I went to Vitam to climb on Thursday and I went to Rocspot to climb on Thursday. I climbed twice this week because the Wednesday session went so well. The reason for which it went so well is that I am climbing regularly again. I climb at least once to twice per week, which is nothing by some standards but better than in the last two years.
We started on Wednesday by climbing top roped routes to warm up. In the process I decided to take harder routes. I climbed up routes that were graded from 6a to 6c. The beauty of climbing top roped is that you can familiarise yourself with more challenging routes and experiment without a fall being as bad.
If I was lead climbing the route then I often feel the need to be certain that I can make the holds up to the point where I can make the next clip. With top rope I can try and fail without consequences. During this climbing session, I tried and failed several times on the 6c.
Trying and failing is a sign of progress. It shows that my fear of falling is diminishing and that my desire to summit, and my desire to succeed is increasing.
There is the added pressure that whereas in the Lausanne climbing group I was in the middle of the group in terms of ability in this group I am the more experienced climber so if I can lead climb routes I can leave behind the rope for them to top rope and practice. All of us are learning and by pushing the envelope of our abilities we progress.
Making such progress in February is great because Spring and summer lie ahead. Spring, Summer, and even Autumn climbing seasons are fun. Summer is all about the rock climbing, the via ferrata, hiking and cycling. By getting a good level indoors as winter comes to an end we are primed to have fun outdoors.
If you were to look at the graph below you would clearly see that it’s a form of interval training but you’re at a loss to know which sport it is from. With running and cycling you would see 2-3 minutes of hard effort and then two to three minutes of less effort and it would repeat form 15-20 minutes. This graph is from an activity done for two hours.
This graph is from indoor climbing yesterday. You see that I started tracking the heart rate at least ten minutes before my first climb. You see that the heart rate during the first climb climbs consistently until I reach the top. As I get lowered back to the ground my body goes back to being relaxed and you see the low heart rate as I belay someone. The second climb is more challenging so you see the peak earlier in the climb and then it remains stable. The third climb was a little harder and you see that I had to rest at least twice. The fourth climb was managed without resting. With the fifth climb we see that I really needed to rest at the point where the troth is. From what I remember of the last climb it was easy except for parts where you really need finger strength. As I do not I cheated. I don’t climb frequently enough.
I noticed that Rocspot Echandens has logged their climbs so that they are compatible with myclimbs, an app that I installed on my phone many months ago but forgot about. At the time it was still in early development so was not of much interest. Next time I go I will use the app.
The Klettersteig Rider 3.0 is a dual system via ferrata kit. It has a carabiner like standard via ferrata kits have and a “rider” system. The “rider” system fixes to the via ferrata cable and progresses with you. As you get to a part where you need to switch you move the rider system up first and then you move the carabiner.
What I like about this system is that if you slip or lose grip of the rungs for any reason you will only fall the length of the connector rather than the length from where you are to the most recent pig tail. This reduces the fall distance by a considerable amount.
The Via Ferrata where I would most like such a system is Leukerbad. On the Leukerbad Via Ferrata when you get to the last third there are few handholds so you rely on finger and arm strength to progress and you get tired. With this system you would relieve that strain to some extent. It would make me feel more at ease.
At 229 CHF from at least one online shop this kit is expensive. You can get Via Ferrata sets for between 60-115 CHF as a beginner. This kit is interesting for people who, like me, have practised Via Ferrata for years and use their kits every weekend in summer. Via Ferrata sets can last for years so if you estimate that you will use it from 3-5 years the price is acceptable.
An alternative is the Austrialpin Hydra via ferrata set. It’s 60 CHF cheaper but you only block on the cable when you need a rest rather than continuously. The third option, and the most used option is a sling with a carabiner. This is also the cheapest option.
Indoor Climbing and the Apple Watch are a bad mix. They are a bad mix because the Apple watch has an unprotected glass screen. The screen is so exposed that last Thursday I shattered the screen without realising until I got home and tried to use it but the capacitive screen did not respond.
