So here we are back in Chironico hoping for good conditions; third time lucky, we hope!

Nice and rested from a little tour of southern Germany we were raring to go when we arrived back in Chironico. Amazingly the conditions were awesome too, crisp cold day after cold slightly overcast day; ok not perfect but miles better than before!

Psyched from my time in Silvapark and feeling a little let down by the weather in Zillertal we were back in Switzerland and back in Chironico. Temperatures cooler than before and a bit of unfinished business meant I had my work cut out for the next few weeks.

It started off really well; good conditions, sun shining, and more problems than you could shake a stick at. We slowly made our way around several of the areas in Chironico selecting some of the most impressive and inspiring lines. Unfortunately a few problems have been ‘altered’ in Chironico, ‘Komilator’ being one of them. The main hold has now been chipped leaving a much bigger hold in its place, it’s a sad day for climbing when people stoop so low as to purposely break holds and ruin climbs. Luckily this little gem can still be climbed, settling at around 7c+ now instead of its original grade of 8a. I spotted a few guys trying it and it left me intrigued for a go. First attempt I found myself getting set up for the last move only to be denied by the bizarrely uncomfortable throw for the top hold. I spent the next few attempts trying to find another way around it and decided that my original way was the only way that seemed feasible for me, so back to original tactics I managed to send it the next go. A great problem, a shame it has been chipped but at least it is still climbable.


Next I headed back to a highball problem called ‘confessions of a crap artist’ that I’d tried earlier in the year during baking hot conditions. Thankfully the area was pretty busy and the problem saw quite a bit of traffic, meaning there were plenty of pads on hand to even out and cushion the big fall I was repeatedly taking from 3 or 4 holds off the top. After working out the moves I was ready for the send the next day, working the problem had me exhausted since I was struggling with the top section and having to climb several moves to get into it just to try new beta. The next day after a few attempts to warm up I found myself in unclimbed territory heading for the top hold for the first time, after a very scary foot slip as I reached for the top I found myself sat on top relieved and waiting for my heart rate to settle down again so I could find my way off the giant boulder. Happy days : )


We then spent the next few weeks dodging rain showers, searching for dry boulders and praying for good conditions. In the space of about 4 weeks we must have had, at a push, 7 days of good weather and conditions. Not my idea of fun waiting around for things to dry and taking a morning walk into the forest to find a handful of problems dry enough for an afternoon session. Still with this in mind we persisted and explored as much of the area as possible and climbed as much as the weather would allow.

One of the fastest drying problems in the area was called ‘Doctor Jump’; a very crimpy problem with a jump at the end that suited me down to the ground! It was nice to find a project to work, especially one that was drying out faster than most other things. However I did start to fear I had bitten off more than I could chew. After several sessions failing on the last move and the lack of decent conditions taking their toll I had pretty much lost all motivation and psyche for the problem. Soon our friends Jason and Claire gave up waiting out the rain and headed for sunshine in southern France then moving on to Spain, if it weren’t for the long drive in the wrong direction I think we would have joined them! We had already decided that we would move on to Germany after our stay in Chironico and were just testing ourselves with how long we could hold out to see if good conditions were around the corner. After a few days of checking the weather forecast we reluctantly decided to sack it off and move on. As much as we wanted to stay and finish off what we had started we saw no point in wasting week after week on the hope that things would improve.

So we now found ourselves travelling up through Germany’s famous Black Forrest. There were a few sights we wanted to see and were happy to take a few days off climbing to allow skin to heal and psyche to come back. We had arranged to call in at a friend’s house who we had met in Magic Wood so we slowly headed north out of the Black Forrest and towards Saarbrucken to visit Sebastian and check out our first German climbing area, Pfalz.

We had been warned that Pfalz wasn’t the place to go for bouldering and after our unsuccessful time in Chironico we were happy to relax with a few routes for a change, saying that, 90 percent of the routes were just 3 boulder problems sat on top of each other, bouldering with a rope! Sebastian was a fantastic guide showing us 2 areas in one day and leaving us with his guide book for our remaining time in Pfalz. Exploring the vast region of Pfalz took us about a week, going from crags to sights of rock formations to castle etc. and we didn’t even scratch the surface.





Once we felt we had exhausted our time in Pfalz (didn’t take long with the lack of bouldering!) we moved on towards Heidelberg to check out the Riesenstein boulders. 2 boulders overlooking Heidelberg that had been recommended by a few of our friends, not much to fill a week or even a couple of days but perfect for a day to break up the driving towards the next area on our list, Allgau.


