The Never Ending Story

June 28th, 2009

Last Thursday (26th) we took a rest day and just drove around beautiful Switzerland. First we headed toward Feldis, a tiny little town on top of a mountain. There we found the perfect spot for a picnic and some photo’s.
Next we drove through a bunch of smaller villages towards Magic Wood and met some pretty big cows just hanging out. We decided to keep driving past Magic Wood to Juf. There the road just stops. Juf is the highest year-round inhabited village in the Alps (~2150 meters). Pretty spectacular. From there we went through this one-way tunnel that brought us to this giant dam. Turns out, it was also the Italian/Swiss border! That was cool.

Once we got home, we heard this loud, beat-up car coming in our direction…it was Florian, his brother Manuel, and their friend Chris. It was nice to see a familiar face and have an old friend to talk to and to translate stuff for us.

Friday and Saturday we all climbed.
I got my traverse project on my 1st try, “Madame Etoile” and started working “Traversatta” (7A+), Ben did “Zilliman” (7A+), then he did “Never Ending Story 2” in two tries! That’s an 8A! We were stoked.




He tried part 1 and just about broke his chin falling on a rock.
Manuel is working “Right Hand of Darkness” an 8A, Flo is working “Pura Vida” 8A+ and “Never Ending Story 1” as well. Chris is working “Wonderboy”. Ben and Manuel are also working “Piranja”…Ben has it wired, and towards the end of the day stuck the crux (dyno to sharp, small edge) but the elbowed the wall and pinged off…losing some of his knuckles). Once he’s healed, he’ll get it right away (He’s pretty bruised and cut up right now, hence the rest day today).

Today is HOT. We are in Andeer and our car is reading 31 degrees!

Oh, and we met and talked to “The Outsider”. We got autographs for Mark and Jill…jk. He was only here for one night, just passing through I guess.

Video’s of some of this to come.

Randomness:
We are all saddened by the loss of our dear friend MJ. We dedicated our climbs yesterday to the Kind of Pop. Seriously, that’s so crazy! I was just walking through the grocery store and saw that Michael Jackson’s pic was on the cover of all the newspapers but couldn’t understand what was written. I checked Perez real quick and found out. That’s nuts! And Ferrah Fawcet! I’m missing all the celebrity gossip here.

Magic Wood Photo's

Just a couple shots from yesterday.

June 22

Today we climbed in Magic Wood again, and it was COLD. It was Krissy’s first day after taking a few days off. Things went much better for her today than the last time she tried to climb in Magic Wood. It is easy to get intimidated here - the problems are hard and the landings are scary.

We woke up and got going fairly early as we both had a few projects to work on. Krissy completed a few warm-ups and then got to work on a crimpy traverse type problem called Kanonarohr (6B). She finished it off in a couple of tries. Then she climbed two really tall problems in the 6A-6C range. After this it was of to the Camel Bloc to try Krissy’s project from a couple of days ago. Krissy managed to climb Big Cheese (6C) after a few goes. We then moved on to a problem called Red Roses (7B), and Krissy started working it. After a few attempts and one big blow off it was time for her to call it a day.



After Krissy was done climbing I started. We went to a problem called Octopussy (8A). I warmed-up on the last few moves and then managed to climb it on my third attempt. Then we headed down the valley to Electroboogie (8A+). I made a couple of attempts and then it started raining/hailing - it was not meant to be today…maybe another day. We started walking back to camp, but by the time we reached to Bruno Bloc the weather had cleared a bit and I decided to give Cote du Sichuan (7C+) a couple of tries. The last move of this long problem involves a HUGE, scary dyno. I tried the dyno once (without doing any of the other moves) and did not stick it…So, it seemed to make sense to try it from the start. After a couple of poor attempts and stupid foot slips I was through the bottom and middle parts of the problem staring at the final hold which looked miles away…so I threw any way and managed to stick the final hold. There is no video or photos because I was too worried about landing on my head…Oh, ya, when some other guys that were there saw that I was going to attempt Cote du Seshuan they lent me their pads which was really nice.

In other news we have found the best instant coffee ever. It rivals the press coffee we have been making. It has also been really cold here. When we left Font the temperatures were like 37 C, now the car temperature is reading 8 C at 11:15 am….burrr. Add some wind and hail to that and it feel pretty cool.

