The Icefight 2011, Rabenstein.

This past weekend was the Icefight in Rabentein, Italy (really part of Austria since everyone there speaks German, and is located on the border of Italy and Austria). It s a very small village tucked away high in the Southern Tyrol Region and is home to one of the best organized competitions I have ever been to in any capacity.

The people there are amazing. Markus was telling me that the community built the climbing structure and hosts the event purely on sponsored dollars and from volunteer work. Loads of local show up to witness the best competition ice climbers in the world compete on a self standing, well engineered tower of hard mixed climbing and man-made ice.


As a competitor, you get to spend a lot of time in the isolation zone. The more successful you are, the more time you get to spend in isolation. Another way to get to spend time in isolation is during the qualification rounds and to be the unlucky person who draws to go last out of all the competitors, that would be me this time.

Really, its best to only have a little time in isolation. It can be cold and, given enough time, one can psychologically undo oneself. It's difficult to know exactly when to warm up and when to get physically and mentally ready to go. Competition is so different than real world ice climbing in many ways since there are so many more factors and pressures that come into play. Its easy to start casting doubts and let the phantoms of failure creep into your mind. Finding a good focus is a skill. The more pressures I seem to put on myself, the worse things get. It seems like the less care about failing in a competition, the better I perform. It's hard not to care.

Learning from failures is an important part of competition climbing.

Evgeny Kryvosheytsev told me over dinner that he has been in more than 700 competitions. That's nearly a competition every day for two solid years if they were done back to back ! Markus Bendler said on the drive home that on his second World Cup Ice event his first move was to step out of bounds over a red line and be disqualified. Competitions are tough, there's just no two ways around it. Learn from mistakes or become part of the collateral damage, that's the choice. I guess that's one of the things that makes climbing so appealing, that there's always something to learn or some way to make yourself better.

Like the rest of this trip to Europe, I am fortunate enough to be able to go with friends to new climbing areas. Markus took me to some of his crags near his home in Austria. It was great to climb at yet more cool places. I'd love to spend more time climbing with Markus, but he's going to Romania and I'm going home to the States.

I've had my fill of the World Cup tour for this year and after the shenanigans in Saas-Fee, I'm not psyched about investing more time and money to go to the next UIAA World Cup competition until some issues area addressed. Maybe they will learn from watching places like Rabenstein. I like learning from the competition climbing about my abilities and my weaknesses. Rabenstien always allows me to make the mistakes so that I can become a better climber. Can't wait for next year !

Kandersteg, Switzerland to Innsbruck, Austria

Saas-Balin - mixed climbing (will have to post the photo here later)

Leaving Saas-Fee in the past was hard since my rental car didn’t like the elevation, the cold, the grade coming down from Saas-Fee, or some combination of all since the engine ceased on the hairpin turns several times. The big surprise was that not only did the power brakes go out, but the steering wheel locked when the engine shut down. I got lucky and somehow didn’t have an epic going over the railing and taking the plunge as I followed Rob and Ramon (both from the UK) on our way to Kandersteg. Rob and Ramon had rented a flat and said I could stay with them for a nominal cost for a couple of days on my way to Innsbruck. They woke me up, as promised, and told me they were on their way out of Saas-Fee at 8:00 am. That just about killed me since I was at the athlete party until about 6:00 am.

We boarded a train with our vehicles and traveled through a tunnel and under some major mountains impassable otherwise by roads, and popped out directly in Kandersteg. This little town must have been chiseled out of pure stone by God himself. This is where I would go if I was given the choice if I had to spend eternity on Earth.

We settled into their flat after settling up with the man who grew up in the next house over and now rents his place to visitors. Rob and Ramon were serious about getting in some ice climbing from the time we got in, so we packed up our stuff and headed out. Rob drove his right-sided Land Rover to the crag. I couldn’t believe the amount of ice in proximity of the valley. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, even though they swore that there just wasn’t that much ice. My jaw agape, we arrived at our trailhead that led to a nice little crag where lots of beginners were climbing. No major mixed climbs were being done, and we took a small walk around to see what was in good condition to climb. We found something that we thought looked good and we climbed a nice line that I figured went about M8 (climbing on rock with ice tools) until a curtain of ice could be gained, mounted, and climbed.