At first I couldn’t see anything so I tried to feel it with my nail (whatever is left of it after an evening of climbing) and I could hardly feel anything. Eventually by trying to look at the surface with light from different angles I could see two distinct cracks in the screen splitting the screen in to three distinct segments.
If I was your average smartwatch user I’d say that this is normal because smartwaches are made to be intelligent, not solid. I’d then point you to the fact that I have had suunto diving watches, Suunto feature watches and then Suunto Flagship watches such as the Ambit 2, 3 and then the Suunto Spartan watches. The Suunto Ambit 2 and Ambit 3 survived years of climbing, both rock climbing and via ferrata.
My Apple Watch Series 3 was “accidentally damaged”, the way Apple describes the condition of my watch, after just three climbing sessions. I had bouldered once, climbed once indoors, and once outdoors without issue. It’s when I went climbing indoors the second time that I must have done something to hairline fracture the glass.
In my humble opinion, with over 700 tracked activities with Suunto devices without issues, Apple is fatally flawed. In my opinion a smartwatch should be designed so that the screen is protected. The screen should be designed to survive what life has to throw at it. My Suunto Ambit 2 and 3 have had countless impacts on rocks over the years. You can see on the bezel of my Suunto devices that they have countless scratches. The glass however is fine. You need to look carefully to see any sign of scratches.
It is with this in mind that I strongly feel that Apple should take responsibility for making a device so mediocre that it gets cracked while climbing indoors. Indoor climbing is on wooden panels and fiberglass holds. It’s not on granite or other hard rock surfaces. A watch screen should survive this environment.
Replacing the watch screen via Apple would cost 230 CHF without taxes, possibly about 250 CHF with taxes. The watch itself cost 397 CHF new. It goes without saying that I did not ask for the unit to be fixed. It is because of Apple’s poor design that this watch suffered damage and it is Apple’s responsibility to replace the unit free of charge.
I didn’t drop it, I didn’t smash my wrist against something. I didn’t even know the unit was damaged until I got home and tried to use it. Fitness tracking watches should not be this fragile.
One of the reasons for which this film is so powerful is that it’s written in the way that Heinrich Harrer wrote about the Eiger. It’s documenting not just a single attempt but the entire process. In doing so we get to know the people well. It gives us some context about their early days and then it spends a big amount of time on the process that led to a succesful ascent of the Dawn Wall.
When we watch short films about climbing we sometimes see the trials and errors but those trials and errors are over days and weeks, not seasons and years. It documents the process by which Tommy Caldwell spent years exploring the entire rock face to find a route that was practicable. This is the level of detail that we got in The White Spider. You even have some of those ice falls in this film although only briefly.
One of the nicest moments in this film, and in this story, is when Tommy Cadwell gets to the Wine Tower and decides that, instead of continuing up the climb he would wait until Kevin Jorgenson made it across pitch 15. That’s a great example of friendship, companionship and compassion. It’s great when people suspend their own goals for another person in this fashion. That’s what makes climbing and practising other people so much better. It’s finding people that want you to succeed as much as they want to succeed themselves. “I don’t want this victory to be alone,”
I also like how this film is shot. I like the use of tight shots on the hands, of tight shots on the feet, of shots from down in the valley looking up and of wide shots where you see the climbers and the crew filming. I also like the use of timelapse. This, to a great degree is a modern day cinema verité film in that it captures life as it happens. It doesn’t use fast cuts, plenty of music and other devices.
It does have some great mapping of the routes on that wall. These maps are used to show the routes that other people have created, the routes that he climbed to get to know the wall and then the routes that he opened himself. The most fascinating use of mapping is when you see all of the variants that he explored before climbing the Dawn Wall successfully. You see a few metres here and there, you see how some create longer routes, and then you see the variants. You also see the gaps where they’re facing a challenging climb.
