Full circle

Five years ago I embarked on my first ever bouldering trip. Seeking for a form of climbing and being out that I could share with Michelle (vertigo has such a firm grip on her that even belaying petrifies her) I acquired a crashpad and a bouldering topo of the Eifel. So on March 8 2011 I drove us to the basalt blocks of Glees, determined to show the love of my life the magical beauty of climbing rocks. And boy, did I do a good job to put her off...

Happy as a kid I rushed up the hill towards the blocks, as if they might vanish into thin air any moment. I quickly climbed the first 5A I saw, then a 5B, then a 6A. After making quick work of another 6A and a 6A+, I figured that - having been a boulderer for about an hour now - I had grown enough to try something harder. That's when I saw 'Die Eisheiligen'. It was (is) so aesthetically pleasing that it had an immediate irresistible pull. I had no feeling (or respect...) for bouldering grades and jumped on it, imagining I had the arms of Chris Sharma, the fingers of Adam Ondra, the balls of Alex Honold and the grace of Akiyo Noguchi. At 6C+ it was way above my league though and I never got far off the ground. Nevertheless the sloping rock at the landing and a poorly placed crash pad were enough to break my leg in a fall...

Sander vs. 'Die Eisheiligen'...

What was supposed to become an awesome first bouldering trip for the both of us turned into a straight disaster, with Michelle having to help me complete the half hour slippery downhill walk to the car on one leg carrying a heavy crashpad, with her having to drive us home with me moaning in pain at every bumb in the road and still having to convince me that this wasn't good and I had to see a doctor, with her having to deal with the fact I absolutely refused to go to a German hospital and eventually leaving me no choice but to visit the hospital in Enschede when we finally arrived after a long drive, with her waiting there for hours and ultimately bringing me home close to midnight with my leg in a cast. My God, what a hideously Homerical  sentence to describe the horror I put Michelle through on her first climbing experience. Somehow though, five years later, she still supports my climbing and comes with me every once in a while when I go bouldering. What a lovely wife I have.

You may understand that ever since that day I felt I have a bone to pick with Die Eisheiligen. A year after the fall, in spring 2012, my mental scars had healed enough to face it again. And so I drove to Glees, only to arrive in a rain shower and find Die Eisheiligen with a soaking wet top. I haven't even touched it and climbed other, dryer boulders instead. After that, I somehow never made it to Glees anymore. I discovered the bouldering in Ruhrtal instead. With the appeal of being quite a bit closer to home it kept me satisfied throughout 2013 and the first half of 2014. After that my interested shifted towards roped climbing and I barely bouldered at all. Glees and Die Eisheiligen drifted to a desolate part of my memory, but never faded entirely.

Fast forward to May 25, 2016: I'm in my car, dogs and crashpad in the boot, driving to Glees. It's overcast and surprisingly cold for the time of the year. Good for bouldering. It has rained a lot the past week though. Bad for bouldering. I'm not really sure what to expect, but the image of a wet Eisheiligen from 2012 haunts me. Third time's a charm, right?

The forest is much darker and denser than I remember. This shouldn't be a surprise, it's Germany after all. It is also bad news though: the basalt blocks are all in the shade and well sheltered by copious blankets of freshly green spring leafs. A dry breeze has no chance of penetrating here and even if the sun were shining, the rays would never reach the boulders. Note to self: Glees is a winter destination. But now that I'm here anyway I'd better make the most of it. I drop my stuff below a good and dry looking 6A ('Brian Gedächtnis Weg') to warm up. It has big holds, big moves and it's high: all qualities I enjoy in a boulder problem. I've barely left the ground when my foot slips off. Standing on my crashpad again I contemplate what this means: no friction today. Maybe 'high' isn't an enjoyable quality after all today. A second attempt quickly lands me on top of the boulder though. So climbing is possible in these conditions. Buck up, Sander! Humidity is just a lame excuse for a losers' attitude.

Getting used to the conditions on 'Brian Gedächtnis Weg'

I want to know whether Eisheiligen is dry enough today. I've waited long enough for this. It should be only 50 meters away, but the view is consumed by the forest. Time to pack my stuff again and head over there. But when the jungle opens up a bit and I get a first glimps of Die Eisheiligen, Vienna sounds the alarm: the rather tiny base around the block is already occupied by a happy German couple with two dogs and a baby. One of the dogs appears to be half Husky, half Aussie, which is pretty much a guarantee for a strong personality that will collide head on with the attitude of my Aussies. Since I'd rather not find out - especially with a baby in the middle - I retreat. I muster all the patience I can find and tell myself I'll have another chance later today. Plan B: walk to 'Es'. Es is THE boulder in Glees - an absolute Eifel classic - and situated in a more open location, which considerably raises the odds of it being dry. At the grade of 7B/7B+ (it favors the tall) it should be quite a challenge, but possible.

