Pictures of 2009

 









Well, it´s hard. There are sooo many...but I´ll try...2009´s finest and most meaningful to me...

Restrospective: 2009

Well, seems like another year is coming closer to its end. I have to say that it has turned to be an amazing year on the whole, especially the second half of the year with my Intercultural Proj. stay in San Francisco was just rad. I remember sitting in front of my laptop about 355 days ago, super annoyed because a Zillertal trip had just been cancelled and I had been looking forward to it. I remember writing that this was hopefully not the direction things were intending to take and for a while, it seemed as if they wanted to. My original plan of visiting San Francisco at the end of February came to an abrupt end when I found out that I wouldn´t get a work permit and would have to finance the whole trip on my own. I fell ill with my seasonal cold that persistently stayed for over 4 weeks and when I finally managed to get outside again, climbing for some reason wouldn´t click as much as I would have liked it to be.

Some day in early April, I managed to send a boulder problem at Saalachtal, which really felt good...and at the same time didn´t. My elbow was in pain. I had developed a severe tendonitis as a result of intensive campus boarding over the past months and had foolishly ignored the pains. Not to speak of the fact that I never streched. I guess I was meant to be taught a lesson by my body, had to quit climbing again and underwent some serious treatment involving dicolfenac injections, electro magnetic therapy and pysiotherapeutic streching excerices. After a seemingly endless time, I was able to climb again and the elbow started to give me less and less pain. I was fortunate enough to be able to play truant at university and went to Frankenjura, still the best place to climb in Germany, with my friend Verena. We had a fun time, despite slight irritations about my climbing holiday expectancies being different for her´s and I also got to climb with my brother for some time, which was really cool. It was a much needed break, considering that university wasn´t fun at all, my English didactics teacher seriously had no social skills whatsovever (we all hated her guts) and the rest wasn´t too much fun either.

I was just counting down the days for my rescheduled US visit, went through the weekly routine relatively uninspired and wrapped things up handing in my paper for didactics, being annoyed with Rosenheim´s Open Bouldering Comp (tons of kids cheated their way past my teen teamers and weren´t punished at all, on the contrary, the ripped the goodies) and the miserable weather than still had me waiting for my first day of outdoor swimming by the middle of July.

Well, the rest was a tale of sound and fury! Hopped on a plane, met the nicest people I have ever met...Damian and Jeffie...it´s amazing how life goes. You have had just another avarage year, meeting uninspiring people, going through the daily chores of paying the bills and trying to keep your account halfway balanced...and then you step out of the plane...Thanks is such an inadequate word!

My time in San Francisco really felt like a much deserved holiday. I travelled and climbed, my elbow stopped hurting completely, I slowly got back in shape, saw bears and sea lions, a Great White Shark, went diving and hiked the beautiful Sierra. I met Emily, Brian and Belle, Austin, Wes, Betty, Chris, Ben, Annie, Jeffie´s amazing parents and all of a sudden I knew this was gonna be a good rest of the year. 

When I left and came home, I found everything had changed for the better! My lil bro was and is psyched on bouldering and climbing again and has eyed another 5.14b project...so much for that!My relationship with my landlord that was shit nasty especially the beginning of the year has changed much for the better, people are beginning to climb the boulders I put up next to my village and finally, something is happening. 

I can´t wait for what next year brings. I don´t know. But, quoting one of my favorite quotes,

" whatever tomorrow brings, I´ll be there, with open arms and open eyes".

BRCM have a guide!

The Big Rock Candy Mountains have a guide! My buddy Johannes took on the challenge and produced a topo, completely with pics, description and everything. That´s pretty awesome, especially since more people seem to be psyched to repeat stuff up there. Now that I also boulder on a regular basis at the local gym and can do some promotion, prolly more people will go there. Maybe cleaning all the boulders wasn´t futile after all.

A BCRM video is coming up. As soon as conditions improve (both outdoor and my cold), I´ll start climbing the problems again for the camera. I wanna have something like a video guide to the area...

I´ll try and find out how I can have the topo as downloadable content, as soon as possible it will be posted here.

I am officially debriefed and now able to analyze my US days in an enlighted manner...

Today I went to Munich to take part in the Intercultural Project Debriefing Workshop (that´s four capitalized words, making it sound important!) which turned out to be a complete and thorough waste of time. We sat down in groups, that is a North America group, an Oz group and a Brit group and discussed our remarkable findings aka the realization that alcohol is harder to get pretty much anywhere else than in Germany. So much for pseudo sophistication and university intelligence...

