tisdag 30 september 2008

I was caught brave and humble

Dear foreign exchange students and all other non-Swedish speaking inhabitants of northern Sweden. Today we are going to discuss the world economic crisis and the super ego of the god of Gothenburg.

First things first, we will survive!

Second, most probably will he also survive!

In Gothenburg, there are a specific phenomena developed, by the crew that have innovated everything since the 1560s, which they call 'brave and humble'. The concept of 'brave and humble' is just as brilliant as necessary. You see, all members of the Gothenburg crew have different tasks, just like the ant society. If someone bolts a project, then he doesn’t have to remove loose rocks. If someone puts up a new route, then he can stop everyone else to climb it. If someone has suggested a grade, then another crew member has to suggest another grade. And so on.

At first we may appear stunned, but also later on. Let me give you an example. We heard about a crew member climbing an open but close, open but close, etc, project in the new super crag of the world of Mowgli, Baloo and all other stoned lifestyle shareholders. At first, the member was allowed to suggest a grade that he never has climbed before. In Gothenburg, it is forbidden (by high ethics and double standard morals) to suggest a grade, higher than your scorecard can motivate, especially to a new route. Of course, the god saw everything in the full sentence, and had to include young messiah to complete the equation. “New grade plus down grading equals correct grade”. You see, it is not possible to suggest the correct grade at once, since the obligatory 'brave and humble' down grading had to be performed, generating a great amount of extra news for site. From what might just appear as single news they can produce;

-“A brand new list of the hardest routes in Sweden; this has to be the one”

-“I felt strong on the crux sequence, someone must have chipped it”

-“Someone has been working on my project! Of course the project was not completely closed but they have to obey to my ethics.”

-“Overloaded web-space, this have to be documented with a couple of hundreds of high-resolution pictures, then hopefully, one of the lifestyle community non-training members will call me for an on-sight attempt?!”

-“Brave and humble, downgraded to the correct grade!”

Tomorrow are we going to discuss double standard, including chipping with old-farts that can’t take no for an answer, and god who have the right to both embrace and oppose chipping (Gothenburg crew member related facts).

söndag 28 september 2008

Two days in Bergafjärden

Centi for brunch (or did I escape at the top out?):

Per getting closer to the first repeat of Overload:

THE forgotten project of Bergafjärden, När Barnet Sover assis:

söndag 21 september 2008

A very good weekend

Carolina enjoys the Eastern Comfort.


Mikael does the first ascent on Return to Sender.

Me going for the Haribos on top of Mumana:

Mikael being close on claiming thr FA on Return to Sender assis (finest boulder problem in norrland?!).

Not caught on tape (by me at least):

Mikaels quick ascents of Nirvana and Mumana on saturday (my batteries went dead midway on the last one).

Sofia Winsas repetition of Tjockholmen, Obbola, thereby doing the 2nd repetition of that boulder problem!!

torsdag 18 september 2008

So you think you can shout!

It's hard to tell who we pissed off, which toe we stepped on or what we did to deserve this.

What ever the cause, what we did must have been bad, considering our the nature of our punishment.. yep, that's right, we now share the IKSU climbing hall with the local Kendo club, every Thursday!

This is a short clip from yesterdays training at the wall.. turn up the volume, lean back and enjoy!

Speaking of Enjoy, to all of you that do not find your way to Ökberget, you can always try Hassemannens personal Enjoy the Silence simulator. Lets just say it is a little bit harder than the original!

onsdag 17 september 2008

Back to the roots

This time in broad daylight!

tisdag 16 september 2008

i20 topos

Some excessive beta for one of Umeå's most frequently visited crags. The lines are few but the variants are many (more than shown below). Remember, it's just an alternative to the indoor facility ;-)


To do list (Umeå's finest):
Black Russian (SS), 7B+
Dessertör (SS), 7C
Kalashnikov (SS), 7B
Okänd Soldat (SS), 7A+
Starship Troopers (SS), 7A+
White Russian (SS), 7B+

Black Russian, 7B uses identical holds as the sit start. Right hand in undercling and left hand in vertical crack.
Stjärnsoldat, 6B+ is the stand start to both 'Okänd Soldat' and 'Starship troopers'. Start with both hands in the large horisontal crack, approx. 1.5m above ground, i.e. the holds which joins the two problems.
Kallt krig, 7C+ sit start at 'Kalashnikov (SS)', traverses to the rigth and finishes with the complete 'Black Russian'. Broken hold will make repetitions harder. Probably 8A'ish?!