The Allgau region was a strange one for climbing, most of the rock there is conglomerate, looks like a loads of pebbles stuck together with cement! We climbed there for a week or so taking our time to get used to this new and odd rock type. I found it very hard to climb on, every problem I found myself on everything around me looked like a hold but 99 percent of it wasn’t! I think flashing anything on this rock type would be hard going. Trial and error with holds made it possible to send a few problems after many attempts and a lot of exhaustion. Having struggled so much with the climbing here we decided to move on and make our way back towards Switzerland, Chironico was calling for round 3!

On our way down towards Switzerland we stopped off at a few of Ludwig II’s castles around Bavaria, including the very impressive Neuschwanstein Castle which was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. So after a few days of sightseeing and even a stay in a campsite (oh the luxury!!) we are on route to Switzerland… again, with the hope of ‘third time lucky’ in Chironico!

Feeling quite solemn from our time in Magic Wood I was a little bit apprehensive about our first destination, Silvapark. 3 days of rain to begin our stay didn’t make for a brilliant start, I managed to work the moves on a 7c+ called ‘Flechtenkante’ and as I was about to go for the send the heavens opened and drenched the slopey arête. Could this be the end of our Summer in Europe? Is winter heading our way quicker than we thought? Living at nearly 2000m and temperatures dropping to 8-10 degrees on a night definitely got us asking ourselves those questions!

So once again it’s been a while since I last posted, my priorities have been more to climbing every day than hunting out internet to blog about it… I’m sure you all understand ; )


After a highly successful trip to Gottardo and temperatures slowly dropping we headed to arguably the most famous bouldering area in Switzerland, Magic Wood. Keen to test myself on some well known problems we set about searching in the maze of a forest, hiking up and down, in and out, giving my knees a battering with just with the walking around. After a day of scouting out some of the problems I had seen or heard about we bumped into a friendly German guy called Mathew, who was just like us hunting around for things to try and eagerly looking for more pads and spotters to help with his project ‘Foxy Lady’. We kindly obliged and headed there with high hopes for the classic line. An hour or so down the line with Mathew happily giving me the beta I sent it with my last ounce of energy (clearly visible in the video as once I’d hit the jug and headed for the last few metres to top out I was so pumped out even the largest of holds seemed a problem!).

3 weeks in and a constant ass whooping with the grades of the problems; most of the strong climbers in the valley prefer routes. Hence the boulders developed by them are stamina fests, this is not my usual short powerful 5-10 move problems and I have been falling off and struggling on 7b’s to 7c’s, I definitely didn’t think I would bag an 8a before we left this beautiful valley. However, on a sunny day in Val di Mello I found something just my style a seven move 8a called Il Vento. By no means did this go easily, the angle of the boulder to the angle of the dipped ground coupled with a very low toe hook and a poor smear to start is a recipe for dabbing.

 Lake Garda

I have been a bit lax on the blog front; after Melloblocco we spent 2 weeks travelling Italy with friends, taking in some sites around Venice, Pisa and Lake Garda. Then after 2 weeks relaxing we arrived back in Val Masino raring to climb. Only we were met with nine days of continuous rain, and after going stir crazy hiding in the van, the weather finally improved with the arrival of our ‘Targasonne’ friends Jason and Claire.

After a relaxed start to Italy with my parents at Lake Como a few days with good food, good company and a hotel stay, my parents departed for the airport and we set our replacement sat nav for Mello. The aim being to arrive a few days before the infamous festival, giving us time to look around, we had a walk through the valleys and got our bearings and managed an impromptu climbing session on a classic, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Ever since we were snowed out of Targasonne on our first visit it has always been the plan to pop back in on the way past on our route to Italy. When we arrived conditions were perfect, the snow had been and gone so we got a few solid days of climbing; I was able to visit sector Taz, an area which we didn’t get to visit as we were chased out by the snow. 

Cervia

Parking at the bottom of the track we walked up to the church to see if Ivan could take the tiny gravel path to the main parking for the area. We got instantly distracted by the boulders near the parking and walked the circuit, scouting out what the crag had to offer. We spotted a few gems but unfortunately they required about ten crash pads and + 10 spotters all on one really big boulder. Retiring for the night we drove Ivan up to the church and settled down. The warm weather was a great change to Albarracin and we spent the night sat out admiring the church side sunset. The next day psyche was running low so we potted around for an hour or so, before moving on to a warm shower and a hotel stay for my birthday.

