Sunday, September 5, 2010

Season premiere

First time outdors today. Went to Fågelberget and the conditions are starting to get there, good friction most of the time but nothing spectacular. Have had a cold the last week and I have to loose a few kilos but besides that it was nice. Really need to get a feel for rock now and particulary vertical rock so I'm a bit prepared for the Font trip in late October. Ok, you can't be prepared for Font but prepareder...


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Construction Time Again

So, I've built another climbing wall or board or whatever with some help from Jim. Earlier this summer I built a small trainingboard at home which was inspired by the Moon school room board but not fullsize. This got me going and I wanted the real deal so after a short "meeting" I got permission to build one for the club aswell which was built to the correct dimensions and angles, within a few percent at least.

For those not familiar with the Moon board, it's a board which overhangs by 40 degrees and is a little over 3 sheets of plywood long, (about 4 meters). The holes are spaced by 20 cm in an exact pattern. When used with the right set of holds users at different locations can share problem with each other. Read all about it at http://www.moonclimbing.com/the-moon-board-c-334_336.html Another idea with the board is that you put up a lot of holds and and "freestyle" new problems from whats on the board instead of setting problems. The concept has been around a while but there are not so many problems to download at the moment. There are now 3 sets of Moon holds but only one is "supported". I read in a thread at ukbouldering.com that Ben promised that they would launch a feature within their webpage where people could share their problems and that they would make problems for the new sets aswell. It hasn't happened yet but I hope it will because the Moon board is an excellent way for small clubs like ours with very few route setters to get in some new ideas in our problems.

A Moon board should have a name and this one got three at the moment and I can't really decide what to go for. The Blue Moon beacause, well it's a Moon board and it's blue. The Matrix because I had to draw lines all over the board to separate the new holes from the 100 something old ones. Or perhaps The Legacy Wall because it's built from the very plywood sheets that the clubs first climbing wall was built from in 1994. This first wall was a portable one, 6 meter high, that we sold ad space on and brought to events, from that we got the money to get it all started. I think the plywood sheets has finally came home now, this was their destiny.

Another picture from our climbing center, the first boulder wall we built but it has been rebuilt or patched 4 or 5 times since then and most of the cheap plywood sheets that was once on it are replaced by decent ones.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sprited Away

Friday night was spent in Kalvsbergen in Geta. An area I've only visited climbing once before so it felt a bit exotic. This springs only climbingtrip you could say. I wanted to climb Henkien Kätkemä and possibly Rytmihäiriö, two very highclass boulders.

I have known of the problems since they were put up in 2005 but I just hadn't got the thumb out of my rear mono.

Henkien Kätkemä is a beautiful slab that was a nice contrast to all the steep climbing I have been doing all spring. I loved the moves on the first two thirds of the problem but the problem was slightly ruined in my opinion by me being able to reach the final holds from the last footholds. Jim being 5 cm shorter didn't have the same luxury and despite doing a very solid job on the lower parts was not able to reach the final holds to get home safely. Obviously it is possible also for shorter climbers but they will have to work abit harder. This is possibly the reason of the slightly different grade opinions I have heard. Well, well worth the visit.

Off to Rytmihäiriö. The other classic of the area, a massive arete with really nice climbing. I was able to get up to the part where it starts to get exiting. It's high and I didn't want to risk my back and legs for it today and only had a couple of pads so I let it be and played my responsible dad card once more. ;-) It remains on my todo list however but I'd like some more pads and beta for the top before commiting because it IS high.

On the picture, Jim's doing some solid climbing on Henkien Kätkemä, but no cigarr today.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Frustration is...

...climbing your project with a but.

Happened me tonight at Kasviken. Lovely evening by the way, with perfect conditions again, couldn't belive it!

Sent Evätys and here comes the but, when I removed my left heelhook from the left edge my toe touched the neighbouring rock. Didn't help me in any way, in fact it was just a distraction.

