Ticino, Snow and other delights - 4. Dezember 2012
Summer feels like just yesterday and yet it’s already December, there’s snow everywhere and I’m thinking about what to get my beloveds for Christmas. Fall just rushed by and I didn’t get to climb outside as much as I wanted to but still spent a few nice days in Ticino. I once more got a bit frustrated about climbing in Cresciano because the grades feel so hard to me. However, I quickly stopped worrying about grades and just enjoyed the climbing on perfect granit. Among some other easier problems I could finish Never Ending Story (6B+), probably the best slab I’ve ever climbed on! It felt a lot easier in Chironico and I did a quick ascent of Hebelgesetz (7A) and Aviator (6C+), both on my second go. After figuring out the beta I also managed to do Non voltarti in dietro (7B), a really nice traverse in the lower section but rather soft for 7B. Last but not least I suprised myself by climbing Doctor Med Dent (7B+) right before it got dark and we had to leave back home. This is pretty much the nicest problem I’ve climbed in Ticino so far, a perfect arrete with really fun moves!
A bit more than a week ago, I helped setting for the just for fun competition at Minimum (www.minimum-bouldering.ch) which takes place twice a year. It was a lot of fun as always and we set up a whole bunch of new problems from warm-up level to impossibly hard. Go check it out!
I pretty quickly felt like I had done all the problems within my reach and the unsolved problems seemed really hard and still so far away. Either the holds were to small, to round or simply too far apart. Nevertheless, I set myself the goal to complete at least one of them every session and after working one problem for a whole evening I was mostly successful. Since I caught a cold over the weekend, I felt really bad yesterday and even struggled a bit to go climbing in the first place. Now I’m so glad I decided to go after all because even with my body and especially my throat feeling worse with every climb, I felt superstrong at the same time and could finish almost all of my projects. Funny how life works sometimes, I wish I could save such days for comps…
I don’t think I’ll make it out on rock again this year but I’m definitely psyched to train hard for the upcoming season, for comps as well as for outdoor climbing. Until then, I can’t wait to put my snowboard on and enjoy living so close to all the good skiing areas :)