Walking up on Es, the holds look good and the boulder doesn't appear to be very hard at all. I get a firm reality check though when my 'flash attempt' fails at the very first move. The required span is massive, the footholds are slippery and somehow the holds feel quite a bit smaller than they look. The standing start (called 'Esther', graded 6C+) goes down quickly, but the top slopers are damp and lack friction. However scary, it goes though! But the bottom half troubles me. Just when the thought of going back to Die Eisheiligen creeps in (imagine not climbing Die Eisheiligen as a result of spending all my energy on not climbing Es!), the magic of bouldering happens: something clicks and I unexpectedly climb Es from the first move in. Baffled I try to repeat the moves and all of the sudden they feel rather easy.

'Es' quickly coming together

All that remains is doing the first move and repeat what I just did. From feeling impossible to within grasps in just minutes! But the first move turns out to be hard. When I finally do it, my foot slips one move later and I'm off. New attempts all fail. Is this signalling the imminent end of the day or just specific fatigue for this move? I contemplate the implications of both for a while and conclude that either way a break is needed. If my energy for the day is running out though, continuing on Es might cost me Die Eisheiligen. In the case of specific fatigue, a quick ascent of Die Eisheiligen and some walking around might be the perfect break. But if it takes more energy, it deminishes my chances of climbing Es dramatically. Conundrum... Setting ego and grade chasing aside, Die Eisheiligen is what I really desire to climb. Third time's a charm, remember?

And so it is that I walk back to Die Eisheiligen, set up the camera and carefully place the crashpad on the slanting rock that broke my ankle five years ago. As soon as my feet leave the ground I am surprised how powerful this boulder problem feels. I really had no chance five years ago. When I reach for the small crimper below the top, it is smaller than expected. I'll have to work my way up on it and slap for the top that looks uncannily sloping. For an instant I look down. Big mistake. It turns out that due to the overhang of the block I'm not above my pad anymore. Fear of falling cripples me and I climb down to jump on my pad. I repeat this entire process twice before I realize I'll have to move the pad to protect the top. Grudgingly I drag the pad further from the base of the block. The slanted rock grins at me sadistically. This time I know that if I fall, I won't do it there though. So I set off again, climb up to the crimp and slap for the top. It is sloping indeed and very slippery. Knowing I have the pad right where it needs to be now I match the other hand and top out. It's done.

When I go back to Es later, I quickly climb it as well. Finally I can leave Glees and Die Eisheiligen in peace. I've had my revenge. It tastes sweet, so very sweet!

In the meantime, part 2: rock

After the geeky ramblings on training from my previous post, here's the more interesting part: outdoor fun! As explained, I want to focus more on volume and fun, without getting lost in ego-fed superhard projects and hardly getting any climbing done. So no grade chasing, no tunnelvision on superprojects, but just climbing whatever comes across my path. As Teuto happens to come across my path regularly, being the only crag within an hour driving¹, this resolution resulted in me bouldering quite a lot in Teuto in the past months. And I can honestly say I've been enjoying it more than I expected to do: it's a lovely forest to be and to walk in with the dogs and off the beaten tracks there is a surprisingly large amount of good and hard bouldering. Sometimes the problems require a bit of a definition to be of interest, but despite my dislike of defined - contrived - boulder problems they never felt unnatural. All fun and games, so who really cares?

Topping out Alpha Centauri, the best ascent of the year so far! Video below...

A 'good' thing about the bouldering in Teuto is that there isn't a guide book or any community kept list of problems. Most lines in the forest have once been climbed, but it's often hard to find out by who and what name or grade has been attached to it. Usually I get my info through Matt, who has the Teuto woods as his backyard and has a great climbing network via his business. Sometimes the grades are soft, sometimes silly hard. They are absolutely meaningless, which is great: it shifts the focus automatically to climbing lines instead of grades. And it's humbling and motivating in a peculiar way to get completely shut down by a boulder someone else perceived as 7A.

iPhone video of a few boulders I climbed in Teuto. The first - Boone low - I have been trying on and of for more than a year and it always eluded me. 
Not this time. Progress?

So bouldering in Teuto fits my present goals pretty well and I've been doing it for quite a few afternoons this spring. Nevertheless I do like some variaty (and climbing routes instead of boulders...), so getting to other crags is always on my wish list. So far I've only managed to do this twice this year, but both times were productive and fun! The first visit was with Matt to the limestone cliffs in Ith, where I climbed the first routes of the year and managed to make quick work of 'Neues aus der Anstalt', a 7b+/7c at Kannstein with a powerful undercling crux and a short bit of power endurance climbing following it. Although both Matt and I felt it was easy for the grade, it feels good to be able to grab a quick ascent in the upper half of the 7th grade.