Of course I wanted to climb it again, clean this time but I didn't have enough energy and time left so I just couldn't make it happen.

Well, now I know the moves and just have to do it again for that loveley piece of mind without a but.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Climb like there is no tomorrow

"Climb like there is no tomorrow" is the recent tactics.

The last weeks high temperatures has been really annoying. Shortest spring season ever? However friday night was one of the better this season probably because of the lowered expectations. The temperature was nice, and the friction was ok. Even did some new moves on the problems I'm working on.

Jim also got to work out some new moves on his project.



The weather forecast shows cooler temps for next week but let's see if I will have time to do some climbing then, at least my woodie will be finished in next week. I really look forward into going into a period of training again and hope to stay in one piece and to get out stronger in the fall.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Popped the Glock

First I would like to say that it was nice to see that even though there was a lot of visiting climbers here over May Day it seems like everybody used sense parking and took their garbage with them home. Of course you can see that there has been more climbers than usual but that is to be expected and no permanent damage was done except a few broken holds. This has improved a lot over the years, a few years back there was empty beercans, cigarettebutts and tape all over the places. Nice to see that people are aware. Still you can find traces after fireplaces though, which is not ok.

Pop the Glock was a really enjoyable climb which didn't take very long to complete. There was no real crux move but very even and nice climbing. Think I did it in my second attempt after figuring out the moves.

I think I will dial down a bit on the Mongooli efforts and instead do some easier climbs aswell because I don't know how much I have left of this season because when the baby comes it will probably be a bit less climbing for a while. I have realized that I'm probably not strong enough for Mongooli right now and that it's most likely fingerstrength that is lacking. I will work on this during the summer and come back to it in the fall. I have not done all the moves and the moves I have done I can't do all the time so it will take a long time to link it and I might aswell become stronger on other stuff in the meantime.



Popping the Glock

Saturday, May 1, 2010

May Day

May Day usually means lot of climbers in Åland, this year also. Yesterday we went to Djupviken but it was really crowded and the air was damp so the whole situation didn't invite to any climbing. Today was somewhat better so Emrik and I went to Kasviken to meet up with Erik.


More cars than usual at the Kasviken parking, but no record from what I've heard.

The conditions was better than yesterday but the "stick" was not really there and Mongooli was partially damp. We'll conditions was good enough for Anthony Gullsten to flash it in between my attempts and after have been climbing Dodo sitstart earlier in the day.

My attempts was better than last time, was able to do the 3 first moves, which for me is right into gaston, match with left, turn over right into undercling, but not all at the same try. This will take some time, I know I said that for Game Over also but this time it's most probably for real because I don't just have to figure out the sequence, I have to get a bit stronger aswell I think.

Finnished off the day with some work on Pop the Glock wich is much more reachable, did the problem in two sections so I think I can do it soon, there is also a cunning kneebar in the middle which allows no hands rest if you can get into it but I haven't tried that one yet.


Dodo and Mundo Gania, popular today.



Erik Massih

Monday, April 26, 2010

Game on and Over

Jan and I was talking about bouldering last weekend and how we used to say it is much simpler than rope climbing in that you don't need a rope and a whole lot of gear, just shoes and a chalkbag. Something must have gone wrong because today I was carrying about 30 kg of gear including 3 pads and bag up the hill to get to the Kasviken boulders.

Felt unmotivated to warm up so it got a bit sloppy, just wanted to get going, the plan was to figure out the missing link on "Game Over" so it would be game on, so to say, to start the real attempts on the problem. I had based my solution on a video of Peter Bosma climbing the problem I had found on his site, he obviously has some overcapacity for the problem so I had to finetune it a bit to work for me. Taking any swing during the climb was not an option, I didn't have the strength to control it. The last moves was also too dependent on fingerstrength so I had to add in a few more moves. I thougt I had the "finbeta" for this problem now and started working. First go I totally forgot the sequence leading into the end but second go was a success.

