Geology = basic for Bouldering

(pic above: Chilled rims - NW Turkey)

Movements, grading, holds, finger positions, chalk and ofcourse coffee are some basic (conversation) elements for bouldering. BUT it's nothing without an element which exits since the early beginning of time: the rock itself being a major part of the earth. Well ofcourse the earth's surface consists of more than 80%. Geology (from Greek: γη, gê, "earth"; and λόγος, logos, "speech" lit. to talk about the earth) is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed.

And boy what geological features do we encounter in our search for new boulders. Let's be inspired by the beauty and awesome forms earth has in store for us:

Geology = basic for Bouldering

Movements, grading, holds, finger positions, chalk

Jerry Moffat PRO Bouldering Tips

As a teaser before Jerry will have his lecture at MONK, see his PRO advise (click picture) about how boulderproblems need to be handled. And remember, it´s all in the mind.....

Numbers and other things

Today being the 3rd of the 3rd month in the year '09 it seems obvious to search for a picture of a watch showing 03:33:33 03/03/2009... But nope none of such pictures exists (by my knowledge) on the internet. A lot of people have a tic of watching watches set for a whole hour or seeing the mileage of your car turn from 29.999 to 30.000.

So this day a little puzzle for the keen of eye and the ones with a wide perspective.

Look at the picture above as if you are looking through it and focus on a point infinite away. See if you can figure out what lies beyond the figures.

Overzicht klimgebieden Europa - List Climbing Sites Europe

By coincidence I stumbled upon this site of the ESAC (Eindhoven Students Climbing Club) where I found this very helpful list of the most climbing area's in Europe. Just browse around, click the various links and pick your destination. There is only one little snag... the site is in Dutch (but the links are internet lingo). Click the pic above and scroll through the list of countries and sites. Enjoy!

Bouldering Time at Home

Spring is in the air! Which in Holland has a Dubble Dutch meaning of 'just jump in the air'. But indeed, in the morning you smell the distant scent of spring which means time for outdoor climbing and bouldering activities. These are pics from my own bouldering wall at the back of the house.

Climbers ATM

Very convenient...

Ice Wall Optical Illusion

Woah !! this is surreal. Edgar Müller needed 5 days to compile this huge chalk drawing. With five of his assistants, he painted all day long from sunrise to sunset, which resulted with this incredibly realistic and 250 square meter painting. Perhaps he can make something like this about bouldering/climbing as well.

(source: moillusions.com)

Funny Climbing Holds

Because my daughter of nearly four is getting enthousiastic about climbing, my love is going to use climbing as an form of dancing, and my boulderwall is about to grow to 'extended proportions', I am thinking of pimping my boulderwall with some new grips. Besides the obvious favourite holds from SLVTR and AXIS I found some other interesting climbits.

Just a selection from the various shaped climbing holds to be found all around:

Urban Architecture Fonts

This font was created by German designer Lisa Rienermann and was described by Mirage 7 Studio as: "this unique font is specially created for those that eat and breath architecture, it is highly recommended that all students should use it in their architecture presentation board in order to score an A in their design".

I very much like the way the photographer used it's imagination to create such an outcome. Like using your imagination and fantasy to create an solution at bouldering or sportsclimbing.

BE CREATIVE TO CREATE

Winter is over - Let the summer begin

Hmmm, I have had a marvelous week of ice skating in januari, a splendid week of ice climbing in Norway in februari, now it's time to be climbing outside. On the rock, on the concrete bunkers in the dunes, on my own boulderwall in my backyard or the best of all: on one of the rocks strewn around all of Europe !!

And my 'outdoor-home-bouldering-facility' will be extended by a metre and become nearly four metres high. Nearly as high as the wall I climbed at at BAZ 2006. Nearly as good to look forward to as summer (weather).

Video Lynn Hill climbing Midnight Lightning, Yosemite

Click this link for a YouTube video of Lynn Hill climbing Midnight Lightning in may 1998. Truly awesome, especially the mantle move at the end.

(source: youtube)

Jerry Moffatt interview

Interview with Jerry Moffatt, one of the most successful climbers in the world during the 1980's and 1990's. You might know the guy from his climbing and frienship with Wulfgang Güllich, but he also Mark and Antonie Le Menestrel, Patrick Edlinger's, Wolfgang Güllich, Kurt Albert and Stefan Glowacz. Al of them brought the climbing to a new level in their time. Read the interview at Planetmountain.com

(source:planetmountain.com)

FRIDAY THE 13TH COMIC (Calvin&Hobbes)

I think this comic (above) represents a horror scenario for any kid, with an huge amount of fantasy that is. The one below is just the imagination of Calvin running wild. I love that.

