World Cup Ice Climbing Cheongsong - Korea 8-9 february 2011

8-9th of february one of the World Cups Ice Climbing is held in Cheongsong Korea. The first time in Asia ever but the Koreans already have shown their capability in ice climbing.

For the Dutch (!) Dennis van Hoek and Marianne van der Steen are entering the competition. Having seen them climbing in the Saas Fee competition in 2010 (see pictures below) and the progression they made since, there might be promising results!

Competition Schedule

8, Jan(Sat)
09:30-10:30
Isolation Open
10:30-17:30
Lead & Speed Qualification, Semi-final

9, Jan(Sun)
09:30-10:30
Isolation Open
10:30-15:30
Lead & Speed Final
16:00-17:00
Awarding & Closing Ceremony

Results and news can be found on http://www.iceclimbing.kr/english/

(source: nkbv.nl)

New Year - New Looks

Happy New Year for everybody and may it be healthy, sporty and with lots of climbingadventures.

Notice that my blog looks different; NEW. But not to worry the content will be changing as well :)). And me too with my Rjukan Ice Climbing T-shirt!! No ice climbing this year but I will surely return.

Climbing moves in Ballet - Dance Escalade

I used to workt for the Dutch Royal Ballet in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) during my early years of climbing. I always have said (and many climbers with me) that climbing is a sort of ballet on the rocks (or wall).
This short footage is of a ballet company who incoporated climbing as a form of ballet in their performance.
Not withstanding the 80-ies and being ballet dancers they perform on (white!)climbing shoes. The climber is supposed to be Patrick Berhault.



Much more energetic and in a boulder style is part 3 of Dance Escalade



source: udini.de

Flashmob Christmas Choral singing Hallelujah

A must see for christmas lovers. A flashmob choral singing Halleluja in a food court. Don't know where but it's great!

How to tie Climbing Knots

Not that the most climbers don't know how to tie these knots, though very handsomely animated, but it's the uses they describe I find most informative. Besides knots to animate children (aka knots who resemble a butterfly or rabbit :)) like the double alpine butterfly) I have found uses for several knots I didn't knew about.

See (LINK TO SITE) and judge the site for yourselves.

And for the quick and smart 'knotters' the lightning way to tie a bowline:Or the One-handed Bowline animation (this LINK for animation):

(source: LinkedIn NKBV-group, animatedknots.com)

Leo Houlding interview after The Prophet on El Capitan

An interview was held with the British rockclimber Leo Houlding after his first ascent of The Prophet on El Capitan, Yosemite, USA. A feat he carried out with his climbing partner Jason Pickles in 6 days in october 2010. The route is grades as E8 7a, 5.13d R, 8b with a length of 510m.

In the interview Leo states: 'a first ascent on El Capitan is, in my eyes, the ultimate achievement in rock climbing... we did it in the best style we could, it's fantastic. It's a lifetime achievement'.

Being a project for Leo for the past ten years (!)'. Maybe his new route will become one of the 'new' classics on El Cap one day.

The full interview is found here.

Coincidently I have watched the climbing movie 'To the center of the universe' of Alexander Huber climbing in Yosemite. Still inspiring to watch !! (see this trailer).

Upload Competition MONK - NEW CONCEPT

WOW is het eerst woord dat me te binnen schiet als ik het nieuws over een nieuw concept van bouldercompetitie lees !!

MONK heeft een eigen concept gelanceerd dat er uit bestaat dat er een zestal boulders als een soort 'package' afgeleverd wordt bij een van de zes verschillende deelnemende klimhallen in Nederland en Belgie. Een package bestaat uit drie heren en drie dames boulders. So far nothing new. MAAARRRR het geinige is dat het jureren van de boulders gebeurt door deze zelf te filmen en je resultaat te uploaden naar uploadcompetition om daar je poging te laten keuren. If accepted: youre done; if not - then else en moet je opnieuw beginnen (en weer filmen).

De competitie verschuift elke maand naar een nieuwe hal met een nieuw 'package' met en onbekende boulderinhoud. In totaal worden er 18 boulders geklommen. Na deze rondes worden de zes best geklasseerde mannen en vrouwen uitgenodigd om op een avond (16 april 2011) in MONK de finale te boulderen.

Check voor meer details en wedstrijdformat en regels hier.

(source: monkbouldergym.com)

Fake Wild Country Quickdraws - Wild Wire

Wild Country issued a warning about fake quickdraws named Wild Wire. They can be purchased in some webstores or shops. These quickdraws have NO CE-certificate and because of that are potentially dangerous.

They can be distiguished from the real ones by the following aspects:

- they lack the logo of Wild Country

- there is no multi-lingual manual

- there is no batchcode engraved in the karabiners

- the white plastic hanger misses (see pic under)

Click here for a German warning.

(source: NKBV.nl)

Kurt Albert - "Mr. Rotpunkt" died

Kurt Albert was a legendary German climber who shaped the development of rock climbing and pioneered hard routes across Germany and beyond.
Albert fell 18 metres from a Via Ferrata in the Hirschbach Valley in the Frankenjura on Sunday. The 56 year old sustained severe head injuries and was transported to a hospital in Erlangen (near Nürnberg). He was in a critical condition in hospital for several days. He was pronounced dead at the the hospital in Erlangen yesterday at 8.45 pm local time. The exact cause of his fall is yet to be determined.