I worked the problem for 4 session prior to today and I rate it as my best climb so far both in difficulty and in beauty of the moves. On first session I was totally lost and certain that it must be harder than my other personal best, now I realize that it's in the same ballpark and I would have had a little more to give. Without the Bosma video it would probably have taken me much longer to figure a problem as hard as this out.

Looking forward to something new!

Again the sun was f**king up my video.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Got a Life



Jim on "Voodoo", next to "Geta Life".

Today I took an intermission from my efforts on "Game Over", on which I by the way now only lack one move before I can start trying the whole thing, to have a more social climbing session in Djupviken with my family, Jim and Jan with his sons.

One thing led to another, not exactly, I had an hidden agenda, and it was time to try my longtime project "Geta Life" which I started to work on in 2003, but to be honest I only did a couple of sessions on then, and then not so much, and now this was the first session after the 7 year rest.

My plan was to use the method that Tomi Nytorp does in the "Å movie", that is going with the left hand first. It felt wrong for a few reasons, one reason was that I was looking straight into the sun when doing the move, another that I had been working a method going with the right hand first. If I would compare the methods without having done the left hand first version I would say my method has a shorter dyno, only have to move the right hand about 40 cm but with my method it is all points off and I also think the swing is more violent but overall it felt more natural for me.

Speaking of natural, "Geta Life" was about 80 percent or more about breaking the mental block I had to do the dyno, to talk my brain into the idea of letting go of two if not perfectly good, at least two reasonably good holds while hanging with the back to the ground and go into an uncertain future. After atleast 20 attempts to do the dyno with better and better result I finally had the guts to go for it fully and to take the swing. Then it took 3 or 4 more tries from the beginning to get the problem bagged. Did it on what I promised the others would be the final go and with only a couple of layers left before splitting one of my fingertips.

It was not the most stylish ascent the problem has seen but an ascent never the less, and also the first local one. I also apologize for the movie quality, the sun was working against me in more than one way.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Family event at Kasviken



Sandra taking her first steps on the real deal after a couple of months of pulling plastics.


Nice day at Kasviken after yesterdays disapointment when everything was wet, cold and rainy. Got the whole family with me and Jim and Sandra also joined us, Sandra was doing her first outdoor climbing ever and seemed to enjoy it, that's not the usual reaction from someone who has only been climbing indoors before in my experience so that was nice to see. It usually takes a little time to get used to the rock and the fact that all holds are not obvious.

After my warm-up I was able to tick off one of the problems on my list when I climbed the 7b:ish sitstart on the rock beneth the Dodo block. It's not the most beutiful problem there is but the climbing is quite nice.

Then it was off to work on "Game Over", unfortunaltely I don't have any pictures from that because todays digital cameras don't have fast enough shutter times to capture me on it. Well, it was not that bad but this is a problem which will take me a little more time, I have not done all moves yet and it really attacks all my weakness at the same and mostly my open hand strength and toe-hooking abilities. I did improvements compared to my friday session on it but it's still far away. A bit hard to work on for me with only one or two pads but I have a lot to learn from it which is inspiring.


Dani and Emrik seeking shadow under the "Game Over" roof


Video update:

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Supermartikainen, tick.



Jim Lindholm warming up.


Today was my second session on "Supermartikainen", if I don't count my attempts in 2004.

The weather was perfect and I had carbo loaded with a pizza the night before. The only worry was that I would not have enough skin because I had been running low on that lately.

We started with the usual warmup at "Västernblocket" and then it was off to the main attraction of the day where both Jim and I did a couple of ascent of the standstart just to feel that it will not be a problem when arriving there. The only thing for me on the standstart is the final move which never feels totally safe for me. Then I did some attempts on the final move I had not got yet, the letting go with the left foot to get into the starting position of the final part. I tried to find the trick but later it turned out that the trick was just to hang on to the crimper a bit harder. Got it a couple of times.

