New season!

I still don't really know why I didn't write a decent wrap up for the last season, because in the end it wasn't really that bad. Although I didn't get outdoors nearly as much as I had wanted to, I climbed enough to discover that the disciplined training I've put myself through this winter is paying off and I am getting stronger again. Honestly, that's quite a relief after the absolute lack of results since April last year. After the initial (and undeniable) gains of installing my woody I got stuck in doing the same bouldering routine over and over again, which turned out to be equally effective as flogging a dead horse. Totally unnecessarily though, because essentially I have a luxury version (it has a window) of the dark and damp training dungeons that got British pioneers like Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt to the top of their game 20 years ago. It feels like only now I'm learning to use it properly with the help of some fancy training books offering the latest insights in climbing training. Somehow it seems though that said heroes like Moon and Moffatt were doing awkwardly similar things long before these books were written...

Ode to old school! Released in 1996, 'The Real Thing' was the first ever real bouldering movie.

Don't forget to watch parts 2 and 3!

Anyway, let's talk about me. I still haven't bragged about the last Teuto session halfway March and it's already a while ago since I shared how far my ego drifted off during the preceding session. It's baffling how little is needed to feed it! During the last session, my confidence got another boost. By failing. Now that's a rare thing. Usually failure frustrates me beyond reason, but this time I had no expectations whatsoever and got surprised by falling on the last hard move of my intended summer project. Twice! Reality check: the last move is a real bitch. It's a very powerful, technical deadpoint that requires accuracy. Although I can do it consistently when rested, it's horribly hard to do when fatigued and it's right at the end of a 16 move power endurance sequence. There can be a really long way between falling on the last move and doing the last move here… Nevertheless it's right on top of my goal list for the next season!

Fast forward to today: as I am writing this, over a month of the second training cycle has past already. The mentally draining strength phase is done and I've started working on power already. I carefully logged my trainings again and the results are quite insightful. I've described the training before, so I'll go straight to the results. Below are the graphs displaying the data from both season 1 and 2.

Time under tension (T.U.T., i.e. total time spent hanging) and Volume (integral of total load over time).

Added load per grip position (negative load implies weight was substracted). Grip positions are listed in chronological training order. The 'front 2' grip position (middle and index finger) has been added to the routine in season 2. The plateau on the 'Big Sloper' position is deliberate as the purpose is to warm up the elbows and shoulders (and not injure them).

Total load equals body weight plus added load and is used to calculate training volume.

Boring details (skip to Summary for the conclusions):
Having to build on a previous season brings the difficult choice of the starting loads of the first training. In the nearly three months between strength cycle 1 and strength cycle 2 detraining occurs: some strength is lost and it's unrealistic to expect to pick up right where I stopped. The aim is to surpass the previous highpoint at the end of the cycle though. Having no real clue what to choose, I varied the drop a bit per grip position: on the '4 finger open' hang I didn't drop weight at all, on 'front 3' I dropped 8 kg, on '4 finger half crimp' 6 kg and on 'mid 2' 4 kg.

To explain the additional drop for the last three after two trainings, I have to admit to making the stupid mistake of neglecting the advice of sticking to a 30 day regime of hangboarding exclusively. I broke the discipline already after the first training by squeezing in an outdoor bouldering session in Avalonia. I climbed six 7's in a day, but payed for it during hangboard trainings 2 and 3. They were terrible and I felt so weak that I decided to drop weight on the mentioned hangs after training 2.

Based on the results, it seems that dropping more weight is better: for the '4 finger half crimp' and 'mid 2' positions the weight drop was small and I only matched the highpoint of season 1. I wonder if I would have surpassed it if I hadn't gone out to Avalonia though… 'Back 3' had a slightly bigger drop (6 kg) and surpassed the previous season by 2 kg, 'front 3' had the biggest drop (8 kg) and the biggest gains (6 kg). The '4 finger open' positions seems to contradict the trend with no drop and a progression of 6 kg as well, but I think this particular grip position did benefit a lot from the campus training I did after the first strength cycle. With that in mind, it's spectacular that the 'front 3' grip has progressed 6 kg as well, especially since I did complete the 'front 3' hang on training 10 and failed to complete the '4 finger open' hang.

