Rain Chasing in Italy & Switzerland
Well, I was back in the UK for four whole weeks before I felt the need to get away. This time I flew from East Midlands Airport to Milan where I met up with a bleary-eyed Audrey, who’d left London the night before and driven almost non-stop in order to pick me up. I didn’t complain that she was an hour late. Audrey had a bouldering competition in Grindelwald, Switzerland, so I tagged along and took some photos that Anne Arran expressed an interest in using in her column in Climber. Unfortunately I picked up a cold before I left, and it soon became Bronchitis, which necessitated a visit to the Doctor. Within an hour of deciding to see a Doctor I found myself being examined, followed by blood-test, and ten minutes later I’m walking away with a bag of medicines, and only £50 poorer (the excess on most travel insurance policies, hence I don’t bother with insurance much). On getting back to Sheffield, I found out that I could reclaim some of the cost – so popped into the surgery on my road to find out how I could do this and the receptionist admitted she didn’t even know what my European Health Insurance Card was. Why is the NHS always so unimpressive?
Anyway, the bouldering comp was a little on the dull side. I was hoping to get some photos of people bouldering with the Eiger behind them, but the wall was covered and so that really wasn’t possible. However, it was nice to go for a walk in some scenery that is so Swiss even Disney would consider toning it down. For me, the highlight of the competition was the Slovenian competitor who found a way of doing a problem that involved moving into another problem. Obviously, neither the setters nor the judges had imagined this might happen. He was awarded the problem (he was the only competitor to top it), which prompted the French to complain about how he managed it. Basically, he climbed off his problem into a groove and then reached to the top hold on the problem. However, to do this he had to cross some black tape, usually indicating ‘out of bounds’, I thought this was a bit of a spurious argument in that the intention behind the tape was to stop climbers grabbing the edge of the board, not passing in the space above it – which is what the Slovenian did. So at the end of the first round the climber was asked to do it again, this time avoiding the invisible ‘out of bounds’ area of space above the top of the board. With some personal delight and avoiding the area in question, he did it. Almost no-one was spectating at this point, but for me it was the highlight of the comp. I love devious sneaky solutions, and full respect to those who find them! There are photos on my website if you’re interested.
Once the competition was over (can’t recall who won, it wasn’t a Brit), Audrey and I headed to Cresciano, where I’d never been before and got a good couple of hours’ climbing in before it started raining. The rain continued for the rest of the trip. We headed to Magic Wood, but the rain came even more quickly there. Next we went to Arco, a favourite place of mine, though perhaps more for the ice-cream than the polished holds. We had a half day there and ticked off some old favourites, though after being ill 6c+ felt more like 7c+ - though I recall Massone always feeling a bit hard for the grade!
Back in the UK, and feeling much better, I’ve been crazily busy with running coaching days in the Peak District, and enjoying it immensely! Certainly the weather has been so much better in the UK than it was in Switzerland and Italy. I went climbing yesterday with Jamie Veitch and Ian Parnell – we went down to Cheedale and worked our way through Chee Tor E2s and E3s – it has been a while since I plugged gear in and, well, it all felt a bit hard and pumpy, brilliant though.
The rest of the month is going to be pretty busy with coaching, plus I’m finishing the layout of the last who chapters of Winter Climbing+ which is getting me pretty psyched for next winter, though I want to have a good summer first!
Also at www.positiveclimbing.com