Me and my girlfriend Michelle went out for a strole a few days ago in the forests outside our place in Argentiere. After a little while of random walking we bumped in to a few boulder blocks that to me looked very climbable and seemed to house high quality boulder problems. Excited about what we’ve found I went home to see if I could find them in the guide book, surprisingly I didn’t. A few hours later I was back and brushed up some of the lines and did them with a smile on my face realising that those problems were even better than I thought.
The day after I went out with my friends Bjarne, Heather and Jonny to show what I had found and we managed to (establish) another few really nice boulders between 5+ and 7a-ish!
Something tells me that those boulders must have been climbed before. But the fact that I couldn’t find anything in the guide and that they didn’t hold any signs of climbing activity such as chalk or tick marks and that obvious holds where crumbling of as we tried them got me thinking, that maybe people had just walked past them on their way to the bigger areas that lies in the close surroundings.
However if we have done some FAs I’m super stoked and if we haven’t I‘m equally stoked to have done some top class boulders :).
So the day after we had been to The Gorge, me and Eva decided to go up on Aguille du Midi to do the premier multipitch for the summer. The choice of route fell on Contamine on the south face of the Midi
because of the great climbing, the easy approach and the fact that when you’re done you end up just by the lift station again.
The south face of Midi houses roughly about 15-20 multipitches with more than hundreds of variations and the climbing is generally top class. This included with the facts mentioned above makes the place really nice and just as convenient as it could ever be, bearing in mind that from a 1000 meters (village level) to get up on 3848 m and climb a 250 m multipitch you don’t even have to walk more than a 100 m. Unique!
Racking up.
Aiming for the top.
Having a lunch brake before the crack pitch.
And Eva charching up the last burley pitch.
Maybe one of the projekts for the summer is called digital crack..
Back in Chamonix once again for the summer. Now we just hope for good climbing wheater and that the three day long slush storm will come to and end. So please King Bore, take a sleeping pill (or just decapitate yourself) and let the summer gods take over.
Me, Andrew, Kelly, Eva and Bjarne all went to Gietroz or “The Gorge” as it’s more commonly referred to. This is a steep overhanging crag and a lot of the routes tend to have strenuous moves between undercuts, in other words a good place for people with biceps like Arnold Schwarzenegger (spelling?).
While gearing up at The Gietroz parking lot we couldn’t imagine what at big day it was going to be, but when we got back Eva had managed to do Reve de Singe, her first 8a, I had managed to onsight “In Absentia” 7b which Bjarne also did a few minutes later on his second go. A really good day all in all!
Sorry for the lack of activity the last month. The fact that I have been running a blog without owning a computer with internet has made the whole thing a bit more troublesome than it should have to be. Climbing without climbing shoes might be a good equivalent. However, I’ve now bought a CANON G12 POWERSHOT CAMERA and anyone who knows anything about anything is aware that you can’t go through life without having one of those in your possession (Read: gadget nerd and simply slave to the consumption society). Ok with that said lets talk about stuff that matter J.
I’ve spent about 3 weeks in Stockholm in May and maybe I didn’t get quite as many days of climbing as I planned but still a few really good ones! What struck me the most was the high quality of the routes on mostly technical granite.
Recommendations
Megadans, Skevik 7c
Non-stop, Skevik 7b
Freaky Deaky, Nacka Kvarn 7b
Totalvägra, Nacka Kvarn 7a
Lutande Tornet, Nacka Kvarn 7a
We also spent one day bouldering in Ågesta over which area they recently released a new guidebook. The guide is nice with clean graphics, pictures and funny little anecdotes. The only and quite negative thing is that it doesn’t offer any English translation not even for road description.
Enough said, now enjoy the prodigious quality of my Canon G12 Powershot pictures.
A super nice boulder, couldn't find it in the guide though. About 5a-b.
Michelle looking cool.
Me trying to look cool
Barbahög 6b+, a realy nice highball
You got to love the highball action:)
Stockholm has lots of small little crags spread out around the city and most of them are easy to reach with public transports, a week pass including busses and trains is about 30 euros.