The other visit - with Matt again - was triggered by a video Matt stumbled upon of German strongman Stefan Hochbaum climbing an amazing looking highball in the woods surrounding Bielefeld (technically still the Teutoburger Wald). Matt used his network to uncover the location of the block and a few days later we went, with two brobdingnagianly big Moon Saturn crashpads stuffed in our car. I fell in love with the boulder immediately upon seeing the video, but walking up to 'Alpha Centauri' in real was even more awesome. It was high though, impressively high. I don't consider myself a big risk taker, I am deterred by the idea of not climbing for months while recovering from a serious injury. At the same time, I do appreciate the appeal of a beautiful, high boulder problem. So we set up a toprope first to practice the top of the boulder. Falling from the top was not really an option, so we made sure we had it dialed in perfectly. Nevertheless, when we removed the rope I felt anxious. The first part of the boulder is a steep and athletic and well protected by a good landing. Halfway it switches to a lightly overhanging arrete, which is hard to downclimb. A big move marks the transition to the arrete and is a psychological point of no return. Above it, you are high enough to not want to risk a fall and the only way is up, to even higher ground. I climbed the first part being very aware of this point of no return, but felt strong. A brief moment of hesitation paused me before the big move, but I flipped the switch and committed to it. I floated up, never once looking down to the ground. Within moments I was standing on the top. It felt absolutely amazing. Minutes later Matt followed. How hard it was? I honestly don't know. The first ascentionist gave it 7B, in the video Matt found 7B+ was proposed. When I climbed it, it felt much easier. But who really cares? Alpha Centauri was the best thing I've climbed in a while and topping out felt like a victory, extremely rewarding and exciting. An additional special touch: after climbing my first 7th grade boulder problem four years ago, this was exactly number 100.

Video of Matt and me climbing Alpha Centauri.

The route climbing season has only just started and I hope to get some more routes done. Nevertheless I'll probably go out bouldering a lot more. No complaints, I'm absolutely loving it again!

1: The only exception is Isterberg, which is hardly ever dry enough to climb. When it is, there are a few very hard boulders left to do, which will probably resemble the type of project I try to avoid right now.

An ode to joy

After a winter without outdoor bouldering somehow my approach to the activity changed. Rather than chasing grades and trying the hardest boulders I can find, I find joy in climbing the lines that appeal to me, regardless of their difficulty. Although it's probably just a phase and I'll get sucked back into chasing higher grades at some point, for now I like it this way. It's uncomplicated, free from frustration and very playful. Maybe that's exactly what bouldering is supposed to be: the ultimate expression of hedonism.

In that spirit I spent a truly enjoyable evening bouldering, waking and relaxing with the dogs. I tried to capture it with my camera and although the girls are so fast and energetic that most of their action happened off screen, I did get some great footage of them as well. Every time I watch this video it puts a smile on my face, I hope you'll enjoy it too:

At one precarious moment a hold broke. Ten points if you spot it!

Font again

A very short update, because right now I lack the time to write long stories here without sacrificing valuable training time... Too much work again, I hope next year is better. During the Ascension weekend I visited the bouldering Mekka of Fontainebleau again. I hadn't been there for years and needed (still need, to be honest) to get used to the specific, technical style of climbing. Although I only climbed a handful of low 7's, I haven't enjoyed bouldering this much in a long time. Font truly is one of the best climbing areas I've ever visited. I should visit it more often!

Below is a short video I cut from the rather random footage I managed to shoot there. I should have spent much more time to capture the beauty of the forest, but I didn't. Next time maybe... Nevertheless the video doesn't fail to convey the great atmosphere and the fun we had.

In the meantime I've started training power endurance. Gradually campus training started to have detrimental effects on my body. It took only a few hints to make me change gears and progress to the less injury prone power endurance training: a split middle finger tip that got deeper and more painful with every training, a flapper on a pinky and a near flapper on the other, a slowly developping nagging little pain in my wrist and elbow and a mild inflamation in a collateral ligament. Although I''m fully aware that a more sensible person may have stopped a few trainings earlier, I am mildly proud that I didn't stubbornly stick to the plan a let go of a few more campus trainings to prevent more serious injuries. It is motivating though to start working on power endurance, knowing it'll get me in shape for some hard route climbing in the summer. The first training was and absolute disaster and reduced my forearms to pulp even before finishing the first circuit, so there's a lot of room for improvement. That's good, right?

Food for (vegetarian) climbers part 2: proteins

In my previous post on this topic - that I wrote so long ago you've probably already forgotten about it - I described my suspicion that my diet lacked some proteins and creatine to support my body going through the trainings I do. Without wanting to break with my principled decision to strongly reduce meat consumption, I decided to supplement some (whey) proteins and (synthesized) creatine for a little while and see for the results. To disentangle between the effects of both of them, I started supplementing protein a month before starting with creatine. In the following I'll focus on the importance of proteins and why different body types will have different needs. In the third (and final) post of this series I'll discuss creatine and the gains I got from supplementing it.

