Last week NKBV member Tim van der Linden sent me an invitation by mail. I was asked to attend a FAKE Worldcup at Monk Bouldergym. It was announced earlier at the website of Monk. It was an extra competition training for me.

It was a trial competition meant for judges and wildcard competitors. The men’s were represented by Pim Cattenstart, Hans Busker, Dirk Mol, Dennis Teijsse, Jaap Maaskant and me. We received 4 boulder problems, set with new holds on the competition wall. We had 5 minutes to solve each boulder problem. I managed to send one boulder. The judges did their job just fine, it was nice to know what the format and rules are. For example, I’m not allowed to polish my own holds during a worldcup competition and I’m not allowed to talk to other competitors during my rest moments. Quite strict, however it is a good preparation for a real competition.

Yesterday evening I followed my team mates with the use of internet. They competed in a real worldcup competition at Vail, Colorado. It was a live broadcast. It was a special broadcast because Wouter Jongeneelen managed to advance to the finals!

Michiel Nieuwenhuijsen, Herman Engbers and I were virtually present in the chatroom to support Wouter. Below you’ll see a few screenshots of Wouter.

The results of my team mates: 6th place for Wouter, Nicky 24th, Casper 33rd, Ferdinand 42nd en Vera 21st. Well done!

Update: Compilation movie of the men’s finals.

A while ago I signed up for the annual Dutch Students Leadclimbing Championship which was held at Enschede last Saturday.

On Friday evening, after I joined Core at Monk Bouldergym and visited Kim’s houseparty I decided to pack my bags. What do I need for this weekend event? A sleeping bag, sleeping mat, harnass, climbing shoes, chalk bag, thick clothes, summer clothes, flip flops and too many to mention. I could try to fit all my gear in my rucksack but I didn’t feel like trying. I used my Berghaus travel suitcase. Everything fits in that huge suitcase. All done, it was time to catch up with some sleep because tomorrow I’ll have to be present at 12 o’clock at Enschede.

Saturday morning my alarm went off and I woke up with a nice tune. It is half past 7 in the morning and I was getting ready to leave. I wasn’t looking forward for this trip, it took me more than 3 hours to get to the venue.

On my way to Enschede, I had to switch trains and busses 3 times in order to arrive on time at the climbing wall. I heard loud music at the climbing wall and saw people climbing. The wall is 27 meters high and 2 out of 3 qualification routes were set on this wall. Another qualification route was set indoors, which was 8 meters high.

The qualifications were nice. The first qualification was level 5, set on the outdoor wall. The second qualification was about 6b, which was set indoors and contained lots of big holds. The final qualification was set outdoors and about 6c.

It was nice to be among students. We were lucky with such good weather during this event. Most of the time I was waiting until I could climb my routes. After the qualifications, the organization decided to change the program.

Due to the bad weather forecast of come Sunday, the organisation shortened the weekend to one day. That means that we could climb the finals after dinner. The semi finals was cancelled to save time. The best 10 climbers of each category were advanced to the finals. Such a pity for this event and the organization however it saves me a lot of time!

After dinner I was send to the isolation area. The gym was our destination. According a written start list, I had to wait till the end. Meanwhile I was hoping that it won’t be pouring rain.

Next we were able to prepare the finals. Herman Engbers, head route setter of this event, was still busy setting the finals! No problem, I focussed on the rest of the route and it was quite obvious to me.

The isolation area was okay. It became more quiet. Suddenly everyone was gone and I was all by myself. Finally it was my turn to climb the finals. I was the last climber of the event.
On my way to the climbing wall it started to rain! I felt more rain drops on me. Why me….I decided to start quickly. When I was half way of the route, it started to rain even more. I had to hurry up before the holds were all wet.
At some point I reached a positive sloper hold. I managed to match my hands, so I could put some chalk on my fingers. I continued with my right hand to the next hold and I felt my fingers slipping away! Hmmm, the match was over and I don’t know what to think about this. Was I able to get higher in dry weather conditions or was it just me? Did everyone climb in these weather conditions? What did I do wrong? I don’t know. I’ll just accept the situation and end up 2nd.

The price giving was an hour later. It was an okay event, I just wish more competition climbers signed up. I experience this event as a training on an outdoor wall. About a month I’ll be at Chamonix attending the Lead Worldcup and I have to be able to climb in any weather conditions and push myself to the max! Check out the results here.

Being a climber I can imagine that everyone has given thoughts about his / her favourite climbing roll models. Even I have a few climbing roll models, one of them is the Japanese Yuji Hirayama.

A while back I spotted a nice climbing footage of Yuji on the Boreal website. The video is recorded in Turkey, where he sent Devers Royal 8c+ (?). Sit back, relax and enjoy the amazing video.

Update: Click here to see a follow up by Klimtube! And here to check out more awesome videos.

It looks like I’m on a weekend break with the National Team. Yesterday we went to Klimax at Belgium and today we’ll stay in my hometown and join Monk Bouldergym at Eindhoven.

Arriving at Monk I ran into a big group of kids waiting to enter the climbing gym. I enter myself to change my clothes. Casper, Vera and Wouter are setting a few boulders at the competition wall. Next we are having a meeting with our team in the CTO area to discuss our plan.

Coach Wouter shared his plan about the Masterclass. After a short meeting we are going to warm up and the young people apply for this Masterclass. The National Team takes care of a Masterclass to nearly all youth finalists from the National Youth Boulder Championship in association with the NKBV and Monk. It is a closed training where Wouter, Casper, Vera, Kim, Teun, Bob, Eva and I share our experience about insight, power and tactics of bouldering.

Coach Wouter was talking about the training. The warm up movements was familiar to me, we have done these moves before. We joined the club. It was fun to see how enthusiastic everyone was during this training.

We were involved as well. We divided this group into small groups. Teun and I were assigned to instruct kids how to gain insight in bouldering. Casper and Eva were assigned to instruct about tactics, Vera and Bob about power. It went very nice and successful.

After 2 hours we were done with the Masterclass. Time went by fast, it was nice to give instructions of the Masterclass. Next year I hope to see these kids on a stand!

It is Saturday and my alarm went off. It was early but fortunately I prepared my rucksack the day before. Today we went to climbing gym Klimax at Belgium.

On my way to our meeting point at Eindhoven, I dropped by at a supermarket to get myself breakfast and lunch. I was in the supermarket and bought some gingerbread, some currant buns and bananas. Then I went to a gas station where I would join Tabitha Buma.

Far away I saw a big van parked at the gas station. Kim got out of the van and waved at me. I parked my bike nearby and entered the Buma van. It contained hot plates, a table and a bunk-bed.

An hour later we finally reached our venue. It looks like there was a competition going on, however coach Wouter already arranged that we were still able to climb outdoors.

After a short briefing by coach Wouter, our training was meant to simulate a competition. It is important to know how to prepare a competition. How do you warm up properly in a limited isolation area, how do you mentally prepare yourself, how do you prepare your route? Everyone had different goals.

Then we started to get ourselves ready. I went to the isolation area to warm up. Meanwhile Wouter and Kim picked a few routes for our simulation competition. They picked a blue route for me, which was quite long and all the way through the roof. Everyone had their own route and it was up to us to climb it onsight.

Wouter and Kim observed everyone. They shared their opinions about how to improve ourselves and how long we were actually climbing. That was nice to know.

We still had 1,5 hours left to climb routes. I managed to climb 4 routes until we went back home.

It was a super sunny day. Climbing gym Klimax is nice location to train outdoors with the lead team. I have had a nice time and it motivates me to climb with a team. See you next time again!