Abregenief

Last week I've spent climbing outdoors in and mainly around Orpierre. I could stay with former Dutch Champion Mirjam Verbeek, who owns a gite in Orpierre and is really familiar in the area.

On the second day we drove to St Léger, one of the most beautiful area's I have ever been! I wanted to try a project over there, called Abregenief, 8b, in which I failed to make all the moves two years ago. This time the moves felt pretty easy and I was able to do them all in just one or two tries. Unfortunately it started raining right after my workout and the rain didn't stop for the next two days.

The first day after the rain all the tufas were wet and the water was running trough the big roves from the inside out. We decided to stay in Orpierre, enjoy the sun and to climb many semi-hard routes. I did Game over 8a, and Jusque là, ca va 7c+, both on my second go, besides some other routes. It was nice to feel the rocks again and to just enjoy some cool moves. 

The day after I felt pretty exhausted. Nontheles the rocks were dry, so we drove to St Léger. I gave Abregenief four tries, with my best one ending just 2 holds before the hard part was over. Afterwards I felt really exhausted. The weather forcast for the next day was really good, but I seriously needed a restday, so we decided to hope for the best and wait for saturday.

Saturday I woke up with the sun shining in my room, nice! My body was recoverd, but it was also my last day before returning to Holland, which gave me a lot of presure. The tries on Abregenief didn't go well. It was hot and sweaty, I felt worn out after one week of hard climbing outdoors and the presure made me feel really tensed. After 4 tries, which were getting worse every time, I already gave up the idea of climbing the route. From then on I was completely relaxed and on my 5th try of the day I found myself hanging on the final jug!!! Amazing! 8b, check! I could return home satisfied, with a lot of motivation to keep on training and with a lot of new projects in mind to dream about ;)

Pictures Lead 3

By Tim van der Linden (nkbv)

Lead 3

Yesterday the final national competition of this year was being held in Bergschenhoek. I was leading in the ranking with two 1st places in the previous competitions. I am feeling pretty good at the moment so the goal for this competition was to keep up the good work and top out all the routes. I knew the finals were pretty tough, but I liked the challenge and the route looked so cool that I couldn't wait to climb it! That was the right mindset. I really enjoyed climbing the finals and topped! With 9 out of 9 tops I won this competition and also placed 1st in the final ranking without falling once in three competitions. It has to be said that the routes in the international competitions are way harder, so now it's back to training again to prepare for the first worldcup of this season in Chamonix (12-13th of July).
Pictures are comming soon!

The North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival

My main sponsor, The North Face, is organizing a great event in Kalymnos from the 28th untill the 30th of september this year. Kalymnos is definitely one of the best climbing destinations in the world. It's gonna be a great event with some big names, competitions in every level, big prices and of course a lot of climbing! So don't wait and subscribe yourself. More info on: www.thenorthfacejournal.com/category/kalymnos

Lead 2

Last weekend the second nationale competition of this year was being held in my hometown Amsterdam. The last couple of weeks I am feeling really strong in the training, so this was a good opportunity to see how I would do in a competition. Mentally I felt really good as well and I was able to top out both qualifications and the finals. My feeling was right. Even the finals felt pretty easy! When the competition was over and everybody was leaving the gym I decided to try the mens finals. The route looked really cool, whit a lot of physical moves. After seeing all the men climbing it I knew exactly what to do. The route was hard. Last year it would have scared me, but now I just felt challenged and it was so much fun to make all those crazy moves! In the end I nearly made it to the top. It was a perfect end of a nice competition day. Now I will get back to training to keep up the good work and maybe even get a bit stronger :)


Pictures: Tim van der Linden (nkbv)

Sella Part 3 and Lead 1

The last two climbing days of our Sella trip were pretty exhausting. Elko and I were already pretty worn out. On tuesday we decided to take a look at an other sector called VIPs. There were 3 short 8a's which we wanted to climb all in just one afternoon. We ended up doing none. It's always the same with such high expectations ;)
On the last day we returned to Wild Site once more. After such an intensive week of climbing it was pretty funny to feel how hard even the easier routes got. I onsighted a 7b in which I had to fight like I was climbing an 8b instead :P. Although it was a really nice day and a really nice end of a perfect week.

On saturday morning we dropped Elko at the airport. My flight left in the evening so I decided to spent the day sightseeing in Alicante. Like real tourists (with backpacks and a big camera) we visited all the main sights, ate tapas and enjoyed a huge ice cream.

At 2 a.m. I finally got home. By then I wished I had booked the early flight, because the next day (or actually that same day already :P) was the first national competition of this year. Fortunate I didn't even feel too bad the next day. The competition was fun, the routes were super cool and I even managed to top out all the routes, including the finals! Not too bad after such a week and such a short night rest.

Pictures are comming soon!

Sella Part 2

After our multipitch adventure we really needed a restday. Considering the fact that it is over 20 degrees here is Spain (and we both are spooky white after a long winter in Holland) we decided to go to the beach. First we drove around to see a bit of the beautiful landscape and visited some authentic villages. Around lunchtime we arrived at the beach. We both got a bit tanned and of course also sunburned, exactly like it has to be :P

Today we headed back to sector Wildsite. I had decided to try something a bit more challenging. I was told that there was a nice, resistant 8a+ on really small crimps, called Tirali Valent. Exactly what I was looking for, except for the fact that the route appeared to be just really slightly overhanging, which isn't my strongest point. However, I decided to give it a try and the moves turned out to be really cool. A lot of crossing, extremely technical, but also some more physical and wide moves. In my first go after working the route I got extremely pumped because the route forced me to move really carefully and slowly. I worked the crux sequence once more and found a better solution. At the end of the day I gave the route one more try and I managed to climb it! I hadn't expect to climb this route so soon at all. It's the first time I climb an 8a+ in just 3 tries! Elko managed to finish another 8a+ as well, so all together it was a good day of climbing.

I won't be able to upload any pictures because of the slow internet connection but stay tuned for the updates. The pictures will arrive when I am back in Holland!