Paradigm shifts

As the only thing here that's flatter than the Netherlands is the adjacent sea, my rock climbing adventures tend to happen abroad. In the past years I've met a lot of climbers there and made new friends. Many of them don't speak Dutch. Nevertheless some of them take an interest in my blog and videos. I've been contemplating a switch to English for a while now, afraid that people might accuse me of megalomania (really, I'm not that good to consider myself a climber of international interest...) or that Dutch readers get put off. But it occurred to me that I don't give a rat's arse about the former and have enough faith in the familiarity with the English language of my Dutch readers. And so it happens that you're reading my first post in English. Matt, you can stop deciphering the cryptic results of Google Translate now.

I have two climbing related new year's resolutions: to get out and climb real rock as much as possible and to build my own small training wall at home: a 'woody'. Surprisingly, my amazing Michelle made no objections to the latter (still waiting for the catch...). So in the first week of the year I've concocted a plan to convert the 42 degree overhanging wall in our attic to a climbing wall. Instead of starting the construction though, I've made good use of the dry weather in the weekend and drove to Avalonia again for a bouldering session, this time with Matt and Vienna. It amazed me to see how crowded the place has gotten during sunny weekend days. Of course Daniel and quite a few regulars were around, but that didn't add up to the approximately 40 people we met. It was good fun though, seeing many familiar faces from both Germany and the Netherlands. Ignoring the occasional kid that couldn't leave home without bringing a radio to brutalize the tranquility of nature (or am I just getting old?), the atmosphere was good and friendly. Olli came down all the way from the Ith, there even were some friends from Enschede and then there was Martin, who just got back from half a year of climbing in Spain. He had just made quick work of an unclimbed, open project in the Katla Cave. Strong man! We sampled almost every piece of rock in Avalonia, making quick attempts in many boulders, but ascending just a few. I was happy to do a low start to the nice 7A boulder 'Mesa Verde' though. It is called 'Invasion der Steinmänner' and weighs in at 7B. It all comes down to a very wide shoulder move which involves pulling very hard from a heel hook. These are two things I'm quite good at, so the boulder went down rapidly.

In the week after, I did start the construction of my woody, fueled by some new motivation for training by the freshly delivered book 'Gimme Kraft'. With the help and experience from Herman - who recently built himself an entire boulder gym - it went faster than I could have imagined. All that's left now is collecting an interesting set of climbing holds, which turns out to be a pricely affair... But with a small set of fingery holds to start with and a pair of gymnastic rings suspended from the top of the wall, I can finally start doing some regular power training at home. I hope it lives up to the expectation and will help me push my limits further!

Attic 2.0