For some reason the last two nights Krissy has woken up in the middle of the night not knowing where she was. She has been thinking that she is waking in a cave or something like that (yup, she is crazy) and all she can hear is water (the river next to us). She searches for her headlamp and then figures out that she is actually in a tent…hmmm.

Random:
-Two guys pulled into the climber campground with a huge RV that definitely does not fit in here
-The driving here is fun
-Link to the movie we will be in: www.rtr.ch - you can search Magic Wood - it won’t be up for a while though
-People are serious about bouldering here - everyone seems to be on long bouldering trips
-I think we have met some famous European climbers, I’m just not sure who they are exactly.
-We saw one guy with a pair of prototype La Sportiva Speedsters (this will mean nothing to a lot of you)
-The public washrooms here are all REALLY nice
-The toilette paper in Switzerland is much better than in France (it is very soft according to Krissy)
-Krissy might be starting to like Magic Wood a little better, but just a little

Living like the rich in Switzerland

Sunday June 21

We are typing this entry from a parking lot in the town of Andeer, Switzerland. Today ended up being a rest day for both of us so we decided to treat ourselves to a real shower - since we have not had one in a week. Guys stink. The initial plan was to just go to a local campground and pay for a shower there, the real plan ended up being us spending the day at a fancy hot spring resort! The name of the place was Andeer Mineral Springs and it is run in conjunction with the local fancy, upscale hotel. We sat in the springs for about two hours, then took a real long real shower (with hot water)! It was awesome. Now we are sitting in the parking lot cooking super (snow capped peaks all around).

Yesterday was in interesting day. We woke up sometime around ten and had breakfast, then we went down to Andeer and checked our email. When we returned home (the Magic Wood climber campground) we found two guys with a very big video camera. They came over and asked if the could film us around the car - we said OK. After some time we asked what they were doing. It turns out they were making a climbing movie for German TV about Magic Wood and one of the local climbing hero’s. So, to make a long story short we are now in this movie because they were looking for foreign climbers.

After that we (Ben) went climbing. I ended up working Electroboogee (8A+) and Octopuss (8A). I got all the moves on both and will be going back to try and finish them when I grow some new skin. I also managed to climb Master of the Cow (7C+) and a couple of other easier problems on my list of “must do’s”. Maybe tomorrow, with all the dirt washed off, I can finish a couple of harder projects. Krissy is also planning to try climbing here again - hopefully things will go a bit smoother (ie. No lost shoes).

Random:
In Andeer the cows go home down the main street.
Andeer is usually 3-5 degrees warmer than Avers and it is only a five minute drive.
There is still snow only a five minute drive up from us
We stood on the Italian-Swiss border
The climbing brands Moon, Mammut, and E9 seem very popular here
Big crash pads are cool here - not like in Font
There are very sharp holds here
The climbind style is VERY powerful here
Phones are VERY hard to use
We do not understand anything here
Ben worked his projects with 4-5 Italians who were really strong and spoke some bad English
Miming beta seems to work well to explain how to do specific moves
Food, however simple, always tastes so good at the end of the day

Rest Day Photos

A couple photos from out tour around the Swiss country side.

Switzerland Part Deux

Friday, June 19th , 2009

Today is a rest day. It is also a rainy day, perfect!
Magic Wood has been pretty busy. Lots of climbers at the campground, probably because of this beautiful weather we’ve been having. A bit hot yesterday but that doesn’t matter too much when we’ve got boulders that act like air conditioners.

A couple of days ago we had some pretty bad luck. While warming up, Ben split his index finger (yes it is pretty sharp here). Almost immediately after that I dropped my new left Demon shoe down a crack. I watched it tumble further and further until it disappeared in this black hole. We searched for it for about an hour, but no luck. I thought of digging out my camera and shooting photo’s in the blind spots and using the flash to see in darker spots, but still no luck. I left a message on the rock, just in case someone felt like looking for a shoe. Truly bummed out, we chose to continue onto a new boulder problem. I was done climbing for the day, but Ben still had 2 good shoes to work with.



We found this one problem that did make me want to climb again, and so I hopped on it. It is this vertical wall with bad feet at the bottom but decent hand holds. Kinda awkward but doable. It just so happened that the crux move involves a big move to a side-pull edgy/pinchy thing, off of a bad right foot. Ben offered me his newer pair of shoes (which were a bit too big for me, making it tough trusting my feet), then a light bulb went off…I still had my right shoe! So I worked it for a while. I was getting so close, then it happened, one rushed, sloppy placement and my foot blew. I fell straight down and bashed my knee off the rock. Over. I couldn’t trust that foot after that. I thought I’d give myself a break, so I took the rest of the day off. It was not a good day for me.



