Zillertal

On Monday weather was bad for climbing so went went snowboarding and took some photos. Actually the conditions were horrible even for snowboarding but we had a lot of fun anyways.

Ein Sickern Kickern, (c) Chuck Fryberger

On Tuesday we drove to Zillertal to the magic place. That was the only area dry that day. It's pretty much one cool boulder right next to the river. The conditions were far from perfect, but at least the rock was dry. Me and Chuck both climbed a nice arete called Trischebl, 8A+. After that I managed to flash The Riddler from Daniel Woods. He called hard 8A+ and possibly 8B saying that it felt harder than Incubator. Since I flashed it, it's really hard to comment on the grade, but I can say that it felt hard and I really had to dig deep on some of the moves.

Wednesday we went to Ginslingwald even though we knew pretty much everything was wet. So was Sundance sit, 8A+. We even saw a few big avalanches on the other side of the valley caused by the rapidly melting snow. We didn't give up and tried to dry the problem but it didn't help at all. Then I found some alternative beta avoiding all the good kneebars and using only the dry holds. It was for sure harder, but in the end it worked and I topped it out. The crux with this crazy beta is a foot move were you have to kick your foot really fast to a higher foot hold. Of course this is the last move after 10 hard moves and I managed to fall there five times because the kick needs to be really accurate.

Reini on Trischebl. The Riddler is to the right on the overhang.

Today we are driving to Italy for a show and a competition in Verona. After that I'm flying back home for a few days. I'm hoping the weather there will be good so I can try a cool new project that was found last winter.

We found some ninja prop at Reini's house and took some photos for absolutely no reason. Photo: Chuck Frybereger