My tools are the new Petzl Ergos and I was having a hard time getting them to get into the ice. I figured my problems stemmed from a combination of my depreciated skills of throwing into the ice and the fact that I have only been climbing rock with ice tools for so long. Maybe its one-in-the-same, but anyway I felt klutzy and slow on real ice. After getting off the climb, I bouldered around a bit without a rope and just off the ground so that I could get my “sea legs” back. It didn’t take much.

The next day I hung out and rolled around Kandersted to get an idea of how things were. There was some sort of historical event going on and people were dressed up in traditional regalia. Catching up on e-mails and rest, I did make it over to see some of the sledging. I brought back a poster to commemorate this visit as I’ve been trying to collect posters and such to decorate my garage with. I like seeing posters of events that I have been to as it reminds me of good times. I didn’t pick one up from Saas-Fee this year.

Dennis Van Hooke and Marianne Van der Setine brought Gelle (?) with them to come and climb some ice. I wound up making some plans to go to Innsbruck to stay with Christina Huber, another athlete from the World Cups that I’ve been to, and to hook up with Markus Bendler and train before Rabenstien. I wound up climbing with Gelle on an ice climb that looked difficult, but I figured was rated only to about WI4+ (usually 5+/6 apparently). Gelle is an accomplished alpinist and was on the K2 expedition in 2008 and lived to tell about it. A young man, he is working on becoming a mountain guide and wanted to learn some skills. We only did two pitched together, but I guess he picked up some quarky tricks from me since he mentioned that he climbed exactly how I did over the crux, using a knee post to gain a higher tool placement. I hope that I helped him out in some way and hope to climb with him again, but would also like to ski with him since he’s an Olympic skier as well.

I left around noon from Kandersteg and drove to Innsbruck. I figured I spent about 60% of my drive in tunnels. Absolutely amazing are the tunnel systems in Europe. Colorado should look at putting a tunnel from Denver to Vail and include a train system for that corridor. I took a couple of wrong turns but quickly corrected them and drove fast to make up for any lost time. Driving small diesel cars on narrow and winding European roads is entertaining and demands full attention. I haven’t seen one car wreck since I was in the USA over a month ago. In Albuquerque I would see at least one car wreck per day.

Finding Christina was an epic. I don’t read, write, speak, or understand any language besides English and Spanish. She speaks pretty good English, but explaining directions to me was less than useless. I was able to get an internet connection near the airport at the backside of an apartment complex and she sent me some vague directions that got me close enough. I saw her standing on the street waiting for me and I pulled over and she jumped in. After dinner, I went to a reggae party with her boyfriend until late-thirty. It was fun to check out the scene, but I was so tired from the climbing and traveling I had to go to bed.

The next day I took Christina to breakfast and dropped her off at her university since she had some exams to take. She gave me directions to the city center and so I played tourist on my day off. I got a couple of Austrian hats for Logan and Sierra and caught up on e-mails and business at where else but McDonald’s. It seems to be the only place in Europe that offers free wi-fi. I took a tour of some of the old chapels and learned a lot about some very old history, stuff that was never covered in my history classes in school. The ornateness and workmanship that went into the Tyrolean region is astounding.

Christina dropped me off at the local rock gym and I met up with Peter Albert, a mountain guide from the area. We got in a good boulder session focusing on big holds and long moves, more specific for mixed climbing. He's a not only a great mountain guide (his reputation preceeds him) but he's also a very down to earth guy. So much for my "rest day" ! We went to dinner afterward and then went back to his flat where we enjoyed some Brass Band music playing ska on horns and drank a Bavarian beer !

The next day Christina and I got up to meet her friends and go skiing in Garmisch, Germany. Her dad runs the ski area, so it was pretty cool to see what was going on there. It turns out that the World Chamionships will be going on for the following week, so a huge portable bleacher and town was being set up. Helicopters were flying overhead carrying loads up the mountain while we skied some fresh powder. Christina is very supportive of her friend who was seriously injured in a ski accident last year. Her friend is now an adaptive skier who can hang with the best. It was really cool to get to ski with her crew and get some ski training in for myself as well. I'm always learning.

Skiing is a good way for me to get away from the stress of competition climbing. It's helped me get past Saas-Fee and start looking towards the next competition.

Enough can't be said about the hospitality of my "competitors" / friends from the ice climbing competitions. It's been a great way to meet a lot of really cool people and see many new places this year. I feel extremely fortunate.

