Happy New Year!?!

The year 2009 has arrived. I didn`t party last night on account of the fact that my parents wanted to go to the Zillertal and I was hoping to get some bouldering done, I was that psyched to go there that I didn`t party with my best friends. Only to get the big New Year surprise that my parents don`t feel like going because of the inch of snow that has fallen in the past hour! I would go on my own but my dad drives me nuts about the car being insured only for him and my mom, which is why he won`t let me have it...

Here goes my year 2009 beginning. I spent yesterday checking my guidebook for cool lines that I would be psyched to try and now I´m clinging to the gym-as if I didn`t go there often enough!

I can only stress that the whole thing is a SERIOUS bummer! I hope that the rest of the year turns out to be better and more fun than this morning, I´m seriously pissed and I need someone to take it out on. 

Niederschelderhütte

After a heinous journey that I owe to German Railway (FUCK YOU!) I made it to N.
The past two days I have spent chilling out...
and bouldering of course...
After I climbed on Sunday morning in Munich, I felt really good and strong as well, which is a good sign and means that my cold has finally passed completely.
So I headed to my beloved woody and started to train as soon as I got home. I must again state that it`s a wonderful place to get in shape and being small, it is however as good as the boulder area in Rosenheim.

I also said hello to our dog and our cat. In the evening I rode to Dortmund with my bro to pick up his girlfriend -Dortmund immediately made it on my Top 10 List concerning towns I despise.

I`really hope that this Christmas Eve will turn out to be cool, that my relatives don`t bore the shit out of me and that there will be no drama.

I would like to say that I want all my friends to know that I wish them a Merry Xmas, I hope you enjoy your presents and my thoughts are with you. I`m really looking forward to being at home again in two days, even though N. is not bad, it stopped being my home some time ago. Home is where my heart is...

There will be a post tomorrow featuring pics from my woody and my pets.

Back in the game...

Yap, I´m back after the cold. Yesterday I did a couple of campus board goes and it felt really cool, I felt strong and that`s nice after two weeks of total break.
I spent the whole day at the gym yesterday, giving courses and watching people try the boulders I set in the tunnel.
THE big achievement of yesterday however was -and props go to Mr. Andy "Cookie" Schmieder, chef at the gym and a really nice guy- the surprise dessert I got to taste and eat. I was sitting at the bar, chatting with Simon, when Andy presented us with Mousse au Chocolat and something I don`t know the name for, nevertheless it tasted ABSOLUTELY AMAZING and therefore, thx Cookie:)
Tomorrow will be spent training in the gym again. With the rain pouring like hell, there ain`t much to do else...
Big up to Chris Sharma for sending Golpe d`Estado and being the driving force in sportclimbing. Others climb routes, Sharma climbs THE LINES...

Animal Impersonations...

I feel like a bear! Seriously...since I caught a bad cold the beginning of this week, I been waiting for the weekend. Time to chill out and sleep...which is what I intend to do most time of this Sunday. I hope to be fit by the end of the week to come, in order to enjoy climbing again! Until then, I´ll listen to The Offspring and sleep:)
Peace out and big up!

Pics of the Week-reminiscing...

The beautiful Gorges du Tarn...with the cold outside it`s time to remember the blessed weeks of sunshine...2 perfect weeks with one amazing human being (Verena) and a funny guy who also officially owns the copyright for all of the above...Mr. Markus Jung

Happy Times...chilling out after 8 straight hours of climbing

Big Wallhella

I`m spanked! Big Wallhalla was a blast, even if we only made it to 4th position. It was the hardest thing I`ve ever done. I have never pushed myself to the limit as much as I did yesterday. I´m on the way of becoming an endurance climber-on the way, not there yet! To climb 26 35 meter routes in those 8 hours felt gutwrenching! But it was a really cool experience, the routes though exclusively vertical and fingery were really cool-seems like I´m better on crimps than I thought, even though I will always prefer a good pocket/sloper/tufa over small crimpers...
I guess Verena was a little disappointed at first, she needs new climbing shoes badly and we would have won at least a pair if we had made the top three but there was no chance to make it...I mean, strictly speaking, there was. We would have needed three more routes to score 3rd and if there hadn`t been such a queueing up for the routes in the end, we would have made it. But regrets are useless...the vibe was good, the music throughout very chilled and except for a couple of jerks that you always get there was a cool bunch of climbers around. We hung out after the comp and had a few drinks and a pizza and spent the time talking and doing the usual after comp party things:)
After that we went to Verena`s place to take another sip...I´ll never take Butterscotch again...it`s too damn sweet!

I made it home by hitching a ride at around 2 am in the morning...coolest ride ever! Those people seriuosly saved my health-the next bus would have arrived two hours later and considering that I was both tired and a little intoxicated I would have probably fallen asleep...which is not the thing to do in Chiemgau November nights.

A few photos will be posted as soon as they are available...

New Projects???