Chris Sharma lecture London 25th february 2009

A post I saw just lately on the ukclimbing.com site:

Wednesday 25th February at The Arch Climbing Wall, Chris Sharma will be giving a lecture on the only London date of his visit.Expect the big man to be talking about climbing Jumbo Love 9b, deep water soloing, spanish living, some crazy boulders, and more about what it takes to be one of the best climbers in the world.Places will go faster than a bruce lee kick to the groin, so give us a call on 0207 407 0999 with your card details, or else drop by The Arch to get your place, and have a cup of tea at the same time!Places are £16, £13 conc. Lecture starts at 7pm

For everyone (climber) who is in London at that time I surely would go !

New Book Jerry Moffat - Revelations

At the end of january 2009 a new book from Jerry Moffat has been published. According to the UKC forums on the UKclimbing.com website "Jerry gives a first-hand account of what it takes to be the best: the ups and downs, the extraordinary level of dedication to training and climbing, the iconic characters of the time (Wolfgang Güllich, Kurt Albert, Ron Kauk, John Bachar, Ben Moon, Jean Baptiste Tribout – legends in their own right) that Jerry climbed with and with whom he wrote rock climbing history. As Jerry travelled, the story travels with him. To the gritstone outcrops and limestone dales of the Peak District, the mountain crags and limestone cliffs of North Wales, the south of France, the Frankenjura in Germany, Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Colorado in the USA, Africa and Australia – all major stops in a climbing career littered with cutting edge first ascents and lightning-quick repeats of local testpieces.

It sounds like a good reason to buy the book an read the story yourself (Click this link to buy the book). Perhaps Jerry can be persuaded by the guys from Bl.adO.verK.limmen to come to MONK and give an additional lecture there!!

(source: ukclimbing.com)

Architecture fitted for Climbing

(Munetsugu Hall - Japan)

(Letterboxhouse - Melbourne, Australia)

Ahhhh, just imagine how you can change these houses into the most magnificent bouldering/buildering structures. Specially the Letterboxhouse is well suited for fitting grips and/or using the wooden structure itself for climbing. Only it's a bit prone to bushfires who sadly occur so often in Oz....

(source: thecoolhunter.com)

Trailer Pure Bouldering Video

From the producer of Dosage V - Alpine Blocs comes a 35mm bouldering flick (by Chuck Fryberger) about bouldering on planet Earth: PURE. Pure is about 19 extraordinary climbers in six countries on three continents , with no ropes. Featured Climbers: Nalle Hukkataival, Kevin Jorgeson, Kilian Fischhuber, Anna Stoehr, Fred Nicole, Cody Roth and more. Areas Featured: Rocklands, South Africa; Sonoma County, California; Fountainebleau, France; Innsbruck, Austria plus Colorado, Arco, Italy; La Vallei, Magic Wood and Brione Switzerland. Check this link for a trailer of the movie.

(source: climbing.com)

New movie from BigUp Productions - Progression

At the BigUp Productions site I read they are shooting for a new film named Progression. The footage from the 2nd ascend of Luminance by Kevin Jorgesons will be a part of it. Can't wait to see it ! See for more info this link.

Rjukan Ice Climbing February 2009 - part 2

This day we decided to do a multipitch route in the Mael amphitheatre. Several WI3 and 4 routes seemed in good condition so we wanted an early start. The approach turned out to be a 'little' longer than the topo stated but we arrived warmed up anyway. This said we were only at the end of the road and we had to 'dive' into the forest to get to an abseilpoint from which we would descend into the amphitheatre. The abseil turned out to be unneccesary and we arrived at the bottom after an 20 minutes of bushwhacking or so. Here it became clear that we better should have abseiled anyway because now we were way to low and had to tramp a long way up to the start of the actual routes. All in all we arrived there two hours after we had left the car. So far our early start...

(Hans ascending to the start of the route)

But here the scenery was truly awsome as several icefalls and one spectacular free hanging pilar in particular surrounded us. Four pitches in the grade of WI3 awaited us but the ice conditions made it a bit more serious undertaking than itnormally would have. Straight forward climbing turned out in sustained and good ice it probably was when the writers of the topo visited the area. Now loads of snow and thin and/or incoherent ice were our company on the way up.

(Me ascending the last part in the cirque with the Isroser being the left cascade...

(..and taking the first pitch)

(Hans arriving at the end of the final pitch)

A little battered we arrived at the top but still with enough daylight to orientate our way arount the amphitheatre. The only thing was that we had to plough our way through sometimes waistdeep snow. At the end our navigating skills turned out to be sufficient to get us to the road by which time it was completely dark. With our headtorches on we continued down where upon arriving at the car we considered it as a 'great day in the outdoors'.