Next I ran into some argument with our British counselor when I was foolish enough to remark that I had met quite a number of tools when I was in London. I am a shortsighted guy that has a lot to learn in terms of intercultural competence and must never ever try and judge people to fast. Excuse me, I am entiteled to an opinion...and the Brits I met were a nuisance. They are, actually. Running into Spanish climbers is fun...slightly dangerous because they always offer you weed which I´m not a fan of but fun nevertheless...but Brits? Scots are different, those are fun, they have amazing whiskey but Londoners? Let´s agree to disagree Mrs. Woodman!

After that IPDW proved an epic fail (shouts Austin!) I hastened to the station to catch my train back home. Tried to get some nutella crepe on the run and couldn´t get it! Only brats and gluhwine! Damn you, Munich Christmas Market!

Tomorrow will hopefully be better! To make things worse, my commuter`s pass had expired a couple of days ago, so the whole trip cost me 20 Euros for train rides...

20 Euros can also buy you:

-2 pizzas (premium quality + one drink per pizza)

-5 deluxe caramel shot lattes (large)

-12 yummy apple danishs

-4 movies at the local cinema if you only go on tuesdays

-about two kilos of chocolate (good quality!)

-one fifth of a pair of 5.10 Dragons

The list goes on!

Out!

Finally pics...

Back again...

After some time of cold related break, I´m back to climbing. I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a car this morning, so I decided I´ld give bouldering at Berchtesgaden a try. I was impressed coming there, good landings, nice and sunny, warmed up, everything perfect and then...

Fucker! I was falling of some arete problem not sticking a dead point move and that got him in high gear. He turned out to be a 8A+ bouldering bastard pretty soon, strong (gotta admit that) but socially helplessly inapt as he started to lecture me on how to climb the problem. 

First of all, I like to figure my problems out by myself. Beta is acceped when it comes from friends or generally nice people (of which I met tons in the US!) but he belonged to neither of those catergories. Shut it! Another example of localism gone bad. I did the problem. Did some training on the other problems but didn´t send anything else. 

What could have been an amazing day turned out to be like a day at the gym...not psyched!

I´ll be back to Bishop in March...can´t wait.

Pics in a couple minutes

Psyche at an all time high!!!

I´M SO PSYCHED! My shark watching adventure at the Farallons will be tomorrow in the morning, hopefully there will be tons of sharks around! I paid 875 dollars for that, so there better be SOME! 

I spent my last dollars on my pasta ingredients today, I´m gonna chef up some pasta for Brian, Emiliy, Jeffie and Damian...and Belle, if she is allowed to have some as well:)

I so don´t wanna leave. San Francisco is the most beautiful city in the world. Bridges Rock Gym is THE GYM! I wish there would be so many nice people around in Rosenheim...Hopefully I´ll see sharks tomorrow, go out bouldering with Austin and the crew on Monday and make these final days a blast...

I´ll arrive in Munich without a cent in my pocket. All my savings are gone. It was a fun ride...and DAMN was is worth it...

Out. Won`t be able to sleep. Great White Sharks, I´m calling you. Be at the Farallons tomorrow. We have a meeting. I wanna look into your big black eyes and realize a little more how beautiful the world is. 

Out.

Back to SanFran II

I`m back in San Fran again, just to let you know...pics of the second trip to Bishop and the Valley will soon be updated.

In the meantime I`ll enjoy the remaining weeks in San Fran, even though I can slowly count down the days, I`ld love to stay longer...

Valley Update

So here`s a short update on what I did since my last post. A lot of amazing things...of course I have gone back to working on my projects and I`m looking good...I think...I got to do some nice easier stuff as well, but most of the time I`m just working the stuff I left unfinished on my first trip. Today was different though, went to Candyland today with Brian and Sandra and finally got to session The Diamond...I quickly managed to do the moves and linked it to the upper sloper crux that neither Brian or me were having balls enough to seriously try...kinda scary landing! Really good problem though, I got some nice pics!

Restdaywise, I finally hitchhiked to Mariposa Grove and got to see some really BIG Sequoias...those trees are so big, I was just staring at the Grizzly Giant, the second largest living thing on this planet for 30 minutes...IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL and TALL and AWESOME and...

It`s a funny and sad thing that some dumb ass Japanese fucker, seeing a picture of the trees in the Gift Shop actually turned to his equally dumbfuck girlfriend and said..