Kurt, inventor of the Rotpunkt (redpoint), was often regarded as the catalyst behind modern sport climbing. Kurt painted red circles at the base of routes when they were projects, and filled the circle with a 'red point' when he had managed to climb them, and this is where the now universal climbing term 'redpoint' came from.

Alongside Wolfgang Gullich, Kurt Albert made the first ascent of perhaps the world's ultimate rock climb - Eternal Flame on Trango Tower in 1989.

Albert had been climbing since the age of 14 and had made countless first ascents throughout Germany including the classic Fight Gravity (UIAA 8+). Kurt had made many climbing friends across the globe and will be sorely missed by the climbing community.

(source: ukclimbing.com)

Monkey King India performing climbing skills

I think I've embedded something like it some time ago, but it's worthwhile to watch this climber from India (Aka Jyotiraju)performing his skills. Niiice moves dude !

A New Look

Duhh.....

Urban Art Amsterdam

Urban art is all around you. You just have to be prepared to look out for potential locations

Weird Rock to climb on

Hmmm, I would reconsider bouldering here....

FokSuk Climbing Cartoon

Translation:
title: they won't take anything for granted.
- 'Oh, that will be my retirment advisor calling'
- 'Ask him to hang on'

Spaceous Architecture in Amsterdam

Watching TV yesterday my attention was drawn to an item about new constructed appartment blocks. The topic for that day was the 'Christal Court' (by Tangram Architects), located at a small area in Amsterdam (Netherlands).

The project consists of 37 stacked villa's on top of a parkinglot. The complex is consists of separate structures with a minimum of floor coverage which becomes more dense and wider at higher floorlevels. The way the houses are situated creates a high density of appartments at the upper floors and having a spatious patio with lots of transparancy at the lower levels. At groud floor several waterpools and plants can be found.

For more info see Tangram Architects (English) picture by: John Lewis Marshall

(source in Dutch: nieuwbouwprijs.nl)

The Agricultural Urbanism Book has been launched!
Our awareness of the significant challenge our food supply faces in the 21st century is growing rapidly. However, few people offer more than a suggestion that we all grow our own food in our backyard or balcony, attend a farmers' market, and lobby for global change. This book, rooted in a sustainable food system approach and written by leaders in planning and design, outlines a powerful strategy for understanding and taking action on the full scope of sustainable food system opportunities in cities and how we build them.
This book takes sustainable food systems far beyond the community garden and the buying of local food and into strategies for supporting local food processing, wholesale and marketing, education and training programs, and celebration and culture around food, ensuring access to healthy food for all.

The project, meant for a family house back yard in the suburbs, aimed at designing a small park or opened area where the young parents and their newborn child would enjoy a independent space from day to day house activities, a space for reading, playing, etc. Having in mind this objective, and considering the usages of the space in the long term, it was proposed the project incorporated a small building to complement and support outside activities. That way he building would serve as a shelter for the child to share with his parents and, later on, as his own personal activities and hobbies setting.

I would love to have such a 'shelter' in my backyard and turn it into a boulderobject!

(source: Archdaily.com)

Basic Rules in Presenting Poll Results

Eheh, I like this as a counterpart to all the polls who spilled the media about the elections of our house of commons in the Netherlands these days. Njoy.

(source: StumbleUpon.com)

Advertisment comparing MS and climbing

I found this advertisement on Stumble Upon. In a matter of speaking it has a striking resemblance with the condition climbers face if partly or completely devoid of power afer high exertion. Not that I compare both physical states of the body, they couldn't be more different, but it's very effective in the way it's used in this add.

(source: StumbleUpon.com)

Rooftop Agriculture - Growing food locally

Although vertical farming is a very effective way of using unused space, it is also seems difficult to put into practice. Using rooftops makes it a little more achievable, and even more important; it can be put into practise on a very small scale. It is an almost perfect spot for growing crops as the roof is horizontality, has an openness to sun and air and an natural supply for water.

Many projects can be found. An example is the one named the fifth street farm project. The Fifth Street Farm Project has it all: It addresses childhood obesity, stormwater runoff, and climate change. Conceived by a grassroots organization of teachers, parents, and green-roof advocates, the project’s plan calls for a roof farm atop the Robert Simon Complex, a massive public school building on the Lower East Side that houses elementary schools P.S. 64 and the Earth School, as well as the Tompkins Square Middle School. The Fifth Street Roof Farm will grow only a very small portion of the food served in the cafeteria, but it should play an important role in educating young taste buds. “The challenge was doing a green roof at a school and marrying it to this idea of a farmable roof,” said Arad. “You could do an extensive green roof here quite easily and walk away. But it wouldn’t engage school children like a roof farm can.”

Such projects still inspire me to set up a mini rooftop agriculture spot for myself. Self grown food must be so very rewarding if all the ingredients are so close at hand: soil, runoff water from the roof and many friends of family having seeds or seedlings from their vegetable gardens. I can see no reason not to do it.

(source: archpaper.com & CityFarmer.com)