First time for everything...

Aug 26

So a few days ago we decided it was time to leave Magic Wood behind as all our projects were done and it was getting hot.


We decided we would head to Sustenpass to look for new projects and better conditions. We were able to find both. We arrived in Sustenpass to heavy clouds and rain, but awoke to a perfect blue sky. Krissy found a couple of 6C projects that she was able to finish off in the two days we were there. One of her other projects which took many attempts over a few days was graded 6A+ in our guide, but I climbed it and felt it was way more like 7A (HARD!). She climbed it on her last go of our last day in Sustenpass.


I was able to find a couple of problems that were very cool as well. On day one I worked Traumland (8A) in the morning and then waited until evening to go back and complete it. This was probably the fastest I have ever worked and sent 8A. On day two I found an 8A+ called Madrugada. I was able to work out and send it all in one session! This felt like a big step in my climbing. I was pretty psyched. I briefly worked an 8B near Traumland that I felt close to doing, but weather, skin, and time seemed to be against me. That was basically it for me in Sustenpass - I decided to bank everything on doing just one or two hard problems instead of climbing as many as I could - luckily it worked!

After Sustenpass we packed everything up and took off to an area near Martigny, Switzerland called Branson. Branson is a tiny little village with the narrowest, steepest streets I have ever seen! The boulders (about six to be exact) are just above the town on a steep mountain side. Branson is a bouldering area developed by Fred Nicole - so there is lots of hard stuff. Branson is supposed to be home to the first 8B and 8B+ I believe. We arrived at the boulders around 6pm after driving from Sustenpass and I immediately began climbing. My goal for the evening was to work a problem called Traction Celeste (8A) so I could possibly have a shot at sending it in the morning. After warming up I checked out the problem. It was a wall of incut edges and pinches about 45 degrees overhanging. My perfect style. I brushed and ticked some holds, sat down at the start hold and began pulling. I didn’t stop pulling until I was on top…an 8A flash! Since my goal for Branson was done I decided I would try the world’s first 8B - La Danse des Balrogs. I did the standing start, a 7C in a couple of trys and then started trying the bottom. There is a crazy crimp, gaston, extreme high step in the 8B that I could not get that night…to hard it seemed. After the rain started I decided to wait until the morning and try again. We work up super early, ate breakfast and started climbing right away. My warm-up started with splitting a tip on Krissy’s 6C project - not a good start. I moved to La Danse des Balrogs and figured out a foot switch to do the crux. I rested a few minutes and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts I was on top of my first 8B boulder! We then moved on to Krissy’s projects which she dispatched in record time.




Now we are on the road to Fontainbleau for a few days of hot temperatures, French pastries, and the best bouldering on earth.