The
training program I set at the beginning of November is almost finished. In two
weeks I will be off to Vegas; I started to be really curious to add a new spot
in my list and to climb in areas that I have dreamt for long. The sessions
among the dust of my training room go on every week and I probably planned to
much for my usual standard. Many weekly tables miss some kind of sessions but I
am trying to finish them as much as I can to see how the program works while
and after the goals. I had to sacrifice the climbing on the rock and this fact
is harder than what it seemed. I anyway went to climb outdoor in order to don't
lose the sensation that the rock can offer and Ticino was the most coveted
destination for my desires.
I went twice
to Cresciano where I got some improvement on the big rig of "the story of
two worlds". The first session was totally dedicated to try "the
dagger" (Upper part) again and try to take confidence as much as I could.
At the end I was able to reclimb it in two part, but more important to remove
two moves on my "head-first" beta. The second day on it I was with
Gabri, who was able to make every single move on "the Dagger", a
problems that he ticked few days after. My session went pretty well and I fell
twice in the second part of "the dagger" where my arms and my body
was basically dead after the big fight. The problem is physical, tricky, long
and powerful and after a full day of attempts I felt my pectorals burnt. I
think I will come back on this just once before leaving for US. The other swiss
day was in company of Giulia and Rudy in Brione. Val Verzasca is definitely my
favorite destination for bouldering in the ray of 200 km from my home. The rock
is superb and the features it offers dazzle me every single time I go there.
The holds are stunning to grab and the problems made by this valley are
fantastic for every kind of difficulty you climb. Moreover, everything is
situated in a pleasant contest, with not so much people around, cool wood,
mountains, blue sky, green grass and perfect fine granite. That day I tried to
figure out a possible beta on "the Kingdom", without any kind of
success as well as "blinded by the light". Meanwhile, It went a bit
better on right Vecchio leone's line, where I almost stuck the crux move and I
felt it possible for my skills.
The following
climbing day was again In Brione where I dedicated myself to other kind of
boulders a bit more possible than the previous ones. The new path before the
classic sector lead me to one of the best piece of rock in Brione, i.e
"Brionesque". The rock seemed stellar as the moves I imaged, and it
would have been the boulder of the day. After a good warm up on the boulder
just after the hill we moved towards "blinded by the light" where
Gabri took some sessions to try it. While I was with him, I quickly checked out
the overhang just 10 meters ahead and I decided to brush it a bit and to put
some chalk on. The sit start seemed to be too extreme for me, so I opted to try
as low as I could from the first sidepull for the left and a good undercling
for the right. The line looked to be really simple and powerful: Big move at
the start, turn your feet to the left, matching the second hold and then going to
the left lip to finish the problems into the last easy slab. The single moves
were figured out in a session then I took a bit of rest since I understood to
have some changes to complete this line. After some minutes I began the second
session where I crushed it, happy for taking an unexpected ascent. It could be
a first ascent since no kind of chalk signs were present and I never heard to
talk about this.
Before the evening
came, Giulia and I moved to "Brionesque", the line that stoked me in
the morning and few days before. It has been hard to figure out the beta with two pads,
because you have to bind them on the stone on your back and they didn't cover a
lot of surface. Fortunately Gabri came and with one more pad everything started
to be more safe and the sequence was done. The line itself is awesome in my
opinion, and I feel to advice it.
The
motivation to come back to Brione is still high. I love this valley and I hope
to come back soon to check other problems like "Black Pearl",
"Humphrey Bogart", "forever more" and many other top
quality boulders.
Last week
the lower pressure came and the weather wasn't as good as in the period before.
Tuesday my dad and I went to the zone of Valais, around the city of Martigny
where the forecast said sunny. This location is not so much further than
Ticino, but we didn't go there often because it is a bit more expensive. Especially
the Aosta's highway and the price of the tunnel have high prices. This time I
pay for a season ticket, hoping to have more occasions to go. The area is
always cool as I remembered and when I got into the Swiss side I felt at ease
and curios to see these bouldering spots. We opted to go to Vernayaz, a wintery
area where I stayed last year together with Giulia. The rock here is a good
quality granite, really compact, smooth and sometime geometric. After the warm
up, Nils came and so we had the occasion to meet again after Rocklands. Thanks
to him, I was able to send some nice problems that I wanted like
"Satan" and "Sergient Garcia". The first one presents a
body-tension sequence after an easy intro on a slopy rail. After the crux it
develops on some good holds until the mantle. While "sergient Garcia"
looked powerful as the first but different at the same. it is based on the
compression style and its holds are stunning. Another line I was able to send
was "le feu sans flamme", a line put up by Nils last year and present
in his new film called "Blocz", a video that presents a lot of
problems in this great region. In the evening, he showed me another cool line,
Dagda, in a sector called "Graal". Since I saw his clip, I was
inspired by this piece of compact rock. The path to reach it is crazy and funny,
moreover the location is totally different than others. Unfortunately I wasn't
able to finish this one and it is for sure a good reason to come back.
Now only
two weeks missing before leaving. The first will be a week of rest, while the
second will be dedicate to some single sessions of different kinds like PG,
fingerboard, wall and rock.
Here s
little video clip about these 3/4 days of rock in December.
Swiss - Dec 2013 from niky_ceria on Vimeo.
