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!