Please use this last image to sketch up your own projects/boulders. (just don't send it to us!)


Lat: N63 51 54 14
Long: E20 17 26 88

söndag 14 september 2008

Mosjön was going DOWN!!

..or that was what we thought, most of the time we where the ones going down..

On Mumana:

Earlier that same day, Nirvana:

But, not all of our efforts where in vain (well, mine was..).

Shangri-La:

Eastern Comfort:

Deliverance:

All in all it was a great weekend. Mikael and his crew came up from Östersund for two full days of bouldering. We all stayed in the local camping in a rented cottage (really cheap).

Conditions were perfect and the area was given a new nice line in Eastern Comfort, 6A.

The grades were adjusted a little bit in during these days. Deliverance seems to be a 7A (we can't find that easy beta it seems), while Soulweeper seems more of a 7A/7A+.

torsdag 11 september 2008

The stick is back!

It seems like this will be a super weekend up here, well the weekend is not even here and still the first 8B north of Dalälven has seen both its first ascent and repeat.


I guess I do not have to say it, but yes, it is the Lindmark brothers.. seem like Peter flew up here yesterday and Per was the first up the boulder problem now known as Era, quickly followed by Peter. Now, they just have to figure out what to do for the rest of the weekend.

Photo by Peter Lindmark

onsdag 10 september 2008

Alone in the dark..

..and running out of batteries.

tisdag 9 september 2008

..and action!

So frantic...

Soulweeper (7B)

Soulweeper ss (project)



Photos by Henrik Josefsson

måndag 8 september 2008

Little stone of Mosjön

It was a long time since a few boulders in the northern parts of Sweden caught soo much attention on the swedish speaking part of the world wide web as the ones in Mosjön did earlier this spring.

Considering the amount of debate regarding what was and what wasn't done on the rock, we kind of suspected that the place would be crowded.. well we didn't really.. after all Mosjön is located pretty far away from everything (if you don't count Örnsköldsvik and Umeå, that is). Also considering how under developed the area is, we are not surpised to find that during the summer and spring only a handful of visitors has been at the site so far.

In a hope to attract more climbers to this remote part of the world we have decieded publish some information about what has been done and what we are currently working on.

As this blog is brand spanking new we like to start out small.. with the small boulder of Mosjön.


This is the left side of the "little stone". Problem A, is a sit-down start called Volbeat (7A), that starts from a nice hand jam going out on some sweet slopers. This side of the rock offer plenty of room for new lines as well, we just haven't had time to take a closer look.

The front of the boulder is a steeper story..



Problem B is an open project (hence the green marking). We belive that a dyno to the slopers is the ticket.. we just don't know how to jump from the starting position..

Problem C is a lovely line with just five good holds on an overhanging face. Our problem is the distance between these holds and the lack of good places to put your feet.. the line is already considered a classic and it will probably land around 7C+ or harder.

Problem D is a nice areté, that is harder than it looks. This problem, Deliverence, is currently graded 6C+. Mr.FA thought that there must be a better beta.. we are still looking..


The right side of this boulder has one clear line. Which is as steep, as it is slopey.. we have been able to do it from a stand up start, giving a soft 7B called Soulweeper. The current version is really nice, but the sitstart is mind blowing.. as nice as is it hard. We guess 8A/8B and many stars on that one.

We hope that this will be of some interest to those of you that has been thinking about going up north to test this new area.

Next update will show some of the big roof in this area.. stay tuned!

torsdag 4 september 2008

Tack.

Eftersom att Hassemannen lyfte på duken i förtid så blir det första inlägget rätt meningslöst, men vad tusan, bloggen handlar om bouldering och det kan i sig för den utomstående verka rätt meningslöst.. jag menar, man kan ju inte ens göra en boulder on-sight!

Hursom helst så har bouldersäsongen gått in i fas 2.

Sticket börjar så smått göra intåg här uppe och ingenting kan stå i vägen för några fräscha red-points. Jo förresten, lite nervös är man så här års, hösten är ju även gamla-gubbar-med-bössa säsong också.

Men framför allt är det bouldersäsong och den kom inte en dag för tidigt!

Håll till godo med en bild på ett riktigt respektabelt block från högakusten.



Förhoppningsvis så blir framtida inlägg av mer matnyttig karaktär.