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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.