Zero Skillz Productions

I've been here in Switzerland for a couple weeks now. The weather has not been very good, but seems like it's getting better. A few days ago I did a very height dependent problem called Conquistador, 8A+ in Chironico. This boulder lies in the riverbed in Schattental and the landing is now about 2 meters higher than what it used to be. A nice problem nevertheless. Yesterday I climbed Confessions of a Crap Artist low, 8A+.

 Confessions of a Crap Artist low, 8A+

I have a few harder things here that I want to try, so I'm hoping the conditions stay good. Today I tried a hard project that we call the Friction Addiction project. It's 30-90 degrees overhanging and about 10 moves long on really good rock. It's too early to say much about the difficulty, but it definitely feels hard. A lot of of the moves have gone already and I'm pretty confident the rest will go, too. I'm very psyched to spend more time on this one.

We also made a quick visit to Maltatal to check out some of Klem Loskot's classics like Wresting with an Alligator and Bügeleisen. Unfortunately Bügeleisen was wet so we never got to try it, but it looked really good. I'm very psyched to return to try it.  Still, the trip wasn't for nothing as I climbed The Power of Goodbye 8B, Wrestling with an Alligator 8B and flashed an amazing problem called Marmelade auf der Shulter 8A.

Our Zero Skillz Productions has been busy filming and editing and we are trying to put together a short film from this trip, that will appear on my blog as soon as it's finished. So far we have footage from Switzerland and Maltatal. Stay tuned.

Here are some screens from the film:

Conquistador 8A+, Chironico

Wrestling with an Alligator, 8B

Wrestling with an Alligator, 8B

 

The Power of Goodbye, 8B

The Power of Goodbye, 8B

Marmelade auf der Shulter, 8A

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

Pure Tour, Part 2: Salzburg

We are back at the base camp in Innsbruck again. The show in Salzburg went really well and we had a nice bouldering session before and after at the gym. We were syked to go bouldering in Maltatal but the weather wasn't on our side.

Busting some tricks with the scooter, (c) Chuck Fryberger

Now it is raining in Austria and the forecast looks pretty depressing. The next show is in Verona, Italy on Friday and we want to climb before that, but it looks like it will be raining all over Europe. Negative!! Ticino seems to be out of the question. Meschia is another option for bouldering, but it seems the weather will be bad there too.

Kilian whipping the crowd, (c) Chuck Fryberger

We've been training at Tivoli with Kilian Fischuber a couple times now, because the weather has been quite bad for this time of year. He keeps showing us these crazy problems that are actually really fun to climb. It's always a good workout pretty much for everything else, but not so much for finger strength. Luckily for increasing our finger strength, we have been playing a game called Catch-a-Mouse on my Ipod. That one we actually already beat, but now Chuck got addicted to a new game called Tap Tap Revenge 2 and has been playing it pretty much non-stop. He has already scored 259 116 points and his endurance has never been better. Now all he is talking about are multipliers and high scores.

Cody breakdancing in Salzburg

We are all hoping the weather gets better and we get to go climbing. If not, at least there is a lot of fresh snow up on the mountains so for snowboarding it should be good now. I only have another week left in Europe before I'm flying to Japan for three weeks, so I'm syked to climb while I'm still here.

Austrian way of promoting just another regular night at the club

Ticino

I'm back in Innsbruck after a quick 2-day trip to Switzerland. The weather failed us in Austria so we drove some hours west to escape to Chironico.

On the first day I tried Frontline, a cool problem from Bernd. The crux on Frontline is a dynamic lunge from a very small and sharp sidepull to the top. I had problems fully committing to the move and sacrificing my skin, but once I figured out the foot beta I went for it. I got he hold perfect and pulled hard. I knew that was it, until the whole sidepull ripped off the wall. A big piece of rock came off and once again I had blood all over me. Schaisse! Luckily I was fine except for donating quite a respectable amount of blood. I climbed again later that day, but took it pretty easy for the rest of the day.

Yesterday we climbed some nice easier problems in Schattental and it was fun. I finally managed to get revenge on an 8A+ called Passo Ticino. It's a tall highball that Dave Graham put up a couple years back. Last time I was in Chironico I climbed it 3 times to the top hold, but I couldn't top it out because there was so much ice and I had to drop off from the top jug. This time instead of ice there was only water and I was determined not to drop off for the fourth time. Great success! As far as I know it was the first repeat, since not too many people even try this scary highball. It's a quality problem and stiff for the grade, I thought.

We had some trouble getting in to Switzerland because none of us really had any proper ID, not to even mention our passports. One day I also tried to pay with euros at a gas station, and I found out we were not in Austria but in Switzerland, because they wanted to give me my change back in Swiss Francs.

Tomorrow we are heading to Salzburg for a Pure screening. Red Bull is sponsoring the event and it should be a good party again! After that the plan is to go bouldering in Maltatal and/or Varazze depending on the weather.

Pure Tour, Part 1: Austria

I've been here in Austria for a few days now with Cody and Chuck and it's been great. The Pure tour is on and so far we have done two shows here in Austria, one in St. Anton on Friday and one in Innsbruck last night. The shows have been good and a lot of people showed up. The next screenings coming up are in Zurich on Thursday and in Salzburg on Friday. Now we have a few days to go snowboarding and hopefully climbing if the weather allows.

The biggest achievement of the trip so far has been beating a game called Catch-a-Mouse. Chuck managed to solve all the 35 levels on hard in one session. I've done all the levels, but I'm still working on the link-up.

Here is Chuck playing the game:

Beat the Finn!

Cody doing something wierd