Summer 2019

Spring was the time of fingercracks. After having sent Hydra (8a), I found a new project in Glühfinger (8a+), a finger killer with delicate yet powerful climbing. I needed to hop on the route twice to get all moves dialed, and then it was time for attempts. The climbing felt super solid, and I expected it to be a quick send, but instead it's still a project now at the time of writing. Many too hot days and having only one good attempt per day (no skin left after that) made this a harder project than I thought. Now that it's autumn, I hope conditions will soon be good again to finish this route!

Early in the summer, a weekend with perfect weather in the usually rainy Salbit occured, making it worth to go for a quick hit and run of the Salbit Westgrat with Noël. A ridge containing 6 towers, 38 rope lengths of climbing up to 7a, all of perfect granite. The climbing follows mainly cracks and flakes, the friction of the granite is superb and the weather couldn't have been any better. We needed a bivvy after the 4th tower, so we could enjoy a beautiful sunset. The picturesque last tower made the trip complete. A weekend well spend!

After finishing my last course in Wageningen, I moved to Den Haag for my internship. After spending a couple of days at the office, it was time to leave to France for some mountaineering in The Ecrins. In two weeks many AD tours were made, focussing on making speed. It was very nice to see the area in summer after having been there last winter for a full month. Seeing the Meije every day made me keen on climbing it!

So when I could take some more days off from my internship the traverse over the Meije was high on the to do list. A bit unpredictable weather and the long driving time however made Noël and me decide to go to Chamonix. On the first day however, one of our double ropes got seriously damaged and our big goal for the trip, the Grand Capucin, was not possible anymore. Instead we enjoyed ourselves on the beautiful routes of the Aguille du Midi South Face and camping on the glacier.

After some more days of working on my internship, it was time to leave to Swiss. Not for climbing this time, but for running! To celebrate the 25th anniversary of my parent's marriage, we were about to run the Jungfrau marathon with the whole family (my parents, brother and me). 42.2 km of running and 1800 altitude meters made up for a good challenge, but the many spectators and the beautiful tracks (even in the fog) made the marathon more fun than suffering. My finish time of 4.28h was enough for a 20th place ánd the family record. Super proud of my parents and brother who all managed to finish as well!

Since I was not as much in the mountains as I usually am in the summer, I had quite some time for indoor training, and my climbing shape feels good! Upcoming weekend it will be tested in the Frankenjura, hope training will pay off!