Because of the drop in load, a corresponding drop in training volume is expected at the start of a new cycle. It doesn't show up here, because the T.U.T. was increased by adding a new grip position to the routine. On this position ('front 2') I hit a brick wall during the last five trainings and wasn't able to progress anymore. I have no idea why. Next season I'll start with an even lower load and see what that does.

Summary:
The implications now, for those interested in hangboard training themselves and for future me, who should really, really read this before starting the third hangboard season:

• Stick to the program, don't do anything that interferes with the hangboard trainings. That means no hard climbing: the forearms get two full rest days between trainings. I did an hour of crossfit training for arm, core and shoulder strength and injury prevention on every first rest day, which seemed to work fine.
• Drop back in load significantly from the end of the previous cycle. Make sure it's high enough to be able to surpass the previous high point at the end of the cycle. Next season I'll try to drop back 10 kg. With a possible progression of 2 kg per training, it should be possible to match the previous highpoint during training 6. That leaves 4 trainings to try and surpass it.

New found strength

Everything seemed to line up to make my first training cycle end in disaster. I had to cancel the trip to Spain for which I more or less planned the entire cycle and closer to home winter condition lingered on, making sports climbing impossible. Stubbornly I ventured to Ith, but failed to get warm enough in the ice cold wind to climb anything hard. Equally demotivating was the flu I struggled with for more than a month, culminating in a bronchitis infection right at the planned fitness peak at the end of the training cycle. I felt anything but fit and saw the chances to reap the rewards of the hard work slipping away rapidly.

But right when I got desperately frustrated, my mood hit all time lows and I considered starting up a new training cycle without achieving a single climbing goal in the first, a spell of spring arrived out of nowhere and sparked my enthusiasm. Two afternoons in Teuto with Frans and Koen were all it gave me - normally a second choice option in any occasion - but they gave me exactly what I needed to finish the training cycle and get psyched to start a new one. On the first afternoon (with Frans) I climbed the power endurance route 'Stamina' (7b+) in Plisseetal. Allthough gradewise that isn't new ground, I was shocked by how easily I climbed it, feeling fitter than I've ever done before. I continued working the moves of an extension (making it 7c/7c+) and fell on the last move when I gave it an attempt. On the second afternoon (with Koen) I climbed the extension on the first attempt. Meanwhile, in a vulgar display of fitness, Koen impressively flashed Stamina.

Having quite some time left owing to our quick ascents, we walked to Schinder, home to the 7c+ project that threw me off many times last year. It has a powerful crux halfway, followed by a short power endurance section to a great rest just two moves below the top (one tricky, one easy). Last year, I only occasionally managed to get through the first crux and when I did, I lacked the power endurance to reach the resting position. Now, I climbed through the powerful crux moves immediately and climbed to the rest with a feeling of mastery and control that seemed impossible last year. I rested, did the tricky move and then made the monumental fuck up to let a foot slip, preventing me from clipping the chain. With all the hard climbing done, I blew the formality of finishing it correctly. The 'real' goal is climbing the same line without the good rest, changing the finishing sequence completely and adding a 7A/7A+ boulder problem at the end of a demanding route. Climbing it with the rest therefore only is an intermediate goal, mostly a psychological support in building the believe that the ultimate goal is possible. Until this day that goal felt way out off my leage, but having finished the easier variation for all but clipping the chains, I started to believe. I've never been as strong as I am now. Having spent many time on Schinder in the past years, it's hard cruxes and sustained link ups are the best benchmark I have and I've never done them as easily as I did them this day. It's time to commit to my hardest project yet and consider the intermediate, easier 7c+ goal as done!

