Karbin Session

Foggy came home from his vacation on Crete and wanted to go climbing. Since most places in Stockholm change their schedules and opening hours during the summer we headed to the one place that still opened at 12; Karbin.

Since Flammie is on a dazed and confused road trip he could not tag along but I think that both me and Foggy did not miss him that much since we both sent a black problem (my second by the way) and Flammie has not even seen it. It was kind of nice to walk around in an almost empty bouldering section, listening to reggae and some hip hop while checking out almost all the problems in the hall. We focused mainly on blue and red ones but at least three black problems had to be tested properly. I believe that we can send one more black problem next time we go back there, unless they don't rebuild the section sometime soon.

This session gave some pointers as to what I and Foggy should focus more on with our training. I think I can claim, without making him mad, that he could get better at sit starts and other moves that require some kind of swift movement. I on the other hand need to improve my use of micros and try to use my length as an advantage more than before.

Foggy can skip certain holds and paths just because he is so long, but I am only a few centimeters shorter and should be able to get better at using my lenght. Another thing I thought about now is foot placement and our technical ability. We have to try an utilize every piece of information we know about opposition, foot placement, hand placement, body weight etc if we want to send more difficult problems.

I'm glad that we have our little group of people that one can get beta from as well as inspiration. Foggy, Flammie, Micke, John & Jonas have their different styles and skills but all of them give something back whenever I see them climb.

I want to go back to Kolartorp real soon.

Black Problem

I sent my first black problem yesterday. Me and Flammie were working on a black problem at KC with my friend John and his friend Jonas. Even though I was tired I felt confident that the problem would be solved that very same session.

However, the guys took me to a new black problem that was too hard for me. So I headed back to the first problem we were working on and after a few tries I sent it. Flammie felt inspired and immediately sent it as well and we both had a great buzz afterwards.

Next session will be all about giving that other black problem a few decent tries. It feels great that the training starts to pay off.

Kolartorp

We've been to Kolartorp out in Handen, Stockholm. Expect somekind of report during the week.

Living the High Life 13-18/5 -08

We've been living at a place called High Life which is a really cool place that rents out bungalows. It is located on the west side of Koh Pahn Ngan (or however you wanna spell it since even people over doesn't know). Living here is really relaxed and and the first day we arrived here we mostly tried to get used to the heat since it had been raining and mostly cloudy in bankok and Foggy showed me around a bit .
To get here we took a nightbus from Koh San Roadin bankok which took about 11.5 hours (20.00-05:30). We then found ourselves in a place called Chumporn which is just a small port-town where we had to wait until 07:00 for the big katamaran to take us to Koh Phan Ngan. The boatride was cold as hell since they had an AC that was set to 21 degrees celcius and we couldn't access our bags during the trip so we used a Thai Airlines blanket to not get humonia :)

Anyway, back to the high life!
The first night we stayed in their cheepest bungalow which costs 500 baht a night (100sek). Those bungalows only come equipped with a fan and we quickly realized that this wouldn't work for long... Day 2 we switched bungalow to a bigger one so that we could live together all three of us and have an AC :) We now have a clear view over the ocean and a big balkony that stretches around the house. These bungalows are a bit more expensive at 2200 baht (450sek) but if you split it in 3 it's still only 733 baht per person (146sek a night).

On saturday we had priviously booked a diving trip with a company called Haad Yao divers that took us out to a rock in the middle of the ocean between Koh Phan Ngan and Ko Tao island called Sail Rock. There Foggy and Mange did 2 dives while I kicked back on the boat and worked on my tan. A really nice trip all in all but according to the people diving the visiblity under water wasn't especially good (5-8 meters).
In the evening we rented 2 scooters to go to a place called Peppercorn which is owned by a german called Freddy that Foggy and Mange know from their earlier trips to Thailand. We had some really good steaks there but the prices are pretty steep to be in thailand. My sirloin cost me 350 baht and Manges 400gram steak cost him 500 baht! But it was well worth it!

To get from Haad Yao where High Life is located you either have to rent a car or scooter or take one of the many Toyota pickup trucks that stand in various places on the island. To go to the biggest town on the island called Tong Sala you pay roughly 100 baht per person and it takes about 15 minutes to drive. Allthough you might get more people jumping on to the car at some point which happened to us yesterday.. Some locals with allmost no teeth and bad manners apparantly knew the guy driving so they tagged along.

When I was writing this stuff down we were sitting on our balkony sipping on a large Chang beer and listening to Bob Marley on our kick-ass portable speakers :)

Well, that's it for now. Tune in later for some pictures and and a story or two.

// 3 sunburned swedes in Thailand

KC Session & Trip To Thailand

Yet another trip to KC today. I'm getting better but I have not yet sent any black problems and it is beginning to bug me, especially when the other cats have sent a lot of black problems. Ah well, I guess I have to practice even more than what I am doing right now.

The guys (Flammie, Foggy and one of his best friends) have finally gone on a well deserved trip to Thailand. They plan to climb, surf, dive and have a good time while they are there. I guess that they will be occupied during their entire stay but we might get to see a blog post or two. Keep your fingers crossed. Moreover, they have brought at least two cameras and they will most certainly have hundreds of pictures with them back home.

If you guys read this... What time is it?

Foggy steps it up!

Last nights session ended a little bit earlier for me but it ended really interessting when Foggy sent a black problem on the lower floor at KC. I had struggled with the main crux for 4-5 tries since my height prevents me from doing it with a static movent. Foggy doesn't have that problem... On his third or fourth try he sent the whole thing! DAMN YOU!!! Now I have to try harder so I can do it aswell :)

Still thinking of a good name for the route though... Suggestions are welcome!

Litterature for the low-angle routes

In the intro of some climbing movie, probably one of the Dosage-flicks, some guy is reading a on-face-tapered climbing mag while doing a route to get him psyched to top out. These books are more or less for the low-angle routes or the hammock. The Bruno Show tipped us about this book, and then Flammie took the extra step and found it on both Amazon and EverestGear. I guess Amazon UK would be preferrable due to the shipping advantages as well as the possibility of a combo package with "Training for Climbing" for £16.61 / SEK194.50. Don't know what the shipping will be.

Another book that I mentioned in the last post is "Rock Climbing in Thailand" and it seems really great. Thanks E & M for that!

And remember Boulder Open on friday!