Ben on the other hand climbed awesome! He flashed “Foo Fighter” a 7C, and sent “Fight Club” in a couple tries…another 7C. He tried “River Bed” (8B) and did all but 2 moves on it. Now he just has to link them. It looks crazy! Kamel Trophy (7A), and a couple easier ones were also sent. Not bad for climbing with a split fingertip.

Now on to yesterday…
We drove up to Ausser Ferrera to find a telephone. We found 1. It wouldn’t let us make a collect call, and it doesn’t accept visa’s. So after about an hour or so of messing with the telephone, we decided to go climbing.
Ben was on a role again. He sent quite a few on his tic list. Entreprise (7A), Bosna Genial (7A), U-Boot (6C), James Bong (7B), Valentines Day (7A+), Schrotti (7B), Hageltrauma (7A+), Man of the Cow (7C), Red Roses (7B+), Space Cowboy (7B), Bosna Royal (7A), Wonder Boy (5), and Madame Etoile (6B+).






After Ben’s sending spree, we decided to take a quick look for my shoe…this time we came prepared. In true Mcgruber style, I fashioned together two shoe searching instruments.

Instructions on how to make a shoe finder:
1. Get 2 long sticks, a compact mirror, and a headlamp.
2. Recycle finger tape (hockey or sport tape) to use as rope or string for tying.
3. Tie mirror and headlamp to each stick.
4. Search and Find missing shoe!





So once my instruments were ready, I walked up to the boulder and noticed a new message under my old one.

Came back to camp, and woke up this morning to find my shoe by the message board! YAY!


Random Thoughts:
Ben doesn’t hike through Magic Wood, he RUNS
Climbing here is intimidating.
It is beautiful here!
We are drinking water from a pipe…it could be a spring. Everyone else here assured us it it ok.
While washing her hands and face in the water, Krissy was this close to experiencing screaming pukies.
We have seen Eric and Ian’s doppelgangers!
It is so weird being in a place where you can’t understand anything or anyone!
We haven’t had a real shower since Sunday!

Switzerland 1

June 16

We have arrived in Magic Wood, Switzerland after a fairly long drive from Fontainbleau. We got to Cresciano no problem, but then we were not exactly sure how to find Magic Wood. We drove around for a bit looking for signs for towns we knew where near by but could not find anything (this is at around midnight). We pulled off to the side of the road to look at maps and decide what we were going to do. We turned on the computer to look at some info we had saved on it, and just by chance we stopped where there was free wifi - we found all the info we needed and then began our drive up some pretty crazy mountain roads. We found the climbers campground and set up our tent just before the rain came pouring down

In the morning we woke up to nice weather and incredible surroundings - the photos do not do it justice. We are in an incredibly steep valley with a river running through it, all surrounded by snow capped peaks. There are the coolest little villages here with just a handful of houses built on super steep slopes. Some of the houses appear to have no electricity.



I did some climbing last night and was able to find a few of the boulders. Krissy decided to just rest. We are going to go back today and find the rest so we can scope out the problems we want to try and complete in our time here. I did a couple of easier problems and then was able to do Super Nova (7C) in a couple of tries. I might have been able to flash it if I had known where the start was. I also have a couple of quick tries on Massive Attack, an 8A+ - it felt hard…like it should at that grade.





Because of the river and the ice trapped under the boulders it feels quite cool here - like someone left the A/C on in the climbing area. The rock is very cool - lots of interesting features. I think we will have fun here. There are definitely some pretty sketchy landings here when compared to Font though.

Random:
Krissy is having a nap “in” her bouldering pad
Our credit cards do not seem to work here
The swiss use franks and euros
We do not understand any of the language they speak here
In the climbers campground we have heard - german, swiss, Italian, English, and other stuff….
BIG crash pads are good for magc wood
The temperature of the river here rivals the water around Dover Island - I would not want to jump in.
I am not the oldest climber in magic wood - I was on the young side n Font…average age is much lower here.
The frst boulder is about a 5 minute walk from out tent, and it is awesome..
We have to walk across pretty cool little bridges to get to the climbing.
We bought chips, chocolate milk, and ketchup for treats
Stuff here is expensive - as expected.
We have sold mad rock pads just by sitting in them in “couch mode”