Chamonix Wrap-up; Skiing

Augille du Midi

I've wondered what it would be like to live in Chamonix over the years. The town is host to one of the biggest outdoor tourism locations on the face of the planet since there is any activity to be had within about an hour from the town square. Not to mention that the best cheeses, meats and tasty beverages of all types support the gnostic experience.

A view from the Augille du Tacul

Chamonix is perhaps best known for its skiing first, and then its climbing. If funny that Gordon and I didn't even have Chamonix on our radar when planning our tour for the UIAA International World Ice Climbing Competitions in 2011. The chain of events that happened bring about a cancellation of the competition in Val Daone, Italy spurred us on to find other places to go and other things to do.

Since Stephanie was so gracious to show us around we gained far more than we ever could have form competing in Val Daone. L'Usine and the Zoo were two of the highlights, but having a chance to shoehorn in some skiing in Chamonix was great. Here's a great clip of some of the skiing we did by that Lukasz Warzecha put together:

Behind the Scenes - Skiing in Chamonix from Lukasz Warzecha - LWimages.co.uk on Vimeo.

Behind the Scenes - Skiing in Chamonix

I would have embedded the video here, but Austria won't let me do it.

Unfortunately, I also heard from Margaret Wheeler, President of the AMGA, that all Aspirant Guiding for 2011 is prohibited in France due to a major overhaul of the French program. I have heard from locals in Europe that this has to do in large part to the fact that aspirant guides were trying so hard to push the limits to prove themselves that there was a high mortality rate of aspirant guides. I can fully appreciate this since I have been there, done that, in the AMGA program. It's an unspoken peer pressure imposed by an adrenergic system fueled with one-upmanship that contributes to aspiring guides to push it too hard, too fast to reach a standard that may or may not be tenable objectively or subjectively. I lost a few friends last year to this exact issue. I'm glad they are looking at this problem.

Most people who have my Facebook account have seen this video. I've toiled a bit over why I compete thereafter and have been a bit on the sour grapes thought process. After seeing Justin Spain going through very similar problems in the UIAA competitions last year, I thought that the judging might have gotten better, I guess not. It's hard to not get down over something like this and I did submit a protest and appeal, but was told by Pavel Shabalina that I would just lose money in the process, so I just went to the bar and tried to get over it. When I walked into the bar, the route setters were there and immediately told me that they were sorry for not having a red line and that the judge shouldn't have pulled me off.

People asked me if I was coming back to compete in Saas-Fee or another UIAA World Comp last night. I said, "you want my answer tonight ? " I think that the people I was competing against should be the most upset since they didn't get a chance to better me or not. What a waste.

Gordon and Malcolm have been great energy and have picked me up out of the mud. Its great to have good friends to be there when things go bad. I'd love to say that I learned something from this competition. Maybe I did learn something. Perhaps I learned that I don't have control over all the elements in the competition environment as I thought, and that I should be ok with the fact that I didn't fail to train, didn't mentally prepare, or wasn't ready in some way.

I have only one more competition (not a UIAA comp). I'm not sure how I'll feel about it all in a week or a month or next season. Time to go to the mountains after Rabenstien. Competitions are good to make me a better climber, but I need some head space after them.

French National Competition, L’Argentiere Le Bessee, France

Lappin' and Nappin' in Usine, France. Stephanie catches up on much need rest and Marc takes a spin on one of the best mixed lines in the world.

We got fired up that there was going to be another competition that we could go to in France since the Val Daone competition in Italy was canceled and we got on the road with our rental car and drove from the Scarpa Boot factory in Asolo, Italy to meet

Stephanie Maureau, who was already invited to compete in the final. Gordon and I drove through Chamonix and under Mont Blanc and then on for another couple of hours to the southeast to arrive at her parent’s house. They were more than accommodating and made us feel at home. Of course we ate the best cheese from the region and had some incredible genepi, local drink made of the flowers in the hills right behind the Maureau’s chalet.

The competition was in L’Argentiere Le Bessee, meaning that we got to drive up through the stunning mountain pass village of La Grave, one of the world’s premiere backcountry skiing locations.

