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Alphane Moon 8A in Chironico,
pic by Aldo Tonazzi



Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Growing Murgtal - 2

Three weeks ago I was able to climb one of my favourite "must do"-boulders... "Bourguignon, 8B".
I really like this brute bodytension style!! ;) Since about two years I wanted to climb it... but either it was not possible to cross the stream (too much water), or I just had other projects. This year now the stream was already dry in spring, what's pretty unusual. Good for me ... so I could finally take the horse by the bridle and after four days it was also tamed. :)

Bourguignon, 8B

the first hard compression-move in Bourguignon...

The same evening I tried a new project in the back of "Bourguignon". I had already a look to this boulder some days ago... but now the boulder was completely cleaned. When I arrived a couple of guys just left the area. I'm pretty sure that these guys have cleaned the boulder. It would be interesting to know, if they've climbed something on it. There is no arrow or any other sign on the boulder.
Anyway... that evening we tried a sitstart, started with both hands at the low undercling. It is definitely possible to climb that thing. We did all the moves except one... so no success so far.

A few days later I had a look to Guntrams new boulder "Cosmic chaos, 8B/B+". It's kind of an extension to the existing "8A-shield" in one of the lower sectors. The idea to climb the whole shield is not new... I discussed this already last year with a friend of mine, but I never started to work on it. Now it's done and we got a beautiful new testpiece in Murgtal. Congrats GU...!!! Nice one!
I checked out all the moves, climbed all the different sequences and now I just have to go for it. It's not that hard... pretty long (about 18 moves), yess... and very steep... but also very homogeneous without extremely hard moves. A "must do", if it's in your reach!!!

Next "project" was a one week trip with my whole family to the "Gardasee" (lago di garda). My parents invited us (me, my two children, my girlfried and my sister with their children) for that vacation. MANY THANKS FOR THAT...!!!! We had a great time down in Italy and were lucky to have six days of perfect weather!!!

The week after we just had rain, rain, rain, more rain, still rain, rain and rain again...!! I think that was the worst week of the present year 2014. :( 
...did I already mention that it rained THE WHOLE week!!??!! ;)

Luckily it was over with the rain the week after and Murgtal started to dry. It was my first climbing-day after two weeks break and I went for the unknown line "John Rambo, 8A". It's an awesome boulder up a pretty steep edge. Despite (or because of!?) my break, I was able to make a "turbo-ascent" of this hidden pearl. 5 minutes warmup to check out the moves... 10 minutes break and then the ascent at my very first try from the sitstart. Cool...!!!! The shape seems to fit! :o)

John Rambo, 8A

hidden in the forest... John Rambo...

Next one was "Flanagans, 8B". There I met a couple from Austria with their nice little dog "Caramel". Forian worked on Flanagans with me and both of us had the same problem with the first very very hard tesion move with a hold for your left (shoulder) and the foothold far right. You're almost hanging horizontal in the wall... completely stretched... and have to push your body up to an undercling. It's possible for sure... but I'll need some days to get used to that brutal move. The rest would work...

Florian told me about a new line from Fabian Christof, which is close to my route "Taurus, 8A". The line is called "Minor part, 8A+"... a hard traverse with a crunchy crux in the middle. The rest is homogeneous... but always very exacting.
Yesterday I gave it some tries... but I had such strong muscle soreness from my attempts in "Flanagans" that I was just not able to hold on for more than 20 seconds. Especially my left forearm ached extremely!! After I longer warmup it went better... and at the end of my session I was able to do all the moves (I counted 28 of them!!!!) and climbed the line in two sequences. At least good prospect for the next day of climbing...!! But first of all I need a few days without any strain... just relax and recover!!!! ;)

You see... Murgtal is still growing... and that quite fast. "John Rambo, 8A" was already climbed in 2007... but nobody knowed it. New are "Cosmic Chaos, 8B", "Minor part, 8A+", "Big Ben right, 8A" from Gu too and two lines from an Austrian guy, which are called "Sumatra, 8A" and "Morene, 7C". Unfortunately I've no idea where these two lines are located... know that someone???


cheers