The Mojo Project

Today was the second day this year on my old "Mojo" project from around 2003-2004. In fact, so old is this project that it needs a good cleaning again but the lower parts are clean enough until I get the time to clean the top again. From what I remember from back then the top looked allright when I cleaned it but I could never do the starting moves to get up to try them.

The problem starts as a slab or slightly less than vertical and finsishes with a small overhang. I still think, and hope, that the crux will be somewhere in the beginning and I can now semi consistently do the first few moves but get stuck in a position where most of my weight is on the foot that needs to be moved next so that has to be figured out next. It starts with a ok knob like hold for the left hand and a good foothold for the right foot. Step up and take a bad gaston with the right, mostly for balance, put the left foot on a bad foothold to get the right foot up on a better foothold but that is hard to get much weight over. For the right hand now there are a few options that has been tried but not succesfully. The object is to move the left foot up a bit to a good foothold to get some rest befored doing the top.

I don't know how hard the problem will be, I guess it will be the hardest problem I have put up but probably not the hardest one I climbed. It definetly will take some effort and much of it will be problem solving which I mostly do alone. Maybe it won't be so hard after all when the moves are figured out.

I hope I can get a few good sessions on it this spring and get it cleaned up and who knows. I really love the problem and could probably spend more time there than the rest of my family would like me to.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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