The format of the competition was such that Jeff Mercier and crew put up a new dry tooling crag that was still under construction when we arrived. The key to any good dry tooling area is that the rock is usually bad enough that nobody else wants to climb it. The holds are drilled pockets and the feet are poor at best. The climbing is generally great though since long dynamic moves give rise to hard climbing on steep overhanging terrain.

Unfortunately, there were only 8-9 routes and there were nearly 40 competitors, half of which were the Russian team that got there early and clogged up the routes. They cued up 4 and 5 spots in advance for a climb while climbing on another route, which made it impossible for others to get in on a climb.

As usual, however, Alexy Dengin and Ludmilla were more than hospitable to Gordon and I and let us climb with them. The climbing was fun, but overall. In general the competition was supposed to be about fun and climbing, but it became difficult when there was too many people at the party, so to speak. Poor organization made for a semi-dangerous situation by having so many people in too close proximity and with large amounts of rock fall. Some of the competitors were snatching my water without asking and trying to take over our route even when we were on it, making for some hard feelings as evident by on-line postings. It’s funny that some people take it so seriously, but when there’s money on the table some people seem to turn into a ruthless competitor.

They should have given a time allotment or managed the climbing to some degree since some people didn’t even have a chance to climb the routes. It might sound like sour grapes, but it’s hard not to when one travels so far and invests themselves into the process only to have to experience such a poor process. Mostly, it fostered a lot of poor sportsmanship. I was able to get what I needed out of the day and climbed hard and climbed well, although after they closed the preliminary time allotment.

We stayed and watched Stephanie win the women’s finals and then left, not even going to the party afterward where they were playing slow reggae. The next day we got up and went climbing at Usine, perhaps one of the best mixed climbing experiences I’ve had. The cave is unreal. The guys from France have a great thing going at Usine and have had some great climbing competitions hosted in the cave, complete with DJ and lights! Seems like something that we could do at the Hall of Justice in Ouray, Colorado at some point.

I’m definitely inspired to put climbing routes up like what is in Usine, but Jason Nelson and I were already on the same mind set. The traditional way of climbing in North America is to climb on slopy little holds and pray that your tool doesn’t skate out. Perhaps this is seen as “alpine” or something but is not the style of climbing that I like. Rather, I prefer to do long moves on good holds and minimal foot placements. I’m not sure how people will take to this style back home, but there’s got to be room for everyone.

Aside from the experience at the competition, we managed to keep a good attitude and pull off some shenanigans:

LWimages RAW - Usine from Lukasz Warzecha - LWimages.co.uk on Vimeo.

I'm looking forward to more climbing at the Zoo in Chamonix and the next, and best, International World Cup at Saas-Fee, Switzerland, 2011 !! So send your good vibes from the other side of the pond.

Seoul and Cheongson, South Korea World Cup 2011

Ice, Ice, Baby. Rollin' in Seoul, we found a gem of a place to climb. An indoor ice climbing gym that includes some great mixed climbing ! The rock gym aspect isn't too shabby either, but Gordon and I had the joint to ourselves, so it was awesome.



There's loads of stores here in Seoul too. I think I've counted over a dozen small shops that carry more high end equipment than REI in Albuquerque. We were told that Korea sells more North Face equipment than all of Europe by Andrej Pejeck.

This trip to Korea wasn't so lucky in the IWC for me, but it's been a great experience to see new culture and see new places as well as meeting many new people.
We got some great photos and video that we hope to put together at some point. There's so much to see and take in.

I gave away a Beverly Mountain Guides / Strike Rescue shirt to my old friend, Alexey Dengin, from Russia. He helped me immensely last year after the competition in Rabenstein where I was able to get on some of the competition routes (something we can't do at a UIAA IWC wall), and was able to put some techniques to use and to the test for improvement for this year. He's a great guy and has good English, so we are able to chat quite a bit and have some fun.

There's definitely a separation of regions, mostly based on the languages, that takes place on the "traveling circus" (as I call it). The Euros have absorbed us from North America, and so that's generally who we hang out with. Marcus Bendler kicks ass and takes first, then the Russians pretty much run the show. They turn out in masses, 15-20 on this trip alone I believe, and that's maybe half as many as were in Kirov in 2010. It's just a small band of Euros and we bond together and support each other through good times and bad while on the tour.