Two afternoons in Teuto turned out to yield the strongest climbing I've done in a long time and provided the closure for my training cycle right at the moment I'd lost believe in it ever happening. The new training regime pays off, I'm progressing again and I've gained the confidence to start believing in a next level project. It'll be on my mind during every training of the new cycle I'll start next week. Back to training!

From the archive: my first time on Schinder back in my hair days almost four years ago. In the picture I struggle on the moves of 'Banane' (7a+). It's fun to look back and realize how much I've progressed in the meantime.

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!

Berdorf again...

August was cursed. At least that's what we thought. On the first of September exactly the skies cleared up and rain stopped to fall. After waiting for a dry spell for weeks, Koen, Frans and I didn't waste any time and drove to Berdorf, our moods lightened up by the good weather forecasts and a happy Vienna. When we arrived just after midday however, everything looked suspiciously wet. Although it was sunny now, it turned out that it had rained heavily for four hours straight in the morning. Ironically, it had all fallen from a cloud that was so small that it was barely visible on the precipitation radar. Apparently the August curse didn't limit itself to August as much as we thought it did...

It took us some time to accept the fact that all routes - including the overhangs - were wet and to set our minds to easier climbing. Failing to climb a 6a+ warmup route wasn't exactly the start I had hoped for... Stubbornly I fumbled around a bit in a hard combination on sector Nikita, but got shut down by the hard roof boulder of Ayrton. The crucial pinch was wet and despite attempts to dry it, water kept seeping through the rock as if it were a sponge. Switching to easier climbing made the trip very enjoyable though. I even managed to do the last 7a I had left in Berdorf ('La Sans Nom') in my first attempt on sunday afternoon. Save for a final few 6th grade routes (6 to be precise), there's only really hard stuff left for me in Berdorf now... Time to visit some other climbing areas!

I'll miss the superb campground next to the crag, pizzeria 'Venezia' in Echternacherbrück, the 'Kebab House' in Echternach, the enchanting forest of the Müllerthal and running through all the little canyons and rock formations during my morning walks with Vienna though. Maybe we'll go back soon after all. There are still some very good hard routes waiting to be climbed... Who knows!

I can only hope September and October will be dry. A few more opportunities to add some ascents to this sports climbing season would be great. I'll check in here soon again, either to write about more rock trips, or to share the second part of the nutrition series. So 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!

Holiday recap

Just a few more days and the summer holidays are over. Due to several reasons I didn't get to climbing outdoors nearly as much as I'd wanted, but other things in life sometimes get in the way of our desires... On the bright side, I'm paving the way to a nearby future that gives me the flexibility to climb more and achieve my goals. If that means a little less rock climbing now, I consider it a good investment. That said, I did get out a bit and in particular two days in Berdorf with Frans stand out. I finally climbed an old Nemesis that somehow slipped through my fingers on a few occasions when I tried it at the end of previous visits: the beautiful 'Kaffisdous'. It's the final 7a+ I hadn't yet climbed in Berdorf and with an easy start and a hard 12 move power endurance finish it should be right up my alley, but long story short it turned out to be a real pain in the neck to climb it. Consequently, I was very happy to do it now with Frans. Followed by an unexpectedly quick ascent of the vertical 'Tapis Roulant' 7b+ with a very fingery boulder crux on my second attempt (while putting up the quickdraws...) and an ascent of the vertical technotour 'Superschlup' 7b (generously graded 7b+ in the guide with an ambiguous definition) on my first attempt, the results of this trip are the highlights of the holiday. Other short excursions to rock unfortunately didn't give the desired results. I've been puzzled by a bit of a summer dip similar to the one I experienced last year and started to suspect that food and sleep could play a big role in it. So I made some alterations in my diet and I'll write more on that soon! Additionally I'm implementing changes in the way I train, with more attention for general fitness, injury prevention and flexibility. Also more on that soon... Now, I'll set my mind to the next year of work, getting back behind the school desks myself and I'll dream about the places I'd like to visit while saving for a van that can get me there with the dogs. Meanwhile, I'll be training my ass off to shine whenever it's time again.

