some more difficult boulders which felt not completely impossible so I definitively want to return.

A few projects I tried and want to return to are: Don Pepo, El Marrano, El Astrolabio and Corona.

Some of the most beautiful boulders I did this holiday were: Techo Don Pepo, Spider Pig, Tonico Efervesdente, Brutal and Illusion.

Some pictures of these boulders can be found HERE and also see the movie below.

If you plan on going to Albarracin, there are now a number of topo’s.

• The 2008 Röker  E Bloc bouldertopo Espana which lists apart from Albarracin a number of other bouldering area’s in Spain, so this is nice when you are touring the country.
• The 2011 hardcover from Jurgen Schmeiβer is very nice with good pictures which makes it easy to find the lines to the boulder problems and it has descriptions to some of the problems.
• The 2014 guidebook about Albarracin Bouldering by Robert Palmer has crappy pictures so it is hard to find the right line to the boulders.
• The 2013 guide from NOROPE.ES is also nice however some boulders are not graded and not named but are coded.

The latter two contain new sectors that are not listed in the two older topo’s. What is confusing is that all these topo’s do not seem to agree on naming and grading of a large number of the boulders.