Protein 101

Most of us know that proteins (or 'amino acids') are the stuff that builds muscles. They are however the building blocks of much more - hairs, nails, bones, skin, most of our bodies actually. Not to mention the role they play in membranes and all kinds chemical processes in our bodies. There are 20 different amino acids that we need. Out of them 9 are 'essential', the other 11 can be synthesized in the body. Protein sources that contain adequate amounts of the 9 essential amino acids are commonly referred to as 'complete' proteins.

During a workout, muscles get damaged. The damage needs to be repaired afterwards and this is where proteins come in: they literally are the building blocks we need to repair our muscles. With the right intensity and number of repetitions of the exercise, muscles will even grow in this process (called 'hypertrophy'). It's the aim of strength athletes, whereas endurance athletes will generally stay quite far away from this exercise regimen. Too light exercise (anything aerobic) will change the vascular structure in muscles to enhance blood flow, but it won't promote excessive muscular protein synthesis. Too heavy exercise (something you can do for 1-3 repetitions) will mostly encourage neurological adaptations for better muscles recruitment. But somewhere in between, at an intensity you can sustain for about 6-8 repetitions, is the hotspot for muscle growth. Logically, training in this regimen will induce the highest protein need during the recovery process. Anyone engaging in athletic activity will increase his or her protein need, but strength athletes significantly more than endurance athletes.

Now let's step back for a second and remember my first post on this topic in which I 'claimed' that rock climbing is not an endurance activity. Apart from the implications on the metabolic needs on which I focussed in the first post, this also means that training for climbing includes a strong strength component. It's no coincidence that according to most advice any training program should include a lot of bouldering, whether you are a boulderer or not. Unless you are doing a threshold bouldering session or maximum effort campus exercises (both aim for neurological adaptations), you will either be in the hypertrophy range (if the exercises are hard enough) or at least beating up your muscles big time. So supplying your body the time and nutrients (proteins!) to recover from this assault is recommendable: alternatively you're just breaking down muscles. A little side note here is that the muscles that are driven to failure here are probably in the forearms. They are not the biggest muscle groups in our bodies and don't require as much protein as for example the back muscles. If you include a few sets of pull ups, push ups or other supplemental exercises in your workout however, you are pushing big muscles groups to get bigger.

Proteins: not only in meat...

So hard training climbers will have a relatively high protein need. Agree? Let me start debunking this: it's a myth that vegetarian food is per definition low in proteins. Of course if you're a lazy eater it's easy to omit the necessary proteins (and iron, and vitamins B for that matter). But hey, also non-veggie lazy eaters will consume a lot of crap and fail to include important nutrients. Some lucky individuals have a natural tendency to eat healthy and well balanced. But most of us - like me - have to think about we put in our mouths, resist a craving every once in a while and opt something that better fits the athletic demands we put on our bodies instead. Veggie or not. Although meat, chicken and fish are the common protein bombs that many athletes resort to, there are plenty of possibilities that fit in a vegetarian or even vegan diet as well. Dairy products are good sources of complete proteins and  combinations of nuts, legumes and grains can make for a complete set of proteins as well.

There are plenty of natural sources of protein and there is no direct need to supplement them. But finding clean, healthy sources of complete protein and include them in your diet without overdoing on carbohydrates particularly will require some commitment and won't be cheap. Protein supplements can be an easy quick fix for an otherwise good diet that lacks just that extra bit of proteins for periods of heavy exercise. Whey protein (a residue from the process of making cheese from milk) is an excellent source of complete proteins. Vegans could consider soy protein instead. That said, protein powders are (highly) processed and may be harder for the body to use than proteins obtained from clean whole foods. There are quite a few low quality powders out there, some with toxic levels of heavy metals. If the powder has been processed at high temperatures, the protein molecules will be denaturalized and much harder to digest. Pay attention to this when buying a supplement. Then again, most meat or fish you can get in a supermarket is highly processed as well and probably has many more health deteriorating effects than a high quality protein powder. Trying to use as many clean, unprocessed, natural sources of whole proteins as possible in your diet should be your aim. Use powders to supplement, not to replace.

Chris Sharmas and Adam Ondras

As I briefly mention in the introduction to this post, different body types have different protein needs. Let me take a black and white approach here and divide the climbing community in two groups: the wiry, light Adam Ondras and the muscular, heavy Chris Sharmas. Of course there's a lot in between, but for the sake of the argument let's simplify things a bit. In the end, both the Adam Ondras and the Chris Sharmas strive for a high strength to weight ratio and enough (power) endurance to get them to the top of their route. The Adam Ondras may rely a bit more on endurance and their ability to hold on to super small intermediary holds and the Chris Sharmas may rely a bit more on power and their ability to throw themselves from big hold to big hold, but in the end a similar set of skills should get them up the same routes. They'll have totally different bodies doing this though and consequently they will have different nutritional needs as well. The Chris Sharmas need to carry more weight up with bigger muscles and will need more energy (even in a rest state a more muscular body consumes more energy!). They'll have bigger muscles to regenerate after training and will need more nutrients to facilitate this.