Ups and downs

I promised to write again when there's something to write about. There is - or rather has been - already a week ago. Within a day after the last rain and quite literaly in the first rays of sunlight I went back to Teuto on Thursday evening. Belayed by Matt I managed to climb 'Banane ohne Rampe' (7c+), after almost four weeks of waiting to get back on it. It was very satisfying and like often on a hard readpoint it didn't feel very hard anymore when I climbed it. It's easy to forget how often I've fallen off and discredit the accomplishment... I shouldn't though, this is my second route higher than 7c and another confirmation I've breached that ceiling!

I didn't film my ascent of Banane ohne Rampe (it was quite dark), but here's a screenshot of a video I made while working it on the previous session. The picture shows the onset of the final hard move.

Last weekend the weather forecasts were incredibly good for the Twente/NRW region and Matt and I ventured to Ith for another day of rock climbing. Matt convinced me to visit the Bisperoder Klippen, which offers lots of easy climbing and a few interesting butresses with a selection of high quality harder routes. It's a quiet area, probably because of the long approach walk: about an hour. We were told about a shorter (but tricky to find) way though and decided to give that a shot. It ended up taking us over 80 minutes of wandering, but on the way back we were much more efficient. Let's consider it an investment in future visits. And there will be a future visit: as it turned out, the weather in Ith wasn't quite as good as it was nearer to home. After a failed onsight attempt on the first serious route - 'Zingulum' 9- (7b+) - it started raining quite heavily. It didn't stop for the rest of the day and although it's overhanging, the route got very damp. I'd like to blame the conditions for not sending Zingulum, but in all honesty I felt weak the entire day. I may not have done it in good conditions either... On top of that it turned out that there is an easier sequence than the one we used. I'll go back later to give it a shot! I guess I can't expect to peak on every day outside...

But right now, I'll have to wait. My students have finished their final exams and I'm busy correcting their work for the next two weeks. I'd be surprised if there's much time left for climbing. 

8a

Three and a half year ago, on September 23, 2010, I climbed my first 7a route in a small climbing area in Spain. Only four days earlier I struggled to climb my second 6c and in an optimistic blur I decided just to give it a shot. And it paid off, I climbed my first route in the 7th grade. It always seemed the realm of super hard climbing, only accessible through hard training, requiring near mutant physical abilities. And then all of the sudden I realized that a 7a was just a very hard 6c. Nothing magical about it. When I got back home, I set myself the goal to climb 8a and I started training. Last weekend, after many training sessions, a shift of emphasis towards bouldering, a broken ankle and lots and lots of failed attempts to conquer new terrain, I climbed that first 8a. Everything is possible!

Last weekend seemed to be the only time frame Koen and I could find in which we both had time to climb. So we ignored the dodgy weather forecasts and drove to Northern France. We both had unfinished business on the red sandstone cliffs of the Vosges Park. Last August I failed to climb 'Traité de Déversification' during a five day trip to Grotte du Brotsch and Koen spent six days across the past year to attempt 'La Taille et la Gamelle' in Kronthal. Two men, two 8a projects and two days to climb them. And a dog. Little London came along on her first camping trip to lighten up the mood and make us forget the redpoint pressure.

Long story short we were incredibly lucky with the weather and we both climbed our projects. I topped mine on Saturday at 16:30 after six failed attempts on the last hard move, Koen his on Sunday morning after working it a bit on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Already on my first attempt I felt that I was much stronger than last year and that climbing the route was possible now. It took some more tries and I even started doubting success again, but in the afternoon it happened. We drove to Kronthal to switch to Koens project. Although being tired from trying mine, he came very close. We both knew he could do it. Despite bad weather forecasts, it was dry and even sunny on Sunday and after a good night's sleep Koen made quick work of his project as well. We were over the moon. All our hard work and all our failures finally paid off in the same weekend. Below is the video I made of our ascents:

So what's next? The immediate urge to climb an 8a is tempered now, although I would like to climb more of them in the time to come. But first I'd like to climb more routes in the upper half of the 7th grade. Finishing Banane Ohne Rampe in Teuto would be a good start. I might even do some bouldering again, I'd be happy to. But who knows, I will run into that perfect next 8a project sooner or later. I simply don't know when I'll find myself on it, but one thing is certain: I'm not done yet and I will try to push the limit further again.