"I seriously thought they were bigger, they are not that big, let`s get outta here"

How does that saying go? The eyes can only see what the soul can comprehend? Something like that?
Now that guy isn`t even capable of...I don`t know what...single celled animals probably have more brains...

I`m also the last man standing at my swimming spot, now that the nights are getting cold, the river cools down probably a degree per day, so all the douchebags have chickened out...good, there is silence, so I can finally take a nap on my pad after swimming.

There won`t be posts until Monday, cause the library closes over the weekend...

Out, take care!

Back in the Valley...

I`m back in the Valley...wasn`t he planning to spend like two weeks in Bishop, a lot of you might ask? I was...but I just couldn`t.
Let`s begin: Bishop is beyond doubt one of the most amazing spots in the world, both in terms of climbing and scenery. I got there after an epic eight hour drive since Tioga Pass was closed due to the fires around and pitched my tent in total darkness. I loved the place when I woke up the next morning. The climbing is phenomenal! I just got on everything that looked cool and doable with one pad. I relatively quickly realized though, that I wouldn`t be able to try any classic without having more pads...Bishop is so fucking highball...

So why did I leave? Bishop is also one of the most lonely places I have ever been. I didn`t get to talk to people...and the solitude was getting me. I thought it might just be a fit, but the second day turned out to be like the first and then I decided to leave...I don`t mind travelling alone as long as there are people around that I can share moments with...in Bishop however, there were only cactuses, boulders and the ever present high plains wind. Not to forget the blazing sun. I wanna come back. But Bishop is a place where you need people around. So I left.

The drive was horrible! I started at around 7 pm and got to Merced at 4 am in the morning, hoping to get a refund on the car. Shortly before Sonora Pass, I hit a deer. It came out of nothing. There were actually two of them. I jammed my foot on the brake (I had already hit a grouse earlier that evening, all those that know about the swallow in France will know how I felt about that...) and managed to slow down substantially before I hit the deer, still the impact shoved it to the shoulder of the road where it did a summersault, jumped up and ran for it. I pulled into the parking lot of the Inn I had had pizza at two nights ago completely shaking. Had black coffee. Had more black coffee. Tried to find out if I could call the forest service and have somebody look for the poor deer. They don`t do it in America. There are mountain lions. Their kittens are hungry. It`s like that. I hope the deer is fine. I was slow enough not to have the airbag triggered. Maybe the deer just was as lucky as I was, not getting hurt at all. I hope. Poor creature. I hope the only thing that was harmed was the car, which had a dented hood!

I didn`t drive faster than 40 miles after that. I was shit scared of hitting another animal.
Made it to Merced. Didn`t get a refund. Actually did but lost it seconds later. The car`s damage had to be paid. I didn`t go with addtional insurance, since it would have been 25 bucks each day extra. Shortsighted me...

The whole trip cost me like 800 bucks...thats the most expensive climbing trip I have ever been on. Well, I`m in the Valley now. Jumped into the River of Mercy and washed away the shakes of last night. Nice people all over the place. I`m happy and psyched. I`ll live on cereals and bananas, Amy`s chilli and have a cocoa per day as my well being bonus. I`ll climb! I`ll live and enjoy my time. I love the Valley.

Out...

Off to Bishop...

Since I`ll depart to Bishop in the early morning, just a very brief post that will go out to all my friends and familiy back home...I´m having a ball! Can´t wait to see Bishop. Spent the week monkeying around in Lake Tahoe with Austin and Ben and went to Mickeys Beach yesterday...Loads of fun. 

On a sidenote, I have downgraded almost every problem in the BRCM/Balkon areas...I think the grades fit now...coming back from the Valley I realized that Europe just has shit easy ratings...

Out to pack, more posts to come since you can get internet access in Bishop,

Chris

Back in San Fran...

I got back to San Francisco yesterday on the train after getting totally rained out the night before. But: since Libby and the guys at Yosemite Search and Rescue are so incredibly nice, I`ll return to finish my projects that I left unfinished.

Yosemite was a unique and amazing experience. I met a lot of nice people and I have seen one of the most beautiful places on this planet. I spent my days climbing and hiking, swimming in the beautiful Merced river. I haven`t felt as good as I did in the Valley for years, the climbing, the nature...it has it all.