After a somewhat epic journey that involved calling Mr. Markus Stadler a couple of times I finally found my way to the Burgauer Wand again. Hiking through the misty November air was really good and refreshing, fall is an astonishing season here in the Chiemgau. I roamed around scoping for the possible projects Jan Mersch had hinted at and found the main sector completely bolted-and not too attractive too. Kinda blocky...Jan had told me that a lot of the future lines would be found at the crag to the left and there I found a pretty cool little cave that will probably yield a couple of bouldery roof routes with possible 30m+ extensions possible, though spoiled by a no hand rest after the roof`s lip. The rock seems amazing. Still I´m in doubt whether to bolt these lines when Shorty visits me in December, the approach being long and tiring...I`m not talking about king lines here in the end. I will thus continue to look for better projects. At least I`ll keep those in the back of my head...

With the Walhalla comp drawing nearer the weekend will be spent training in the gym. A week after, a comp of basically the same format will be held in Rosenheim and I´m intended to score this one, too. Hopefully Verena will get in shape in time again after that terrible bitch of a flu. If not I´ll have to compensate- after all it`s a team competition. I`m in the best shape I`ve been for a long time and with a week left I´m determined to improve a little...

I`m currently listening to Papa Roach. Unfortunately I cannot turn the shit up, the old §$%&? living in the flat under me would complain in an instant. I despised her from the beginning, here we go...

I have also received a few very kind e-mails from the US gyms I asked for an intercultural project position. Hopefully this will work out, I´ld love to do something climbing based in the US.

Change I do believe in

He has done it. Or, strictly speaking, the US citizens have done it. Barack Obama will become the next president of the US. Although this blog is normally climbing oriented and based, this is something extraordinary and amazing, considering the ammount of what he had to overcome, especially during the past weeks when the political race in the US took up a pace that we in Europe can hardly comprehend. There were lies, especially Mrs. Palin, arguably well suited for casting stones at others, was constantly singing the song of Obama being well befriended with a terrorist. 

What I think is that in a time where the world needs consensus concerning the most important issues like global warming, the fight against terrorism, poverty and Aids, a man is needed that brings a difference. We need a change in policy. Even if politically one eyed, one cannot deny the fact that the US still is and will continue to be for the next years the most important and driving force in Western politics. The US sets trends, politically, culturally and economically. Europe, though wanting to be a political player on its own, still needs the US. The US however, also need Europe, considering the mess they are in in Afghanistan or Iraq. The world needs each other, there will be no solution to the global problems of the 21st. century without dialoque and respect. 

Barack Obama will hopefully be the man bringing the difference. He is young and fresh, he is new and other than flip flopping John Kerry, a man whose words you can believe in. He will not work wonders, he is not a wizard making all the issues mentioned above disappear with a wink of his wand but he can be trusted in bringing what is most needed in American politics after eight years of Bush`s government: Change. I do not believe in miracles. 

But I do believe in the next four years of American policy. I will travel to America from February to April. I`m looking forward to coming to a country that in the right time has made the right descision.

Good luck to you, Barack Obama. The world is neither good or bad -it`s what we make it. The next four years (and hopefully the next eight) you`ll do a lot of the shaping...I think you`ll do a good job.

La Princessa Negra

Today was the day! I finally started working on my Zellerwandproject, La Princessa Negra. The moves are great and even though there is some work to be done like brushing and cleaning the whole thing thoroughly...I was able to do all the moves but two which are really hard but overall a feeling of hope and happiness prevails...

Hitchhiking and High East

The day started like shit! Thinking I had a couple of minutes left I foolishly choose to buy a drink at the local market...damn fool I was! All the moms were on a shopping spree and there I was, stuck in the queue, time running out. I was already suspecting I would miss my bus but when I saw it disappear after some old ?%6& had finally cleared the way I yelled a loud "fuck!". This however meant that I had to hitchhike and did so with a wonderful person that drove me to the station even if it was completely the wrong direction for her-amazing and nice...may the sun shine on you! 

With enough time on my hand to get university finished for this week by copying an essay I`m supposed to analyze I could make it to Munich East in time to meet with Verena. The next hours were spent training on the sick and amazing new routes Dave has bolted (as close to rock as it can get! thx man!) and even though my fucking tendovaginitis still gave me some trouble I managed to get some done! Big Wallhalla will be a blast and the more I think about it, the more psyched I get.

Coming home was done hitchhiking again. I love those giving me rides!

The gym

Training, Training, Training

Since the weather sucks badly, it`s all to the gym. With a couple of days left to the Walhalla comp that I`ll take part in (first comp after years...) there is time to get my endurance going. Since I absolutely wanna score during this comp and think there is a possibility to do so, we`ll see where it goes. Hopefully I`ll manage to get out on Sunday but that`s not sure right now, the weather being what it is...if I get out, a few photos will be posted and hopefully there will be a couple of things to report...

Here we go..

Here we go...even if I´m German, there are a few reasons why this blog is gonna be in English: I love speaking English (the same goes for writing it) and there might be a few people interested who aren´t speaking German...that`s it.

This is about my adventures, the daily things you come across when you live the lifestyle I´ve chosen: a climber`s lifestyle. This is about the enchantements you can only find if you let go of the known and accept change as an opportunity for something new and possibly exciting. It`s all about making life worthwhile. 

In the end, it boils down to this: "For me now, I feel that climbing is a part of who I am. It’s my way of life. It’s my way of expressing myself. My way of being in the world."

Take care out there...