The 7c ceiling

I've been held down by the 7c ceiling for quite a while now. My bouldering level suggests I should be able to climb harder routes and when I climb at 7c level I feel it's not the limit. But somehow it just doesn't happen. Two years ago I climbed my first 7c with 'Apocalypse', a short, bouldery roof climb in Berdorf. It was completely unexpected and just two days after climbing my first 7b. Now I think that Apocalypse is rather 7b+, which partly explains why I wasn't able to climb my next 7c for more than a year. Over ambitiously I tried to climbed 'Cima Ovest' 7c+ over two weekends in Berdorf, but logically failed to deliver. When I topped out three more 7c's last year, I tried something harder again: 'Traité de Deversification' 8a in Grotte du Brotsch. For 5 days I threw myself against it and came very close to an ascent, but ultimately I had to go home without success.

When I kicked off the present rope season a good month ago, I briefly tried 'Strontium 90' 7c+ in Ith. The friction of the sloper in the top crux turned out to be extremely conditions dependent, so I climbed (the eventually much more beautiful) 'Opium fürs Volk' instead. Closer to home in Teuto I quickly dispatched the direct start to 'Alien', yet another 7c. Last year I failed to climb it repeatedly, surprised by how much harder the two move crux felt after a slightly harder start without a resting position. Seeing Erik make quick progress in 'Banane ohne Rampe', I started trying it too. I expected it to be extremely hard as it gets 8a+ in the topo guide, but quickly discovered it was within my reach. It was given 7c+ by the first ascentionists (Peter and Jan Martin from Enschede) and provides just the challenge I need at this stage. I came back once on a brief evening session with Erik and fell twice on the last hard move. Last weekend I received a very last minute invitation from Matt to climb just two hours in the morning. After repeatedly falling of the last hard move again, I started arriving there progressively stronger and less fatigued. And then I stuck the move! Feeling a rush of anxiety, I grabbed the rope to clip the quickdraw between my knees only to find out that I somehow moved my leg between the rope and the draw. Confused, I let go and briefly considered skipping the clip altogether. Realising I'd risk a fatal fall to the ground then, I tried clipping again, this time awkwardly reaching underneath my leg and tangling the rope around it. Trying to get my leg out again, my feet cut loose. I still held on and readjusted my feet, but I felt all the strength flowing away. When I tried to reposition my hand to prepare for the final (easy) move, I finally fell...

Again I failed to break the 7c plateau. I know now that I am capable of doing it. It will happen soon. I'll get back on Banane ohne Rampe whenever I can and next week Koen and I will return to Grotte du Brotsch for two days and I will try Traité de Deversification once more. I'm scared to fail again and excited to get another chance to try it. It is a mental game and I love it. It simply isn't fun when it's easy!

So stay tuned for an update. Soon I might climb 7c+ or even 8a. In the meantime enjoy this video of my doing a chalkless (!) ascent of Alien direkt, 'just' another 7c:

Old project down, new project added...

The day started with a disappointment: due to time constraints we didn't go to Ettringen as planned... But Erik and I did find the time to drive to the Teutoburger Wald and climb there. Now that we can circumvent the strict no-chalk policy with a can of 'Friction+', we can try the hard routes there without worrying about getting finger injuries snapping of slippery holds. We walked straight to sector Schinder, which offers the hardest climbing of the area. Last year I tried the direct start to 'Alien' (making it 7c) and fell of the crux moves at least 20 times without climbing it. Although I knew I could do the powerful dynamic move, I got mentally blocked on it and failed to commit over and over again. Today - about eight months later - I made quick work of it though. It's good to feel powerful!