In terms of climbing, it was really hot. All the time. I didn`t get to send my hard projects, I just slipped all the time and since I had only one pad (I bought one on my first day), there could have been better protection. Still I climbed a lot. I don`t climb on granite that much and I gotta say that it teaches you so much. It teaches you precise footwork. It makes you evolve. My most memorable ascents probably are the Ahwahnee Arete, a super nice and scary highball arete with a top out on micro holds in 9 metres hight...I have never been scareder and still have never felt as alive for a long time. In a way, life destills to its very essence, there is no past and no future, there is just you, the wind and the rock, you`re moving and everything is just so very present and in the moment. There is no doubt, there are only choices. After spending two days at the Ahwahnee boulders, I found my playground at the Cathedral Boulders and met Alan, who gave me beta and reconmendations, thanks man, hope to meet you again. I did So Good on my third day of trying it, topped it out in total trance after taking a few scary falls from the top. It was a moment in time. There is nothing that will take it from me. That`s what I live for.

Those two were beyond doubt the highlights. More are to come, since I`ll return to stay with the SAR team again. I`ll have fun, drink a couple of King Cobras and climb the shit out of my tips.
Swim in the river again.

What else was metionable? I saw tons of wildlife, the highlights being BEYOND DOUBT BEARS!!! I SAW BEARS...a yearling out of the El Cap shuttle which was a stroke of luck since the driver picked me up waving my hands by the side of the road even though there was no regular stop in the place. And then I had to wait and suffer from all the bear ruckus in Camp 4 every night. Bears came to Camp 4 every night in search of food. But I never saw one!!! I had to wait until I did Half Dome on Saturday. Right next to the trail on a meadow they were...Mama Bear and two cubs...I saw them for minutes!!! I WAS SO PSYCHED!



Huge amounts of thanks go to:

Jonesy/Itai/ Sorry your name is Pakistani so I can`t remember... for the American breakfast with pancakes and fried bacon...and the company...

Sam... for being a cool hiking buddy on the way down from Half Dome...

Libby and the whole SAR team... for being so welcoming and great and outspoken and amazing...

Alan... for the whole Cathedral beta and the talks...

my buddy at housekeeping camp... for the talks and the free showers...

Nick and Tessa... for picking up my hitchhiking ass at Crane Flat and for bringing back my camera which I forgot in their car

Karen... who did the Tuolumne tour and did an amazing job and all the bus drivers in general for being great and amazing and funny and damn badass folks

the docs and nurses at the Medical Clinic in my one situation of need...

and all the unamed people I met or whose names I forgot who talked with me, shared moments with me and made my time an amazing one.

MAY THE SUN SHINE ON ALL OF YOU!



Just as an amusement, here come my favorite quotes...

"So where you from, buddy?" "Germany" "Where the fuck is that?" "In Europe..." "Oh, I see..."
"Am I dumb or what???"
"Damn, there is fish in this river. I hate fish, they`re gross! Why do there have to be fish in this river?"
"KC (King Cobra), that stuff is savage..."
"Did you hike all the way in flip flops??? That`s ballsy, dude!!!"
"Get away bear!!! Get outta here!!! Go!!! Run, bear, run!!! Get outta here!!!"
"And to the left, we have the Yosemite Wet Streak aka Yosemite Falls in August..."

Pics will be uploaded soon...

THANKS TO MY FOLKS FOR THE CARD (I wish there had been money in it as well though...no, just kiddin`)...

See ya all in a couple of weeks...having a ball, restday today, went to Mortar Rock yesterday, tips finished, Nat`s Traverse is close, music is good, life`s good, Mortar tomorrow, Bishop to come...the journey continues...

Outta!

Chris

Two days to go...

I have two days left in San Fran before I`ll depart to Yosemite Valley on Monday morning. Posts will be rare or stop completely for the two weeks I`m in the valley, depending on whether I can find a cheap internet cafe or not. This week has been really cool so far, the kids camp was more fun than I anticipated (and I already anticipated a lot) and I managed to get my second day of Bay Area bouldering at Indian Rock...sweet place, I could flash a lot of classics and that was cool. I feel myself zooming in on my shape right on time, yesterday I came really close to getting the second ascent of that horribly sandbagged V 8 problem! Which felt really cool! In general I feeling strong right now!

This Sunday I`ll try and head out to Mortar Rock to build up calluses, like Chris Bloch suggested, so that I`ll be in shape for some sharp crimps...

Today I`ll just chill out and take it easy, I worked out for hours yesterday and so that`s a good idea, I think...

Out!

First Pics...

Here we go...he comes the first collection of pics...featured is my second trip to Pier 39 and Golden Gate recreational area...