This time, Angelica Rainier was wronged of her rightful win when she was pulled off her climb at this first World Competition by a judge who got overzealous that she did not clip an anchor with her rope before progressing.


They actually pulled her off the route by pulling the rope from the other end. She complained and was rightfully given a chance to repeat the route. Unfortunately, a hold broke on her when she was about 2/3 the way up the route and she fell off.

She was so cold and tired by then that she was not able to make the complaint and do yet another attempt on the route again. She was shattered emotionally. All felt that she had been stripped of a championship that included 3500 Euros (about $5000). Its a tough roller coaster for all the climbers at all levels. There's really good climbers who say that they could easily climb the routes we do, but then again, the competition aspect is a whole other animal with loads of internal and external pressures not found in recreational climbing. It seems that no matter what happens, no matter how well we did, it's never good enough.

Here we are huddled like penguins and trying to keep warm while the Korean wind blow down the canyon before the award ceremony.


Although it was great to hang out and get a good cultural exposure, I'm growing weary of being the North American climbing cheering squad. I want to make the next round and be able to climb. I need to climb smarter and harder. This is a steep learning curve. I don't think that someone (most people) will be able to show up on this platform/venue and be able to do well right away. All parties involved would like to see more Americans and Canadians involved with the IWC, but I'm sure that most people do not have what it takes to make a commitment to do well in here. Most people will never even make it out of qualification rounds. I guess I'm still throwing this out to North America: get on board and become the best mixed climber you can be.

Marc

Cheongson, South Korea

Yes ! I'm back on the UIAA International World Ice Climbing circuit and representing the USA, imagine that. I'm just sponsoring myself on this one and have a little more experience going into this round. I'm looking forward to seeing new places, meeting new friends, and gaining more experience.

The winter that seemed like it would never come because of rains and warmer temperatures finally made it to North America. With only one week of real freezing temperatures I wasn’t sure I was going to see winter at all. But as planned, Gordon McArthur, a friend I had met through an ice climbing competition in Ouray, CO several years ago, flew from Canada to meet up with me at my home in Albuquerque, NM and he must have brought winter with him. The lowest temperatures on record descended and were a wake-up call for the months ahead.

We stayed up all night training on my climbing wall in the backyard that I made specifically for mixed rock and ice climbing, something that is not readily available on the North American continent. Our flight was early the next morning for the month of competition climbing in Asia and Europe.

Flying into Seoul, Korea for my first time I am filled with the excitement of being able to be the first and only American athlete to compete in the International World Cup Ice Climbing competition in the far southeastern reaches of Korea. It is a great sense of pride that I am the only person from the USA and so I get to hang the flag. Several other Americans have competed in the IWC before, but never in Asia. South Korea is home of two of the best competition ice climbers and the country has great pride in sponsoring the first IWC on Asian soil.

This is my second year as a World Cup competitor. I don’t have the jitters like I did the first year since I know what to expect from the climbing and I know most of the other athletes. It’s the exposure to the culture and environment that is now overwhelming. New events in new places are exciting and a good cause for foreign travel to not only major cities, but also to the heartlands of these countries, affording an experience I would not have otherwise had.

Gordon and I are a Team North America of sorts and have gotten together with Malcolm Kent from Denmark in Seoul. We spend a couple of days before the competition strolling through the markets and seeing some of the arts and architecture of this ancient and great city. The economy is clearly thriving and there’s no shortage of anything. We find a good selection of mixed rock and ice climbing gear in shops that are crammed together like sardines in a can. Prices are equivalent from back home.

We meet up with the Korean representative and all the other athletes for long bus ride to the venue. I am happy to see many old friends and the excitement of competing once again surges through all of us as our laughing and sharing quick “where have you bens?” are exchanged. We also miss those who cannot make it, are no longer competing, or have passed away. The UIAA IWC is a fairly small circle of people on a grand worldwide scale.

The exotic foods catch many of us off guard. New tastes, textures, and flavors of foods are not something that I am used to, but I go for it and enjoy a rare occurrence of a new experience.

Getting off the bus the athletes are met with movie cameras and a small gathering of the local people who clap for us as we are directed into the registration room. We pick up jerseys and accept gifts from the country. This time it’s a tea pot.

Inscription and dedication evening is preceded by an incredible feast. Several drum and fan dances are performed, representing Korea’s heritage. Then it’s off to bed after a long day.