Drawn into the oil crisis

I went back to climb Ölkrise, but failed. It ended up being a nice family trip with Michelle and the dogs, enjoying being outdoors together, so I had a good time nevertheless. It was Londons first encounter with rocks and she soon discovered their dangerous nature the hard way: over enthusiastically she tripped and came limping back on three legs. Nothing seemed to be broken though and within minutes she was running around again, suspiciously sniffing rocks, sliding downhill through leafs and barking at me when I climbed out of her reach. Obviously she loved it here just as much as I do.

But let's not completely ignore the fact that my main goal was climbing Ölkrise... Failure is an integral part of progression, but sometimes it's simply hard to deal with. On the other hand: only after a big struggle the final achievement of success is truly rewarding. I spent parts of two previous sessions on Ölkrise, but until today it hasn't been my main goal. I could do the separate crux moves immediately now and started making good links into the crux. After a couple of attempts I fell on the last hard move, which is the eighth move of the boulder. But then things started going downhill: my links got shorter and shorter and my fingers were getting sore already. Ölkrise is so taxing on them that it is right at my limit, giving me only a handful of attempts at full power. When it started to drizzle and some holds got moist, I was forced to give up and we fled to the Katla Cave. 

Working the moves on Ölkrise

Soon the sun returned though and we enjoyed the sheltered but sunny cavity in the hillside and the views it offers over the lake. I puzzled a bit on 'Zerissene Welten' (another 7B+) and finally figured out how to get the crucial fingerlock and footjam combination right. It bloody hurts, but works! An ascent is close, but didn't come today either. Having drained my maximum power, I tried a few of the long linkups through the roof. I was too tired to finish any of them either, but let's say it was good training... Ölkrise is within my reach, which on its own is a step up compared to last year. But I know that until the actual ascent it'll haunt me now, predominantly casting a feeling of failure rather than progression... Crazy how these things work. Today though, I had a great day out, without a single tick. Never thought I'd be able to say that.