Spot the differences...

You can't choose whether you'll be in the Sharma group or in the Ondra camp: genetics did that for you (it has a lot to do with the balance between slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers, which is mostly genetically determined and different for all of us). Most strong climbers happen to be in the Ondra group: it seems to be a favorable body composition for climbing. But I am in the Sharma group: when I train I build up muscle mass and become heavy and strong. So if you are a climber, statistically the odds are that you have a lower protein need than I do.

But how much protein do we need? Is there a guideline? Obviously, we need enough to recover from our training. Getting too muscular and heavy is not desirable though, but that's something you should target primarily in the way you train and not in the way you eat. In my view your eating behavior should always support your training behavior. In other sports strength athletes often live by the rule of consuming 1.4 to 1.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. Some claim that much less is more than enough and that many athletes overdo their protein intake. It is even said that too much protein can be hard on the kidneys and liver, but there's no scientific evidence to back this up. Although science has repeatedly shown positive effects on performance and muscle regeneration when athletes supplement additional proteins, it fails to give anything more than a rough guideline about how much exactly is needed. To discover what works for you, you simply have to try and learn through trial and error.

I'll give you another reason not to overdo it though: there's energy in proteins as well. Our bodies extract about 4 kCal from every gram of protein, which is about the same as from a gram of carbohydrates. Consuming a 20 gram portion of proteins yields as much energy as eating 20 grams of sugar! I'd strongly advice against counting calories for anyone, but just bear in mind that eating more protein than you need will eventually build body fat, not muscle. Don't overdo it. On the bright side: protein also dulls hunger (quite contrary to many carbs, such as sugar) and may end up making you lighter simply by killing your appetite and saving you the occasional sugar craving.

To be continued...
In the end, even in exactly the same training regimen every individual body will have different nutritional needs. How much protein exactly you need is something for you to find out by trial and error. I've decided to experiment a bit and increased my protein consumption by about 25 grams per day. It immediately affected how my body responded to training: I recovered faster and quickly (within a month) saw a more defined musculature on my body without gaining weight (which I like to interpret as a gain in muscle mass and a reduction of body fat). I'll play a bit more with the amount and timing of supplementation, but I feel like sticking to it at least during strength and power oriented training phases. In the next (and final) post of this series I'll write about creatine supplementation. It might take a while again, but stay tuned!

Food for vegetarian climbers part 1: is climbing an endurance sport?

I've been eating almost exclusively vegetarian food for quite a while. About a year before I started my effort to become good at climbing (in 2010), I became a vegetarian. To be very precise (and unnecessarily complicated), I am what is called an 'ovo-lacto vegetarian'. In normal language that means I refrain from eating meat and fish, but I do consume eggs and dairy products. I've been reasonably conscious about ingesting enough iron, proteins and vitamins B (B12 in particular). Failing to do so is a common pitfall for veggies, especially for those who refuse to eat eggs and/or dairy as well. Through the years, I've drawn comfort from a wealth of online articles reassuring me that a sports diet without meat is very well possible and according to many even a lot healthier than a diet that includes meat. I can recommend a visit to the 'No Meat Athlete' blog to anyone who considers cutting down on meat. My steady progress through the grades seemed to confirm I was eating well enough to fuel my climbing efforts.

Nevertheless I've started doubting the completeness of my diet after subjecting myself to a more strength and power oriented training schedule at the beginning of this year, without seeing significant performance gains  (either in or outside the trainings) or body composition changes for months. Instead I often started feeling tired, fatigued, sometimes even unmotivated and I experienced more bad days than good days when I had the chance to hit the crag. Within my limited understanding of sports science, there were two plausible explanations for my 'problem': either I was overtraining or I wasn't eating well enough to enable good recovery from my trainings. Most of the symptoms seemed to fit the former. I refused to accept it: the step up in training was small and my training load wasn't unreasonably high for a climber who has done several years of fairly consequent training. And I couldn't imagine that both explanations were unrelated: in both cases the real problem is that the body fails to recover well enough from a training before the next one starts. With better food, faster recovery is possible and overtraining is harder to achieve. So once again I started reading, hoping to reassure myself that my diet was just fine.