A screenshot from a video of me in Alien, after executing the crux move (yes, there is a chalkbag on my harness, but it's closed and I did not use any chalk. I carried it up to have a brush for cleaning the holds)

In the meantime Erik started unlocking the sequence of 'Banane ohne Rampe', a logical eliminate of Banane leaving out a big block for the feet, forcing you to climb a much harder line about one meter higher up. According to the first ascentionists Peter and Jan Martin the grade is about 7c+. Erik made good progress while I checked out a crazy combination of Alien and Banane (which involves a very hard slightly down-climbing traverse right after the crux of Alien) and discovered it was a bit harder than I expected. When I noticed that I could do the impossible looking top moves of Banane ohne Rampe relatively easily, I joined Erik on his quest to climb the route. Taking turns, Erik started making serious redpoint attempts while I got completely shut down by a move on small edges before the supposed crux. Lacking the mutant finger strength of Erik, I needed many attempts to find a solution that worked for me: a tricky deadpoint to a crimper. It took all energy that I had left. Eriks dedication paid off though and on an impressive attempt forcing him to dig deep he climbed Banane Ohne Rampe, his hardest ascent in 8 years. Inspiring for sure and very motivating!

A screenshot from a video of Erik looking strong on Banane Ohne Rampe.

One down

Matt and I (and three dogs very happy dogs) went back to Elefantenbäuche determined to get something done this time. As it happened to be quite warm and particularly humid, we thought that holding on to the very friction dependent sloper on Strontium 90 would be impossible and we focussed on Opium fürs Volk instead. To be honest, I expected to do it in two, maybe three attempts. It took more. Moving into the big undercut was much harder than I remembered and I fell twice on that move. The top crux spit me off twice as well, one time literally with a half pad of my fingertips on the jug over the lip... In the meantime, Matt wasn't more successful and we both started to feel the redpoint pressure, contemplating the painful option of having to go home without ticking off Opium fürs Volk.

Finishing the crux of Opium fürs Volk: one more bump up to go to the redeeming jug. Photo taken by Erik during the previous session.

Fifth attempt. Watching my fingers dry after applying the canned magic named 'Friction+' seemed an eternity. With no positions to chalk up on the route, starting with perfectly dry skin makes a big difference. I started concentrated and climbed through the start and the weird, balancy moves on the edges. Moving up to the undercut, my body position was slightly off though and I struggled to catch the hold, but lost my focus in the process. Instead of moving my left foot up first to push myself closer to the undercling, I immediately moved up my other hand, putting myself in a very strenuous position. Wasting even more energy, I corrected my mistake and stepped up. Making the foot moves to prepare for the crux, suddenly 'the flow' returned: I forgot about my tired forearms and focussed on the moves ahead. Almost unconsciously I executed the crux, that suddenly felt awkwardly easy. With a yell of relief I clipped the chains (actually there are just single bolts without backup and no chains in Ith - no 'Deutsche Grundlichkeit' here - but you get the point, right?). Strange how easy hard redpoints often feel on the successful ascent...

Folding up and fiddling with edges halfway up Opium fürs Volk.
Another photo taken by Erik during the previous session.

My success put some additional redpoint pressure on Matt, who usually deals better with the anxiety than I do and wraps ups projects a bit quicker. Not today though and he kept things exciting until his very last attempt. Having nearly given up he reluctantly forced himself to go up one final time. Somewhere he found the perseverance to hold on and sent Opium fürs Volk as well. The first hard(ish) route of the season is down at last! According to plan, more will follow. In the past week though I already missed two opportunities to go back to my 8a project in northern France. I hope I'll have another one soon. In the meantime, I'll try to make some more meters in the upper 7th grade to prepare myself for the 8th grade...

