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...