Some moments in Swiss

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.