Climbing is not an endurance sport
This time I noticed a subtlety that I missed previously: all articles explaining how carefully picking your ingredients (enough spinach, broccoli, nuts, legumes etc.) can result in a complete sports diet that has many health benefits over a diet including meat, are aimed at endurance athletes. And although sports climbers talk a lot about 'endurance' and target this in their trainings, I'd like to make a case here that climbing (and not just bouldering) isn't an endurance sport at all. Let me explain. The term 'endurance sport' usually refers to aerobic activities, such as long distance running, cycling etc. Hard sports climbing and bouldering are almost exclusively anaerobic activities. Aerobic and anaerobic activities rely on completely different energy supplies. The 'fuel' in our muscle cells is called ATP: adenosine triphosphate. Whenever a cell needs energy, it starts breaking down ATP. A phosphate complex splits off, releasing a lot of energy from the bond and leaving adenosine diphosphate (APD) behind. After about three seconds of very hard work, the cell runs out of ATP. When that happens, the cell needs to restore ADP to ATP to continue delivering work. There are three systems that are able to do this, but at very different rates and durations:

1. Aerobic respiration (slow). In the presence of oxygen (supplied via the blood flow), glucose (stored in the form of glycogen - chains of glucose molecules - in muscles) is broken down completely into carbon dioxide and water and the energy released is used to form ATP. The mechanism is slow, but as long as the blood flow can supply enough oxygen, it can accommodate moderate activity continuously for hours.
2. Glycogen lactic acid system (fast). When a higher demand is placed on ATP levels and there's insufficient oxygen, glucose gets only partly broken down. It provides enough energy to synthesize ATP, but lactid acid is created, causing the acidity in the muscles to skyrocket quickly. The lactid acid causes temporal muscular fatigue and is the cause of the all familiar 'pump' that hits us in what we like to call 'endurance' climbs. Once relying on the glycogen lactic acid system for energy, we have about two minutes of exercise left.
3. Phosphagen system (very fast). For very fast ATP replenishment, muscle cells contain the compound creatine phosphate. When the bond between the phosphate group and creatine breaks, a lot of energy is released and binds the phosphate group with ADP to form ATP. This mechanism supplies ATP extremely fast and can facilitate very high intensity activities. The catch is that it can only do so for a short time: after about ten seconds the creatine phosphate storage is depleted.

The first system involves oxygen and is called aerobic, the other two don't involve oxygen and are therefore called anaerobic (the term 'anaerobic system' is also often used to describe just the glycogen lactic acid system). Although easy parts of sports climbing routes may require only the aerobic respiration to deliver energy, sports routes typically consists of hard, sustained sections that mainly rely on the (anaerobic) glycogen lactid acid system. Crux sections and bouldering will even be in the phosphagen system regime. So let's be very careful in calling climbing an endurance sport and applying knowledge, customs, diets etc from other endurance activities to climbing. On a cellular level, they are very different. That means they have different nutritional requirements as well.

Additionally, when doing very tough, powerful exercises (like hard bouldering or redpointing) the muscles get damaged. Many small ruptures occur (called 'microtrauma') and in the subsequent recovery process the muscles regenerate. When the exercises were hard enough, the muscles will grow in this process: 'hypertrophy'. This can only happen when all the necessary nutrients are present. Obviously, activity that results in hypertrophy has a different nutritional requirement than typical aerobic endurance activities.

So what's the message?
This is where I'd like to end the first of three posts on food for climbing from the viewpoint of a vegetarian. My aim was to outline how hard sports climbing and bouldering are different from what we usually call endurance sports. They rely on different biochemical systems supplying the required energy and put a heavy demand on muscle regeneration. For all athletic activities, independent of their nature, great supplies of glycogen and an abundance of red blood cells are desirable. In red blood cells, oxygen is bound to the iron atoms in hemaglobin molecules and transported to the muscles. Obviously, failing to consume enough iron (a common pitfall for vegetarians who are sloppy about their diet) will limit the capacity to transport oxygen and decrease your athletic performance dramatically. But in hard climbing - as in all other anaerobic activities - there are some additional food dependancies, particularly on proteins to regenerate muscle tissue and on creatine to supply the phosphagen system with a proper storage of creatine phosphate. Both are abundant in meat and can be tricky to consume in large quantities in a vegetarian diet.

While reading about all this food stuff I started linking the lack of training results and my symptoms of unexpected overtraining to a lack of protein and creatine (I've safeguarded my iron consumption with a glass of Roosvicee Ferro daily ever since I cut down on the meat). Parts 2 and 3 of this series of food posts will deal with these two nutrients specifically. This summer I started supplementing them a bit and in the upcoming posts I will describe the first results I've got from them and why it will probably be completely different for you, even if you are a vegetarian too. Stay tuned!

Teuto again

Here's a video of a few boulders I climbed during two visits to Teuto in the past weeks, ranging from approximately 6B to 7B. The most interesting ascent was that of 'Quicky' for sure, which was anything but quick. I tried this heinous sitstart from two terrible sidepulls quite a few times in the past two years, but never managed to even get my butt off the ground. This time I found the way to do it and it took only a few more attempts to catch the next hold. After that the climbing is much easier, about 6C boulder. I also made good progress in a very cool - archetypal Teuto - traverse project, not shown in the video. It's long, steep, crimpy and very sustained. I hope to get back on it soon and I'll try to make a video of it! First I'll be in Berdorf this weekend though. I hope it hasn't gotten too crowded there, but I fear the worst... On the other hand: enough hard potential projects left there, one must be free for sure!

