Sport rock climbing is the act of ascending steep rock formations using the physical strength of the body, your mental and with the help of specialized gear and safety equipment made for this sport. As technology and material for equipment improves each year, this sport seem safer to deal with. We have a better possibility today to concentrate solely on our physical condition, training and pumping up those biceps for the climb of your dreams. With the variety of grading systems, you can accurately compare the difficulty of the climb. Many existing systems emphasize the technical difficulty, some the endurance and some others the number of ascents the climb has. It’s hard to compare these grades in differant regions of the world as the rock varies. You’ll find differant routes to climb on with granite, limestone, gneis, etc.

Sports climbing used to be a sport, if mentioned in the 90ties, it gathered raised eyebrows in the crowd. Nobody would understand why someone would take the trouble to climb up the gripless wall when you could walk the easy and comfortable way up to the summit on the other side. Nobody understood about getting psych in one single route and spending many hard working days to just free climb it. But also, nobody told them that it was better than ecstasy when you finally succeeded!?

Today, climbing is trendy. You would find a boom of numerous Gyms in many cities offering Sports climbing, most of them over crowded and air filled with Magnesia. Outside, the natural climbing areas obviously filthed out with signs of civilisation left behind ruthlessly at certain times of the year. It isn’t a wonder that more and more areas get banned from further climbing if we don’t push up our awareness and respect for the environment soon enough. I’m hoping everyone who climbs gets to experience this awesome sport outside, savouring everything that comes along with it – hard work, pumpy arms, shots of adrenaline, sun and the beauty of the nature. It’s a love story just between you and the rock. Long lives the rocky planet!

Happy climbing!

Summer finally came and this year right at the end of august. I have actually given up all hope for any chance to spend a nice hot summer back home and decided to take the plunge into an autumn vacation that was way too early! The weather forecast prognosed a heat wave in most of the European cities, we therefore chose north facing destinations, with a little hope for some coolness during the day.

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This is a gourmet recipe to try on if you’ve just returned from the market with some fresh quail poultry. The meat is very tender and usually melts in the mouth. The very first time I made them in Sardegna. It turned out fabulous but I made too little sauce to go with it. The second time round in france I made sure there were lots of sauce. It goes perfectly well with polenta, pasta or cous cous. It’s not as complicated to prepare as you may think. You onl really need running water to wash the poultry nicely and free it from the remaining feathers and you’re done. Usually quails are available in the bigger supermarkets, or the local butcher. Read the rest of this entry »

Finding the right app to navigate or track a trail to your crag could get sometimes tedious. Either you think you’ ve got the correct app and then there’s no GPS signal, or your app tells you, you are limited to 3 tracks in the free version or entitled to 5 Min’s of tracking, or you ve got everything right and your battery dies on you. And I hear my hubby shaking his head and telling me whats the use of having the highest technology when it dies on you when you need it? Sigh… Read the rest of this entry »

When we heard that the new GriGri2 was on the  way to the market, we were really excited about how it was going to perform. Our last grigri was 15 years old and never failed on us. It was quite difficult to imagine how the manufacturers were going to cut down on material while stil keeping up good performance of one of the best half automatic devices on the market. Finally, after a year, we got our chance to test out this masterpiece. And I must say, petzl’s product managers waited all 10 years, but they did a good job making this device a success. Read the rest of this entry »

Ultra-light quickdraws are a blessing if you’re on the go for mountaineering and multipitch routes. It doesn’t really mean that you have to be climbing multipitch routes to have them. If you sports climb, they are just as good for sports climbing. It lightens your rack and you don’t sacrifice performance with these modern quickdraws. These 5 quickdraws featured and tested below is specially designed for users demanding uncomplicated ultra-light gear. Wired gates ensure at the same time no freeze on an alpine trip even under 0°c temperatures. Read the rest of this entry »

The Orientale Sarda

Isn’t it a dream to waking up to flawless sunrises, the cry of seagulls and the crashing of waves? What a good idea it was to leave the winter behind you and enjoy the warming sunrays on your skin, have your breakfast right on the beach (5m away from the water)and enjoy absolute serenity with your environment and yourself. We were back in Sardegna after 10 years with no regrets. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been a true fan of Five Ten ever since I started climbing, equipped for differant types of rock and climbing styles with a velcro and lace up version at all times. There are climbing shoes good for slabs, others for overhangs and big comfy  shoes for sun shone routes. For some reason that Five Ten changed the cutting and shape of these shoes in their newer models, made me look out for other models that offer a better fitting. I change my shoes almost every year, and this was a good opportunity to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

The season for climbing outdoors has more or less begun. Not that it has ever stopped over the winter for us. Snow was sufficient this season, but there were also many sunny days where climbing on a winter’s day made winter just a wee shorter…and yes how much we longed for spring to finally come. Hey, and before you know it, it’s here already. The weather forcasts are forecasting good spring weather for the next few weeks (at the least the temperatures are going to stay up) and our plans for climbing areas to check out on hits the lists. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of months back the new sensation opened and the biggest boulder gym in the world “Boulderwelt” was born. A little haven for all those living in munich, a dream come true for all those who boulder and the solution for all the others who wants to climb but has no climbing partner. This concept came and actually exploded right in the heart of munich. Well yes, a concept that’s going to be a success story of this century. Read the rest of this entry »