New Boulder Structure at Bronx Rock (DE)

'Der Aussteiger' is the name they gave it (too many meanings, I'll come back to it later).

Such a clever design and a wonderful simple but effective way of constructing an outdoor boulder facility. Cool in it's way of all the possible moves it provides but most of all because it is outdoors !! Manteling in the open air with an environment that smells of wood makes it remind me of Bleau. Well not exactly, because it misses the great (smell of the) pinewoods of FB, but still a remarkable state of the art, eco-friendly boulderwall. Good on ya there in Wesseling, Germany.

Check out the construction pics and the full article (pdf) on their site.

(source: www.ontopklettern.de)

High Ball Street Art Perspective

WoW !! This is what I call a drawing in with a 'point of view'.

Couch from IKEAaaargh

(source: www.fotostrips.nl - only available in dutch)

Fibram Five Fingers Climbing Shoe

Did you always wonder how a foot-hugging climbing shoe would climb? The first impression is that the climber feels a sort of like the fantasy creature that walks like a frog and is obsessed by his 'precious' (she nearly starts muttering Gollum). The second finding is that the shoe is all but attained for little ledges but the better for smearing at friction routes. Needless to say that the shoe doesn't give the foot much support.

Check the site of outdoorchannel.de where a 'very' subjective test was performed and judge for yourself if this gadget is something worth buying... (p.s. you have to
(source: outdoorchannel.de)

How to take a fall with Sports Climbing?

An article from the German Climbing Site http://www.klettern.de/ dealing with the topic of falling at sports climbing. Looks like a lot of of open doors to me (don't grip the rope/quickdraw while falling) but the good thing is they emphasise on how to do it right. Check for the whole article this link.

FedEx making fun of UPS

Eh, eh, I like this one. The rivalry of FedEx and UPC expressed in funny viral advertisement. Niiiiice, certainly for some Ex-FedEx employees !!

(source: youthedesigner.com)

Upgrading Boulder Wall at Home

Yep, the 'finishing touch' to my own boulder wall will be an extension on top. Maurice (more than) kindly will donate his old wooden plates (incl. nuts) and some grips. This makes it possible to top the wall at nearly 4 metres high and make the boulder routes more challenging.

Hopefully the weather will ease up a little since it rains almost every day for long periods at a time. In the meantime we seak refuge at the climbing gym Centraal and make my project 7A a redpoint ascent. Keep U posted.

Word Cloud Paschnampook

In this case words say more than picures. Hihi...

Natural Games Video Trailer

From 25th to 29th of June.2008, the Natural Games in Millau (Aveyron - France) put together the most impressive outdoor' crazy athletes ! This fusion of four universes gathered for the first time all the people of the outdoor community - climb, ride and fun. Ofcourse I was more interested in the climbing part....
For the climbers amongst you: the interesting part starts at minute 11 untill the end. Amongst this footage is the first ascent of Natural Games (8C) by Adam Ondra. Click picture to start the movie.
(source: petzlcrew.petzlteam.com)

Tomáš Mrázeks own Boulder Gym

There's always a bigger fish in the sea... Don't get me wrong, I love my own boulderwall (see more), but this is a different leaque. Look at how the czech climber Tomáš made an unbelievable bouldering gym from his old attick. The result=UP, and how it was before=BELOW. For more pics in the sequence of constructing see this link to his site.

(source:http://www.tomasmrazek.cz/)

NEW - Anti Climb Paint

Whoever came up with this idea, must be pretty weird... Paint with poisonous properties?

NEW - Photo Gallery of Jorg Verhoeven

As a regular visitor of the website of Jorg Verhoeven (one of the top competition lead climbers of the world) the opening of his Photo Gallery is a good insight in his world of climbing/bouldering. 'N-joy the pics and let it be inspiring !!
(source: www.jorgverhoeven.nl)

Tape and other Catastrophes

Not that I have finger injuries myself right now but the information seems important enough to share with other climbers. Besides that the story also tells about the misunderstandings of the use of tape and, like Wolfgang Güllich used to say: the most important muscle of a climber is the brain. Use it wisely to avoid or otherwise overcome a injury. (this link to the full story).

source: chockstone.org and athlon sports medicine

Update on Sharma and Clarke Mountain

Woah! Incredible as it is in sports, also climbinggrades are still going upward. Some afterthought and reflection on the ... of Clarke Mountainroute made Chris Sharma decide it was worth a big name and a big grade: Jumbo Love - 15.5b (9b), the first of it's kind in de USA.

As the discussion goes, there are two other climbs in the world with a proposed 9B, Akira by Fred Roughling and Ali Hulk sit start extension from Daniel Andrada. Both seemingly different routes from Jumbo Love it is impossible to compare them. Check the blog at BigUpProduction for a more elaborate discussion about the grading. I can't wait to see the footage of this all !!

(source: bigupproductions and climbing.com)

And now for something completely different ...

... and different it is ! One day it came to me to start a blog. And now, 10 months and nearly 10.000 hits later, it still is fun to do. The world is full of strange, funny, awkward and challeging news. To keep track of what's happening and to share it with others is rewarding still. Not everyone is capable of roaming through the "wide-wide-digital-universe-of-everything". So I keep on going and the search for things to share goes on.


And a defenition of different? judge for yourself:

Sharma Redpoints Clark Mountain

255 feet of relentless climbing in one single pitch, that's what Sharma took as his goal. Randy Leavitt, who discovered Clark Mountain limestone and developed many of the routes, meant it to be a 3 pitch route, but Sharma decided otherwise.

As he regarded Es Pontas in Mallorca as the hardest he had ever done so far, now the Clark Mountain route with not so much as a single hand-shake-rest is his newest and hardest feat he says. This mega long single pitch routes are going to be the next level of hard lines, Sharma thinks.

Noteworthy, the attempt(s) were filmed by the BigUpProdutions team and are probably part of the Real Rock Filmtour, which is also coming to the Netherlands !! (see previous post). While typing this post I get sweaty hands of the upcoming footage alone... harw !

(source: climing.com and bigupproductions)

MONK Bouldergym Try Outs

Bericht van MONK !!

"We hebben er lang op moeten wachten, maar het moment is gekomen. Monk mag open! De officiële opening staat gepland op zaterdag 4 oktober en vindt plaats tijdens de Open Dag Cultuur Strijp S. Maar later meer hierover. 4 Oktober is nog dik drie weken weg. Dat duurt ons allemaal een beetje te lang. Daarom gaan we alvast een beetje proefdraaien. Je leest het goed, Monk gaat eerder open! Vanaf aankomende week (38) zijn we geopend op dinsdagavond (vanaf 18:00), vrijdagavond (vanaf 17:00) en zondag (van 12:00 tot 18:00)".

Zie ook meer over de try-out data op de blog van MONK.

The law of Physics (Cop)

yuk, yuk. Take this in nice and slowly. A smart variation on the climbers quote "gravity sucks" ;-))

Climbing in Advertisement

I particularly like the last one. Wish I could insert some extra energy like that..

Daniel Woods Bouldering Jade (V15) - 2007

It's been a while since I have uploaded a movie, but this oldie is worth it all the way.

June 2007, Colorado, Upper Chaos Canyon. Daniel Woods climbs a stunning boulderproblem: Jade - V15 (click picture to start movie).