Meanwhile in the Netherlands

My two week holiday started great with climbing my first 8a route literally on the first day. Back home I celebrated in my mind of course, but the desire to get back to my Teuto project or try new hard routes grew. The remainder of the holiday turned out to be a disappointment with respect to climbing: the weather is terrible now and will only get worse in the week to come. On the few days with good weather my usual climbing partners were occupied, injured or in Spain, so last Saturday I went bouldering in Avalonia instead.  I hadn't been there for two months and I could make a quick ascent of my seventh 7B+ (and probably the most fingery one, deadhang training seems to be paying off at last). Nevertheless it couldn't give me the satisfaction I seek: when in route climbing mode I find it hard to switch back to bouldering. Or maybe I've just climbed in Ruhrtal too often and simply need a change of scenery. Problem is: most interesting bouldering destinations are quite a bit further from home... 

But in the next week massive amounts of rain will spoil all opportunities anyway. Back to training then! I'll abide my time and wait for the stars to align for the next ascent. In the meantime I'll prepare my body for the upcoming challenges pulling plastic in my attic or Cube bouldergym. I'll write again when there's something to write about. For now I have this small video of two boulders I climbed in Avalonia last weekend:

Oil crisis conquered!

Last sunday I climbed Ölkrise! It was a perfect spring day (in Februari...) with sun, cool air and a bit of a breeze. Together with Michelle and our dogs I drove to Avalonia in the morning, hoping to be ahead of the crowd that usually hits the area on Sundays like this. And we were, it was delightfully quiet. I warmed up by flashing 'Limbo für Anfänger' 6A and 'Limbo' 7A, two problems that I've looked upon a few times already, but never touched before because I wasn't sure about their definitions. This time I'd taken the effort to look them up. Both turned out to be good fun and very easy for their grades. In the meantime, Michelle and Cash enjoyed the sun that rids sector 'Galerie' from the cold almost all day long. Vienna and London were too occupied to mind any of us, chasing each other through the rustling leaves that cover the hillside.

I turned my attention to Ölkrise. I found two small improvements of my sequence the previous time and I repeated them in my minds eye. I knew I would only have a few good attempts and I shouldn't waste any of them on unnecessary mistakes. Ölkrise is a relatively long boulder with the hardest moves at the end, so once fatigue kicks in, the chance of success diminishes rapidly. The best attempts are the first. This time I made them count: I climbed it on my second go. Wether due to good conditions, the best company or the complete tranquility, everything felt right and I felt strong.

During two sessions I climbed the separate parts 'Kleine Ölkrise Teil I' and 'Kleine Ölkrise Teil II' and only then I realized that I could maybe climb the full line, something that seemed completely impossible last year. I started visiting Avalonia with the main goal of climbing Ölkrise, but it took another three days (including last sunday) to climb it. That's a lot of time for a single boulder, something I tend to avoid. But it was worth it! Although it doesn't reflect in the numbers, it certainly feels like the hardest boulder I climbed to date. I'm satisfied and happy I can turn to new projects again! Maybe something in Glees or Nideggen soon? Or maybe even some roped climbing if the weather stays good...

Another one bites the dust...

Another failed attempt to climb Ölkrise last weekend. As I made attempts, this time accompanied by Erik, I found two small refinements of my sequence, making the hardest move (a heinous crossover into a fully stretched position that nearly makes your abs squize out your intestines) a notch easier. Although I feel that with these improvements I should be well capable of climbing the boulder (I can do the individual moves quite easily by now), I failed again to do so. Fatigue kicked in rapidly and when eventually - after about ten attempts too many - the skin of my index finger split, I was forced to give up again.

Despite being worn down already I somehow still managed to climb 'Zerrissene Welten' 7B+ in the Katla Cave, maybe because it is quite short, but probably because it simply isn't that hard. Just like 'Drachenrachen' and 'Black Smoke, White Wings' it's one of the first boulders of the cave, opened by the German topper Daniel Jung in 2008. A true heartbreaker was falling when my foot slipped while matching the final hold: I had to go through the painful fingerlock crux again... I captured some footage of the ascent and tried to make the best of the low light conditions of the dark Katla Cave at the end of an overcast day and experimented 'a bit' with film burns and grunge effects. Deliberate overkill, I hope you like it:

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.