Three old men on the rocks

Having an unclimbed project gets on my nerves. I've managed to deal with the fact that there's an 8a closely within my reach waiting for me in Grotte du Brotsch for more than half a year now. Yet I'm obsessed enough with it to still be able to visualize every single move, hold and foothold on the route. Adding 'Strontium 90' to the project collection though was a bit too much to handle: I simply had to get back to it. Luckily, Matt is just as impatient as I am. This time Erik, psyched by the photo's and stories of our previous visit, came along as well, eager to try a 9+ that doesn't realy look that hard from the ground... Somehow that it deceived Matt and me yet again despite knowing how hard both cruxes felt on our previous attempts. Optimistically we shared Eriks hope of ticking off Strontium 90 today.

I'll spoil the ending: instead of finishing one project, we all ended up going home with two. To make things worse: I know I should have climbed the new project - 'Opium fürs Volk' (7c) - on my second attempt, but I wasted the power required for the crux move on an unnecessary clip...

Matt tackling the top crux of 'Strontium 90'. Note his fashionable hair band, doesn't he look just like Patrick Edlinger?

After a couple of attempts on Strontium 90 I felt fatigued again and my fingers were getting sore of the powerful, steep moves on the unergonomic pockets and edges of the first crux. I peeled off a layer of skin from my fingertips by trying the top crux just once. Wanting to do some different moves on different holds, I turned my attention to Opium fürs Volk, half a grade easier but steeper and more sustained, with the hardest move right at the end. After working my way up doing all the moves, I was blown away by its beauty. Every single move is interesting, technical and demanding, feeling much more like bouldering than typical sports climbing. Athletic throws, delicate balancing on small sidepulls (in an overhang!), pinching, beefy undercuts, heel hooks, compression moves and a deep lock-off are all packed within just 12 meters of rock.

Steep power endurance climbing in 'Opium fürs Volk'. Photo taken by Erik.

I completely forgot about Strontium 90 and gave it a serious attempt. I arrived at the crux near the top and still felt strong. An unclipped quickdraw dangled before my nose and the big undercling in my hands was the last good hold until after the crux. I decided to clip, but underestimated the steepness of the wall and as I wasted a few precious seconds on the clip, I felt the energy being drained from my forearms. I struggled to do the first crux move, heard myself scream and managed to do the second. But then I fell, empty. The next attempt was weaker, but (after a small midways rest) I climbed the top without clipping: much better! While Matt and Erik burned away their last energy by failing to climb an apparently silly hard old-school 8 (in Ith 7a's can be hard...), I rested to prepare for a final attempt. As soon as I set off, I found a good rhythm, moving fast, steady and precise. Within moments I found myself at the big undercut again. I skipped the clip, positioned my feet and made the big, dynamic lunge to catch a small, slopey dish with my left hand. I repositioned again and moved my right hand up into the compression position. My feet cut loose, but somehow I managed to hold the swing and get my right foot into the heel hook. With empty forearms, I bumped up my right hand. To my surprise, it caught the small two finger crimp and I didn't feel the weightless sensation of falling. I bumped up again, to the sloper. Again, I stuck it, not knowing where the strength still came from. One more move. Just one more bump up, less than 30 cm, to the redeeming jug. When I released my right hand to move up, if felt my body going down instead. On the last centimeters it failed on me and I started to fall into the void beneath me.

Compression climbing and heel hooking in the crux of 'Opium fürs Volk'. Photo taken by Erik.

Instead of being frustrated by another day without any successful attempts, I felt pleased again. Coming so close at the end of the day after being beaten up already by Strontium 90, I know I can do the route when I get back fresh and well-rested. Opium fürs Volk made me experience the battle to hold on for life when all muscles want to let go, to fight gravity when all the body wants to be pulled down again. After half a year of bouldering and trying to do the hardest possible moves, I had forgotten how indescribably intense and addictive the feeling is. For me, it's the essence of sports climbing and it's exactly for this reason that only climbing hard gives me the satisfaction that I seek. That said, a sustained sequence of 15 to 20 committing moves is enough for me. I like power endurance climbs and I'll leave the 30 meter pumpfests to others... I found a perfect one today and it's a treat to have this project to come back for!

Boulderers on a leash

Cautiously I scrutinize my knot and show it to Matt for a second opinion.

'Is this what it is supposed to look like?'

