Pictures

Big Wall (its actual name)

Terminator. 8a

The Hulk. Old Skool 7c/+

The Frankenjura

This place is magical, it has a similar feeling to Fontainbleau. Limestone escarpments peak (no pun intended) out between the trees and moss coversed boulders lie forgotten about in the depths of the forests. Not many people come here solely to boulder and I can see why, you really do need someone in the know how to show you around. Feurzange. 8a+

Luckily we did, Fabian, Mona and Seb made us feel right home; showing us a huge number of problems and also where all the good watering holes were! That is definately a plus point of the place- the beer is excellent!

The climbing is also brilliant, although there are not so many majestic lines, the quality of the rock and movement involved make up for that. It also a place that you thoroughly get shut down, no holiday grades here! However that did not stop us from getting things done, although the weather and injurues definately tried to halt us in our tracks. That is a downside of the place; it has weather like England. We suffered a great deal of rain and lots of condensation on the rock when it was a bit warmer.

A brief run through of some of the high- and low-lights of the trip:

Back 2 Varian went out with a bad finger, however it did get better (and then got worse again) maybe something to do with the brutal crimping on Omega Man, a classic 8a/+ that he crushed.

Crimping Thompson managed a few good ticks in his two weeks with us including knockenmuhle, a cool, steep powerful 8a.

He was replaced by Lee 'dense loner' Anderson who brought with him dark humour, sarcasm and rain! He also invented new words in scrabble (foy can mean anything you desire) and schooled us all at monopoly.

Ned came out of retirement for a few days and crushed a bunch of 8a's and above including violation and Feurzange both 8a + and both on the same day! Grrrr the pale ghost is back!

Of the Aussie contingent Andy unfortunately had to go home after his finger (previously injured) flared up again big time and he couldnt take the pain of watching Benjamin Cossey climbing whilst he could only belay! Ben crushed routes and boulders whlist all the time putting his real efforts into Action Direct. He did Sea of Green and 8a+ bloc and Plan B and 8b route.

As for myself I managed to do a few 7c's and some good 8's also-
Knockenmuhle 8a
Billiard 8a
Lucky Punch 8a
V2 8a
Evergreen Terrace 8a+

Terminator 8a Evergreen Terrace. 8a+

In summary I had an ace trip, stayed in a real nice house (where Dai stays when he crushes the place), met some quality people who will no doubt be friends for life and the climbing wasnt half bad either!

Innsbrooklyn

A nice starting picture for this post of Ned, Keith and I freezing our bollocks off after a swin under Dolby Digital in the Zillertal!

Me and Ned headed to Innsbruck at the end of September to see Keith. I will keep it brief but Innsbruck is a sweet place to reside! Keith and James apartment is PIMP, the city seems lively and there is lots of good climbing and skiing close by. Perfect! We spent 5 days there mainly eating pizza and sampling some fine ice cream but squeezed in a bit of climbing to at Zillertal and Silvretta.

At zillertal we met up with my friend Emi who had just returned from South Africa. We warmed up and then got straight onto the main event, Incubator. This is an old Jerry project which unfortaunately if often wet. However we lucked out and although it was warm a cool breeze was blowing right by, drying the holds out to a holdable state! I quickly sussed the moves and started some attempts from the bottom, the first move is the hardest move in my opinion but it relies on timing rather than brutal strength. After a few attempts I stuck the move and proceeded to climb the bloc to the top. A very occasion for me to not be a punt and drop the top, although I nearly did as I hadnt been on it!! Very pleased indeed as it was a climb I had always wanted to do.

Incubator, 8B.

Taken by Emi Moosburger

Our next climbing was a day trip to Silvretta, a very beautiful alpine bouldering venue at about 2000 metres. The rock quality here though is not so good, it is sharp and leaves you in tears. However I had one of my best days out climbing, we met up with Stew Watson, Luki and Elias. I managed to climb 3 problems that were graded 8a (one was even a flash) but realistically British Airways and Niviuk are 7c/+ and the Shining more like 7c+/8a. I was made up though especially as the Shining is sooooooo crimpy! We saw Memento and had a brief play but my skin was burning, Stew went back the week after and sent it packing, good effort!! Just as we were packing up the clouds that had started to look menacing decided to unload hale all over us! Nevermind back to Innsbruck for Pizza ans ice cream!

Ned on the Shining, 8A.

Taken by Elias Holzkencht

It was now off to the Frankenjura for Ned and I and back into late night editing mode for Keith.