I think that one of the strengths of this team is that it’s made up of a boulderer and a rock climber. With this combination you have two distinct climbing specialities, that when combined offer a great pairing. One example is the dyno move. As a boulderer part of the game/art of this discipline is being able to make jumps that catch tiny finger holds. The strength of having a rock climber is that he has gained experience of climbing techniques, route finding. In this case the fact that Tommy Caldwell has spent so long studying this problem is that he knows the climb by heart.
I would definitely recommend watching this film if you like climbing as a sport, like reading about climbing and like watching it. I would also recommend it if you want to see a film about collaboration and compassion. How it was filmed and edited is also worth the time. I never found bits long or boring. It’s an excellent film.
Last night after about a year without climbing I finally returned to the sport and I saw a familiar face but I couldn’t remember why. Eventually, I remembered that it was Cedric Lachat. I remember him from some climbing videos I watched. I also saw many of my climbing friends.
On the first belay I made sure to remember all the skills. It had been a while but when you’ve belayed hundreds of people the skills have become muscle memory. What was less comfortable were the first two climbs. When you haven’t climbed in a while you have to get used to being high above the ground and trusting that you took care of fixing your equipment correctly. I did so I continued climbing.
By the third and fourth climbs I felt more comfortable getting back to climbing up to 6a for three quarters of a route before not trusting myself on a move three or four moves from the top.
As I haven’t climbed in so long I thought that I would be rusty but this is due to two or three outdoor climbs where conditions are diferent. You don’t have colour coded rocks to show you the route.
I think that watching pros climb has helped, I think that cycling for hours a week has helped and I think that lifting a fifteen kilo weight in a number of different ways has also helped. Cycling really strengthens the leg muscles and improves the cardiovascular system and lifting a 15kg weight works arm, shoulder and back muscles.
The biggest difference when I was climbing yesterday is that I had brand new shoes, shoes that I had used for climbing just once before. Whenever I went climbing before I was using old shoes that were worn and had holes in them as they were hand me downs from friends. I had plenty of grip and for once they were tight.
This morning I tried riding around Watopia. Previously I had tried GCN training sessions with the indoor trainer but as I had no power meter I had to guess that I was making the right effort and guess that the pedalling rate was correct. With Zwift I don’t need to guess anymore. This software measures my cadence with the suunto sensor as well as the wheel speed to measure my speed and thus wattage.
The aim of this training session was to produce 130 watts of power for 3 minutes, rest and then repeat this 10 times for a training session duration of 50 minutes. I liked that it provides you with a window of power within which to stay for the required periods of time. It is useful to have a window within which to stay because there is a little lag between the power it requires you to alternate between and what the sensors detect. It works better for efforts lasting for more than a few seconds as you synchronise the power produced to the power you’re aiming for.
If you want a more detailed look at Zwift’s features you can click on the video below.
Climbing in Bramois is a pleasant and practical experience. This is a climbing area with numerous walls and routes. There are single and multipitch routes ranging from 3-4 up to 7 and 8. The climbing area is within a gorge with nice rock on both side and a river running through the middle.  This area has over 150 routes from which for you to choose from. The routes vary in length from 10-40 metres for single pitch routes.
When I was there I climbed around the Africa wall. There are quite a few 5a and above routes. Some of these routes are more instinctive than others. There is one particular route where we had a tendency within the group to go too far too the right and then had to go left and then make it up to a crack. Once the complicated bit was negotiated the rest of the climb was easy. I am still getting used to climbing on rock rather than on an artificial wall or via ferrata.
I later went to another wall a few minutes walk away and that climb was more interesting because it was up a chimney and some bits were mild overhangs that could be negotiated with observation. That wall was fun to climb.
For more information about the climbing walls you can visit this site. The advantage of this climbing area is that multiple groups can be present at once and climb without getting in each others way. You have a variety of climbing routes and experiences and getting around is easy if you don’t mind walking up and down short trails. I will be tempted to climb around this area many more times in future. The climbing season is coming to an end for this year but I do plan on climbing here again next year. With the people whom I drove to the site we climbed until the sun had left the valley.
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