Matt shrugs his shoulders.

'Maybe... I does look familiar.'

I agree it does, so it's probably good. I chalk up my fingers. They are sweaty, betraying my nerves. I chalk them up again. There's no way back, I cannot chicken away anymore from the route in front of me on this dauntingly high wall.

'Ready?'

'Ready.'

I'm not. But off I go. One move. Two moves. Two becomes four, and four becomes eight. It feels like an eternity and it's hard to concentrate on so many movements.

'I'm so pumped!'

I yell down. I'm at least three meters above the ground when I pass the first bolt. One more move and the fear kicks in: I'm above the quickdraw... One little mistake and the fall could obviously kill me. But bravely I battle on reach the second bolt. And the third. And the fourth. A big rockover move follows, of course above the quickdraw again. Suddenly I face the terrifying runout that leads to the top. It's a slab that requires nerves of steel and precise footwork on footholds that are only just 30 centimeters deep... I keep my cool though and clip the chains of the first route of the day: a 6a+.

The last time I climbed on a rope was August 31, just over half a year ago. Yesterday Matt and I finally tied in again after a winter of exclusively bouldering. The days are getting longer, it's mostly sunny and temperatures are gradually rising above 10 degrees: it's time to try and translate this winters bouldering gains to more power endurance oriented climbs. And in what nearby place better to this than Ith? With a lot of gear and Vienna packed, we drove to 'Elefantenbäuche'. We've both never been there before but the name clearly points out what to expect and the Elefantenbäuche did not disappoint. It's one of the few remaining crags in Ith with a high concentration of hard routes.

The Elefantenbäuche deliver exactly what the name suggest: two 15m high impressive, bulging overhangs offering a selection of hard routes.

According to our guide book, a route called 'Strontium 90' is the best of the crag. At a grade of 7c+ it's not too off-putting to scare us away and we decided to give it a closer look. Long story short: it kicked our asses, bruised our egos and - weirdly - inspired us greatly. The route starts steep and as soon as your feet lift off the ground the climbing is hard. Powerful moves on small edges and strangely shaped pockets that look good but feel terrible lead to easier and less steep terrain. In a big hole a no hands rest is possible using a knee bar. The second part of the route is nearly vertical with a hard crux around two razor sharp mini crimps (just a few millimeters deep) and a perfectly beautiful, very bad sloper. Despite the availability of some good footholds, the sloper felt nearly impossible to hold on to, let alone make a move from. The crimps appeared to be hungry skin eaters, limiting the available amount of attempts drastically. Both cruxes are of similar difficulty (about 7A+/7B boulder I'd say), but they couldn't be any more different.

While struggling my way up Strontium 90 on top rope, I eventually managed to do all the moves. Matt did all but one (moving away from the sloper). Although it would most likely have been a better idea to work the moves some more on top rope, I felt a strong urge to try and make links on lead and get into that mindset again. I haven't even reached the second crux. I got scared on a move at the end of the first where you have to bump up dynamically from a mono to a high two-finger pocket, high enough above the quickdraw to give the feeling of a ground fall potential.  I know rationally that's not the case with a good belayer such as Matt, but nevertheless it shut me down. After convincing myself to man up I tried again. But I felt battered, beaten into submission by the uncompromising limestone overhang and couldn't pull off the moves anymore. Matt experienced exactly the same. Dusk set in and our bodies failed us. We had to pack our gear and start the long, steep walk back to reach the car before dark.

We were beaten up but somehow very satisfied at the same time. The limestone felt completely alien, the types of movement felt awkward and lead climbing felt almost uncomfortable. A typical first session of a new season. What did we expect? Cruising up the hardest route we've both ever done? As strong as I feel bouldering, as weak I felt on a rope yesterday. Route climbing is indeed a whole different game than bouldering, requiring a different set of skills. Should we have started the season with something easier? I think not. We got our asses kicked, we got humbled and above all we got inspired to sink our teeth into a hard project that will make us much better climbers than we are now. We will be back!