The "Fisch"-project - addendum

Martin Keller has now published a report about his achievement on his own blog. He's sharing his inspiring experience with all of us "silent warriors"! ;)

http://martinkeller.blogspot.com/2012/04/fa-of-der-mit-dem-fels-tanzt-chironico.html

The new line is called "Der mit dem Fels tanzt, 8C".

Martins comment to the grade:
"And before i forget it, here is the grading-candy: for me the difficulty of "der mit dem fels tanzt" can be best described as about a 4-move-8B/B+ into a 15move 8B (or a 7move 8B+ into "einfisch/keinfisch 8A+/B"). the 6m-6A-slab-topout just adds some spice, but no real difficulty ;) 
Compared in difficulty to a classic 8B+ like "the never ending story" (8A/+ into 7C+) in magic wood, this is another story. so when you want to use grades to express differences in difficulty, the only grade that makes sense for me is 8C."


keep on rockin'
Ronny

Second Life

After we got a longer period with low temps, I decided to go back to Ticino to finalize "Second Life, 8A+". In my view... one of the most beautiful and outstanding lines in Chironico.

The chances are not bad... I don't think that the heat will come back soon. So I reckon to get some good days to finish my work on that boulder.



own made pic at an evening session in March...


Last week on Tuesday I've already had a very good try. I climbed the whole thing but dropped on the last but two move. I was so pumped that I wasn't able to hold one of the rare good holds on the left arete. Or better said... I didn't even reached it. Unfortunately it was my third try... so I've used already some power in my tries before. But in such a long boulder (20+ moves) you must have a good endurance and you have to be quite fresh, if you like to climb the whole thing.

The bad on this evening was, that I made a wasteful mistake at my try before... I felt so strong as I went to the left arete, that I really thought to climb it up now. But I loosed a foot on a point I've never awaited it... SHIT HAPPENS! :)

And now on this Saturday the same story again...!!! :(

On my first try I felt so good... I really thought: "That's it!!". But the same as last week... I messed it up because of a stupid mistake.

Than a not so good try where I loosed my feets at the hard middle part... and on my third and last go then, I've almost climbed it again...!!! But just ALMOST!  

Because of the fact that it was my last try again, I've had a lack of power. I climbed up to the LAST HARD MOVE to a really good hold... but was not able to hold on. Sure... there would be one or two moves more to go... but these ones are definitely not the problem when I stick the good hold there.
Why was it not possible to make no errors on my tries before... aaaaarghhhh...

Now it's definitely time to do that beast...!!!! ;o)


Here some nice pics which Aldo made on Saturday...



the hard move in the middle of the traverse...

the hard thing is to stop the huge vigor (dynamics) on quite bad holds...



just bad holds on steep rock... and this after some 15 moves before! ;)







 cheers

The "Fisch"-project

CONGRATS to Martin Keller for the first ascent of his long-time "Fisch"-project...!!!!!! "blubbblubb"
INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE!!!

We're still awaiting a name for that line. The grade will stick somwhere between 8B+ and 8C for sure. Rather 8C I think...!! A stunning piece of rock and one of the hardest lines in Chironico so far.
I really felt like to be in the circus as I see him climbing on it... ;))

Just the first few moves must be somewhere around 8A+/8B...

His second big FA-project is still waiting on the Sustenpass. But with his current shape I'm sure, he will climb that one too this year...

Goodbye Chironico

After I mainly climbed Chironico and Sustenpass in the past two or three years, it was time to go for something new. It was hard to stay motivated especially for Chironico. In winter there is not much more to climb than there. Sure... Cresciano would be a good option with many nice boulders... but 20 minutes more drive time and more croud on a smaller area doesn't make Cresciano a good choice in my view. Additionally I often go climbing during the week, what means, that I have just a few hours in the evening to go there. More drive time... less time for bouldering. ;)

But we don't have many good spots close to our town. Magic Wood is too far (2h), Sustenpass and other higher situated areas still closed, at Schöllenen it's all done and Wassen has not a big variety. So I decided with my good friend and godfather of my son Lien to spread Murgtal... a nice and quite little spot, which is well known because of some publications, but rarely visited. And this despite of some really good and hard problems up there.


a picture from about 2004... looong time ago ;)


Now in early spring it's just possible to climb the lower areas. The upper sector is closed through a barrier and will open somewhere in May (usually)... depending on the snow up there. But also the "Steibrächer"-sector and a few other small areas offer many good stuff to climb.

During a first check by end of March, I was able to climb some nice lines between 7a and 7c. I was still not in my best shape, after I had a longer period with less climbing, because of the birth of my second son Inea. Sure... I restarted climbing now since a few weeks... but i'm still on the way back and it's getting better and better with every day on the rock.

To my big surprise, just a few days later I had one of my best days ever. I didn't climbed ultrahard routes, but was able to send three nice routes in one evening session.
- Romance Killer, 7C... a hard one with an intense shoulder-crux
- Happy Housewives, 7C+... where I messed up a "second go"     ...and as a last at 10pm
- an unnamed 8A-shield from Fred Nicole at my third try...!!!
Unbelievable! I never expected such a good effort. But it seems that i'm back on track. Three hard lines in one session is quite impressive... especially because of the fact, that I don't feel GREAT at the moment. However... such "magic days" are quite rare and i'm very happy with it. :)

One weeks later then (10. April) the confirmation. This evening I was able to finish my FA-project "Oblivion". At our first visit it felt almost as hard as "Second Life, 8A+" in Chironico, but on this evening I climbed it on my second try. So it has to go down to 7C+...
Afterwards I wanted to check out my second FA-project at Murgtal. But to get a comparison for the grade I went to Gu's new lines "M'raut, 7C+" and "Humorist, 7C+". Despite I hoped to stick one of these lines too... I almost sticked both of them. But at the "Humorist" I got a bad cut on one of my fingers and had to finish for that day.
By hook or by crook it was a great evening again with two 7C+'s. And now I think that this grade should be the right one for "Oblivion" too.


Oblivion (FA)

 "Oblivion" is an extension of an already existing line (unnamed). As you can see on the pic above, I added a new start sitting on the small block and traversed into the existing 7C finish-moves. I'm not sure about the grading of the finish. It's probably easier... but the whole thing I think will reach 7C+. Also because of the needed endurance and the tricky middle part which is not very hard, but you have to climb it first.

I'm wondering that it was never climbed before. But be aware about the fact, that I'm not really sure about this. For me it was a logical line and completes the existing 7C... it's definitely not the nicest one, but absolutely worth to climb it with very nice moves.

Here a vid with my ascent. Sorry for the bad quality... but it was already quite dark and I had to brighten the video, so that it's possible to see something. ;)

cheers