2 Mini Vids and a few photos

As of recently we haven't been traveling so much.  Each month the military gives us a gas ration of 400 Liters.  Not knowing this and just realizing it last week I have used up all of our rations!  That's roughly 12 tanks of gas in 3 weeks!!!!!!!!  I have never realized how much we drive and spend on gas to be climbers.  So with the way gas prices are out on the local economy we decided not to travel anywhere this last weekend.  We did however have a few friends stop by for a few days.  Chris Wild who is on a summer long trek through Europe seeing the sights stopped by for a few days of sleeping in a bed.  He has been staying in Magic wood sleeping in a hammock under a tarp for the last month.  Dallas Milburn also stopped by for a few days before he had to fly back home to boulder.  The last 4 days have been fun, lots of desserts, cleaning boulders and trying to climb on as many boulders as possible.  We made a few small videos feature just a small percentage of the boulders we climbed on.

 

 

 

Fruity tastiness

Julie enjoying her cappachino

Choco Delight

Ice Cream Cappachino

Micro Froggy

Dallas in the gym

Photo's and a mini bouldering Vid!

This was a little video I made one day while I was out bouldering alone.  The footage isn't the greatest but I thought I would share some of the problems I have found and climbed so far.  The rock kind of reminds me of something from the south east, like Rock Town, LRC and HP40.  Its been extremely humid thus far which means low motivation on harder problems.  Hopefully I will be able to post some of those next fall/winter.  

Missing Gus-Gus a lot! 

Over the weekend when Tania came for a visit, we tried to do as much as possible.  We started that Saturday out by hitting up a local bakery for sweet tasty treats, then wanted to head over to the local 12th century castle that Julie and Tania have not seen yet.  After about an hour of roaming through and around the castle I was getting the itch to grab some rock and try real hard.  We headed to a cliff that I have spent quit a bit of time at and I was excited to try some harder routes.  We started out by warming up on a great little route with big holds and swiss cheese pockets.  Next up was putting the draws up on Julies project which climbs out a roof with huge moves.  Luckily Julie crushed it and didn't have to worry about trying it again.  Once I was warmed up properly I was hoping to get on a really cool looking 8b that another guy was trying and getting really close on.  After watching him walk through the moves and scrubbing up all the holds I decided not to try it so I wasn't in his way.  I moved my rope over under a route I have already climbed, Magnet Finger, and decided to try a link up that starts on this route and finish up the 8a crux to the right.  My first try up the route after placing the draws was a decent attempt, falling off the swing move which is the last move of the route.  Luckily on the second attempt I stuck the swing and was clipping the chains of this amazing 8a+ that I don't know the name of.  Once we were done I wanted the girls to see a cool area where the climbers camp ground and restaurant was.  The food was great and the area is amazing looking with a lot of farm animals (that you know you are eating!).  The following day Tania had to catch a train at 2 so we decided to check out the largest Japanese garden in Europe, which is here in town.  It was cool everything you expect at a place like this, crazy looking carp, waterfalls, ponds, and plants.  There was however a photo shoot going on while we were there.  As we walked in we saw people dressed up in Anime outfits with crazy ears and weapons with them.   Once we dropped Tania off at the train station Julie and I decided to hit up one of the local bouldering spots The Kalmit.  There is a lot of problems in this area from super easy to around FB 7C+.  I will try to get more pictures and vidoes of the boulders in the area in the future, but for now here is a bunch of pics from the previous few weeks.

Tania gazing at one of the many waterfalls

Anime!

I Love My Wife!

WW2 Cemetery

The Perfect Wife!

The perfect Wife!

Crazy Carp!

Me and my Lovely wife!

Tania warming up

In a hole

Julie and Tania

The Castle

A cool boulder at an area that close!

Dallas on a really good 7a+

Me on the same route

Julie and I under the iconic ACTION DIRECT!

Doing another 7c+ in the Frankenjura

Random boulder in the woods by my house!

Another bad ass random boulder by our house!

Things we have done 30 min of the house.

Since returning from Ceuse, Dallas Milburn and I have been staying busy locally.  There is a lot climbing within a 30 min. drive of us.  It isn't the best in the world but it will have to do for the time we are here.  As I have mentioned it kind of reminds me a little bit of the RRG.  The same sandstone and is located in humid rain forest like climate.  The climbing on the other hand is a bit different, the routes tend to be shorter and more power based.  It is a fun time none the less.  There is also a ton of bouldering, although it has been hard to find.  The bouldering guide for the area is out of print and we can't find one to buy so it has been extremely difficult to find the boulders.  Asking the locals hasn't seemed to work either, all we have heard is "you'll figure it out".  Its kind of frustrating but what ever ill just have to walk a lot of cliff line and do it the old fashion way.  The boulders that we have found are decent, most of which are cliff bands with drop offs.  Think of the RRG and HP40 have babies, that's what the bouldering reminds me of. 

Me on some 13a

Dallas on Magnet Finger 13a

Climbing isn't the only thing that we have been doing.  Just the other day Dallas and I made a 5 mile round trip walk to a 12th century castle.  This castle over looks a the valley and all its tiny villages.  We were shocked and amazed at how old the castle really was.  There were stalactites 1 to 2 inches in length hanging from the ceilings and walls.  When you snapped a picture when the flash on the walls would have a crazy green glow from all the algae and calcium that has built up over time.  There were bullet holes and cannon balls all over the exterior from all the different wars in the past.  It was definitely an amazing experience, and nice it is just a walk from the house!

A wall in the middle of the woods on the way to the castle.  We think it was a Holocaust memorial wall where people were executed, felt super weird standing there next to a all the bullet holes in the wall!

 

One of the many passages through the castle

Outside of the castle, built on and around the cliff

Entrance to the castle with peep holes on either side

Stalactites

Stalactites

Thinking an air hole and or a hole for transporting things

Craziness on our walk back

Our living arrangements here are great.  We live on top of a very nice ladies garage which over looks a swimming pond with a Bar/Restaurant attached, and huge park with a ton of cool toys!  There are miles and miles of trails in the hills around us and there is even some rock, i guess we'll see if it is climbable in the future.  I am excited to take advantage of all the cool things later this summer.