On my first two attempts after learning all the moves I fell on the crimper, feeling that I could almost hold it. On the third attempt I crimped harder. I had told Jim to remind me to do so, I don't know if it helped but at least we got documented on film what swearing sounds like in "åländska". ;-)

I can't tell how happy I was to do the problem but you can probably hear from the video. The happiness did not just come from the fact that I was doing one of my best climbs ever but also because I could now move on to something else, the season is short and I didn't want to spend all of it on this problem, it's not that good. What's next? Lets see where we end up this weekend, hope for good weather and good company from sweden and take it from there.


Sunday, April 11, 2010

Mondo for Mondeo

While changing to summer tires on our cars I figured out a way to fit in the Black Diamond Mondo pad into the trunk of our Ford Mondeo. I think there also will be room to fit in 2 pair of shoes and chalkbag.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

My Wet Dream


Felt a bit desperate driving to Geta. It was raining yesterday and the mist this morning and yesterday was not of this world. However, I had been looking forward to this all week so the slight chance that something was dry was enough.

Arriving at Djupviken I could see that at least the snow was no longer an issue, although a bit annoying at times. It was a bit strange that some problems were soaking and others were velcro dry. I was able to find warm-ups and then repeated "Hammas" in a couple of tries and "Steel pulse" which took a bit longer, I can never remember my beta for this problem but once I got it, it felt quite easy. It was only the third time I have been able to climb this problem.

Then it was on to "Supermartikainen". This is the one I have started dreaming about now after "Dodo", unfortunately it was wet. I was able to dry it to an acceptable level to start trying the moves. After looking at videos I have realized that my earlier tries in 2004 something when I broke the starting foothold was the proper sitstart. Now I'm going for the crouching start which seems to be the standard. I was able to do most of the slapping and the falling into the crimper but I was not able to control the swing when letting go with the left foot. Didn't try the top part because I was alone and it can be a bit dangerous without a spot, at least when it's a bit wet like today.

The original "Martikainen" is one of the problems in Djupviken with the most "first ascents" and I think if we should be strict it should be called "Gammelgäddan" because I think it was the swedes who climbed it first, then came the finns and did "Martikainen". A year or so later, around 2000, Jim and I did another "first ascent" and we named it "Nemas Problemas", I'm probably a bit biased but I think our name was the coolest ;-). Whatever name, the line is one of the best in Djupviken and it will be nice to work the low start because it's not really a climbingstyle that I'm used to.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Did Dodo


It's spring again, at least a little. The easter was supposed to be the big kick-off for the season but almost all problems were wet. Fortunately "Dodo" was dry so we were able to climb on it on thursday and friday.

Dodo is a bit hard to warm up on so on friday we had learnt our lesson and went to Vikingahallen for some indoor warm-up.

My first more serious attempts on the problem was last fall when Marko and Kikka were visiting but then I had a recently split finger tip and an aching knee so I didn't get much more out of it than the idea that it was very possible for me. Then came a finger injury so most of the fall and early winter was spent on the still rings and only a couple of months of climbing so the plan was to do the problem "this spring".

Thursdays attempts was no better than in the fall because I didn't find the correct footposition for my left which for me was the key to the problem, on friday I got the position right and that in combination with Erik Massihs contagious energy and Jim Lindholms trusty spotting it all went well. Ok, after my first success on taking the upper crux-move crimper I was helicoptered down from big holds on the lip but the go after that I was able to hold it and after that the top-out is a formality.

This opened up my climbing calendar for the spring but that's not a problem, I have much left on my ticklist. Ah, it feels good to be alive and ticking!



Photo and video by Erik Massih.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

No job, a blog and a dog

I just realized I fit into too few of the climber stereotypes which in short seems to be: no job, a blog and a dog. And a camera of course.

Well, I got the camera and now I have a blog. I hope to keep my job, being a family father and all that and the two cats will have to substitute the dog part.

The blog is mostly for my own reading, a diary of my climbing and related issues, but I will write in english so that anyone interested can follow.

Let the games begin.