More roof action

Another 7B+ in the Katla Cave (7C before the 'downgrade wave') went down! 'Blumen aus Südafrika' shares the start of Drachenrachen (which I found to be the hardest part when I climbed it last year) followed by a more direct finish. From a good - but painful - fistjam a huge span leads directly to the lip of the roof. Putting your feet next to the fist and making some sort of a foot jam (it comes much closer to hanging from your toes though), it's possible to release the fist jam and go for the good holds over the roof edge. The most surprising thing to me was how easily I could climb the first half, which was a big struggle last year. This time I discovered that I could skip the handjam alltogether, making a long reach to the next hold halfway the roof. Last year I couldn't pull this of, lacking the required body tension. Now it felt easy! After I discover this, it took only a few attempts to climb Blumen aus Südafrika. I made a video of the ascent, but the Katla cave was too crowded to film from multiple angles. Consequently the result is very basic, but I'd like to share it anyway. Also shown is the ascent of the 7A highball 'Die Welle', which I found too thin and scary to climb again and risk my ankles for a fancier video:

During these visits to Avalonia I also started investing time in 'Ölkrise'. It is graded 7B+ as well, but feels much harder to me than all the burly roof climbing of the Katla cave. Technically it's a traverse along a roof edge, but it rises gradually and climbs much more like a super steep arête. With only small, widely spaced holds it's a real test of my finger strength and my ability to maintain body tension on small holds. Last year I couldn't even do several of the moves individually. Now I discovered that I could do them all. The line can be cut in two logical halves (with an alternative exit for the first half). The Ruhrtal locals have named them 'Kleine Ölkrise Teil I' and 'Kleine Ölkrise Teil II' and graded them 7A+ and 7B respectively. I've managed to climb them both in two sessions and started making good links of the complete line. Logically, I can't wait to go back. Climbing Ölkrise will be a step forward and quite possibly my hardest ascent yet!

The grade debate: Katla Cave

Often climbers stand up against grades, calling them irrelevant. Every once in while I do it too, coincidently often when grades make me feel like I'm not progressing. Simultaneously, most climbers find it incredibly important to climb hard. Now that's awkward! We don't like grades (unless of course our most recent ascent had a high grade attached to it), but we do want to measure how hard exactly we climb... Here's a inconvenient truth: grades are our best (if not only) way to measure our ability and to keep track of our progress. And due to their subjective nature, we simply can't avoid to end up having that tedious grade debate every once in a while, to keep the scale from sliding and reach grades based on consensus measured against benchmarks rather than the whims and fancies and bruised egos of individual climbers.

Recently many of the hard boulders in the Katla Cave (Avalonia, Ruhrtal) have been downgraded in the StoneVibes database. It seems to be the conclusion of a debate that has been going on for at least a year: visitors - including me - felt that the boulders were on average overgraded by half a grade. It is slighty painful to downgrade what may have been my first 7C boulder, but in all honesty I have to support the grade corrections. I've gratefully accepted the grades as they were, but deep down I've always known that some of the highest grades I've bouldered might have been too generous. And that stains my feeling of achievement. So let me comment on the downgraded boulders that I have climbed myself:

Layla Mammi in 'Black Smoke, White Wings', before the block came out. Photo by Simon Sticker.

Shelob (previously 7B, now soft 7A+) is the easiest line through the roof with big moves on good holds. With the right beta, it feels no harder than 7A to me, but as the style of climbing suits me well, it might be 7A+.

Kankra (previously 7B, now hard 7A+) is a quasi direct version of Shelob and is in my opinion half a grade harder, making it upper end 7A+. The extension adding most of 'Frau Malzahns Lippenritt' (6C+) makes it 7B for me.

Black Smoke, White Wings (previously 7B+, now soft 7B) has a bit of a grading history. It was opened by Daniel Jung in 2008, who suggested 7B. In 2011 a big block in the roof of the cave didn't survive an act of vandalism and fell down. The crux of Black Smoke changed significantly and the boulder received an upgrade to 7B+. But later an easier sequence involving a very useful footjam was found. With this, Black Smoke isn't much harder than Shelob, just a bit longer and more sustained. 7B is still generous...

Drachenrachen (still 7B+) has a history very similar to that of Black Smoke, White Wings. Opened by Daniel Jung as well in 2008, it got harder when the big block came out of the roof. It did not affect the crux, but made the exit a bit harder. An upgrade to 7C followed. In 2013 after my repeat I discussed the grade with Daniel (Pohl). Within days, it was readjusted to 7B+ on StoneVibes. Coincidence? As a result, Drachenrachen survived the downgrade wave of last week.

Schattenläufer (from 7C+ to 7C to 7B+) was opened last year as a 7C+ by Jonas Winter. When a completely new hold appeared (it literaly shifted down a bit from the roof), the crux sequence got easier and Schattenläufer had to hand in the plus. To me, it was easier then Drachenrachen though. I never bouldered 7C before, but climbed Schattenläufer within 20 minutes... The original sequence should at least be 7C though and that sounds like a nice new goal to me.

Now also on paper Drachenrachen is one of my biggest accomplishments, something I already knew but never fully embraced. It took me three sessions to climb it. Schattenläufer might not be 7C, but even at 7B+ I should be more than happy with the extremely quick ascent I made. But it hurts to admit that I have to restore my goal of bouldering 7C. I guess deep down I already knew this would happen, why else did I refrain from narcissistically boasting the 7C grade in the video I made of my ascent? From the bright side: I have a realistic goal again and I am even more motivated now to go out and try as hard as I can!

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