Can Boquet

Armed with GPS co-ordinates from Ixi, our sat nav sent us up the opposite side of the hill and we soon ran out of road; one suitable for Ivan anyway, we retreated to a local campsite and orchestrated another plan of attack from the other side of the hill for tomorrow . Tomorrow came and success we found ourselves at the top of the hill, following the topo we began a four hour search for what we thought were the first few areas. Defeated and demoralised after only finding 3 or 4 boulders worthy of a climb we began our descent and search for a sleeping spot. Part way down the track we found the tell tale signs of a climbers van, so we pulled up to investigate. After only ten minutes chatting to a local we found one area and had solid directions to the others. Along with directions to a very ideal scenic sleeping spot. We spent the next two days exploring the 2 biggest areas sector Nou and Classic, I climbed the first 7c of the area Croquetman and the first 7a of sector classic AleBop , exploring we found a smaller area called Granato and I spent the last few hours climbing Rock Games, a very nice 8a in a great setting.

Savasonna

1st day in Savasonna we did a scout of the area, and as we were admiring a boulder a familiar pad and hoody was walking up the path towards us, Ixi once again our German friend from Albarracin. After climbing for about an hour a local named Xevi turned up looking for Ixi, the plan was Ixi would meet a different local for some advice on the area, but car troubles meant he couldn’t make it so Xevi was sent in his place. He was an excellent substitute, he spent the next few hours throwing us at problems, introducing us to new boulders and demonstrating all the classics of the area with ease.

Ok, so we ended up staying in Albarracin a bit longer than we expected, 5 weeks in fact! Almost enough time to send all my projects for the area. With the weather making us feel like home (4 out of the 5 weeks typical English weather!) we've managed to climb pretty much every day, this was a major struggle some days as the snow is somewhat off putting when you can't feel your fingers and your toes feel like ice blocks! But perseverance is the key, more hunting for dry problems and brushing snow off top outs to allow for a dry ascent in the morning soon became the norm. 

After 5 weeks of friends, BBQ's and copious amounts of climbing it's time to move on; so here's a few of the best photos from our time here, some of the best ones are courtesy of our good friend Ixi who's photography skills and crag knowledge will be missed, until we meet again in Germany...! Also our good friend Andy aka 'Squiff' has just launched a website of his climbing activites; and with another 2 months left in Albarracin we expect even more great ascents : ) check out his climbing here.

La Cornisa, 7b

 La Fuente, 8a

We are currently re-visiting Albarracin, it was an easy decision having been here once before, we spent 5 days here a couple of years ago and the climbing was brilliant. Armed with a re-vamped much more developed guide book we have some new areas to explore, as well as some unfinished business to attend to.

With and underdeveloped guidebook for the area we picked our way through the 12 sectors. A lot of the problems I was psyched to try seemed worn, sandy and missing a hold or two; others were simply too highball or committing for a single spotter. This hasn’t stopped me getting a few good ascents. One of which even had a name, Spanair (strange for this area).

A massive contrast from where we had just climbed in Targasonne, from hardly granite to soft crumbly sandstone. Not to worry thought should be just like back home. We had a few days of getting to know the area and then the rain caught up with us.

Disillusioned by my ascent L’oeil du Voisin, I thought I was still on form, even with a month off before coming away. I was soon shut down by an 8a (no surprise there) but then followed by a 7a+, maybe my fitness has dropped a touch  :(

That evening we heard a friendly English hello, in the form of Jason and Claire. Not only did we find two new climbing partners, but two fantastic guides of the area. We woke up the next morning psyched for some classic problems and a guided tour of Targasonne.

So as we arrived in Carcasonne we were met with a beautiful medieval town situated high up on the hill side. After a few hours of exploring the walls and taking lots of photos, we thought it best to press on to Targasonne. However, after about 40 minutes of guiding Ivan through the twisty back roads in the pitch black we pulled up at a quiet town to get our heads down for the night with the intention of carrying on in the morning.

Well that wasn’t the start we had planned for, a long drive to Font only to find it typically wet. Hung around for a few days to see if it would dry out and took in a few sights, after much pondering over the forecast we thought it best to keep travelling south. So we have left the familiar surroundings of Fontainebleau to drive straight south to the beautiful town of Carcasonne in a hope for better weather to climb in the neighbouring boulder area of Targasonne.

Ivan seems to be holding up well, still getting our heads around the fact we are now living in a van. It’s strangely homely and toasty for the month of January, after refusing to pay restaurant prices we found ourselves parked on the roadside munching supermarket pizza and wedges. We also found the smoke alarm works, note to self, remove batteries before cooking.