sreda, 26. november 2014

Story from Finland

This story is unfortunately about to end quite soon. But I must say that the last month that I spent here in Helsinki was amazing. Surrounded with such a nice people and crazy looking landscapes, makes you wanna stay or even live here.

So, my main purpose to came here, was route setting in Isatais open and to coach my friend Henna. She gave me a nice warm place to stay and I tried to give her best training sessions, so she can complete her goals. First thanks goes to her, cause without her, my trip to Finland would never happen and second, I have to thanks Niina and Anssi for hosting me and taking me to the rocks in this  cold, winter conditions.

My main goal about climbing here, was to climb this very famous and nice looking line, called Globalist. When I first tried it this time, I thought it's gonna be piece of cake, but than on the same day, I got a split on my finger. It wasn't painful or anything, it was just pain in the ass, cause this crimper where I got a cut, is very delicate. In the hope, the skin is gonna grow, I was keep trying it and split it every time I tried it. There was a day, when I did it in two parts, but the conditions didn't let me do it after that. So I decided I'm gonna try something else, something dry and not so friction dependent. Quite only possible line to try around here, was Hypergravity 8b, where you have to walk for 45 minutes and you can only warm up on this line. On the first day, there was some snow already, but I was still able to do all the moves. Small amounts of training in last month, made me feel weak after first few moves, so I couldn't do it on first day. I rested for a day and on my last climbing day here, I managed to sent it. It was perfect end of day, cause I did it in night session, than we had a proper beer with Anssi and of course sauna for the end.
There was also a day, when we went to a small crag in Sipoo, where I climbed One for Sorrow (7c+/8a) and managed to do the first ascent of this beautiful arete on the left. I named it Level up and with the crux on the top, I think it deserves 7b(e5) grade. I also flashed One love 7c(+) in Globalist block.

Tomorrow, my trip is continuing to my last competition of this season to Stockholm (SWE), for La sportiva legends only. This is going to be my last contact with bouldering this year, cause it's been really physically exhausting doing it all year long. I'll do my best and I hope, I'll have some extra powers left to make this competition perfect.

Hypergravity, photo: Anssi Laatikainen


Hypergravity


One for Sorrow(right), Level up (left)


Level up

Jos of  Finnish winter 










ponedeljek, 3. november 2014

Fontainebleau

Hello!
You haven't heard from me for a while. Hope you won't blame me too much for being late, so I brought you some good news from Font and a local competition in Zagreb.

I promised my friends from Zagreb, that I'll be there for their local comp and must say, it wasn't that easy as it sounds. Well my mind was off for the comps, so it was hard to show all of my skills. Also competition was very strong, even though there were "only" few Slovenians and Borna from Zagreb. Okay, after all I did my best and won.

After few days we left to Font, to free my mind on some rocks. It was very nice, not rainy, but still wanted a bit lower temps.My goal was to sand an 8b, but unfortunately fell from the top of L'apparemment bas. I'm still proud that I was managed to flash two 8a's (L'apparemment and Rainbow rocket) and that I did every dyno that I tried. My hardest was Coup atomique 8a(+) than Red rocket 8a(+), Rainbow rocket 8a (flash), Soucis d'air 8a (#2 go) and Phobos moon 7c (flash).
I also sent few very nice and quite hard boulders such as Total eclipse 8a+, Big dragon 8a(+), The block 8a, Fata morgana 8a, Megalithe 7c+ (#2 go) and Sale gosse 7c and few 7c flashes as Welcome to Tijuana and La unit.

Here is a short movie with some of my ascents from a friend Juha:

Font movie

Oh and by the way. Before all that, I went to Paklenica where I climbed one of my hardest multi pitch  routes named Cupido 8a (#2go). Here is a short report from my climber buddy Pinti:

http://pinticlimbs.blogspot.com/2014/10/paklenica-revisited.html

You can also follow me on Instagram.


Total eclipse

Big dragon