Bouldering Diary

Originally released in 1996, the Real Thing was the first ever feature length bouldering movie and was a huge influence in the popularisation of bouldering. 22 years later and it still remains a classic. Watch it online at Moon Climbing.

My first few tries were promising, but the crux move is incredibly low percentage and, over time, I began to doubt whether or not it was going to happen that day. I then started to feel a lot of pressure to do it, as I knew how difficult it would be for us to get back there...

It took me some time to finally climb my projects, but till now, I finally got them all! What blows my mind again and again, is the process and the journey with each of the amazing lines and (being 40 years old), what you can do when you really want something, when you are passionate, persistent and patient enough and when you are willing to to sacrifice some things - not chocolate though!

I already managed to climb "Big Kat" one and a half years ago (time flies when you get older...) and wanted to do a vlog ever since to document the process because I got my (fat) ass kicked a LOT over two years of trying it on and off. Work, life and climbing got in the way though. So here you go with the story and the process to one that did NOT get away - "Big Kat, 8B+".

And it was once again not the "usual" three-day-epic. To give a better understanding of what it means to really test your limits, I put together this vlog. As you can see in the different sequences, failure is the name of the game in 99.99% of the time. Not glorious at all, but it teaches you a lot when you fail, fail again, fail better then send!!!

A special moment when you have failed for so long......finally getting onto that 5m slab to top out BIG KAT, 8B+

It seems I have the funny talent to go for bouldering projects that I can climb relatively quick every time, from either one move in or up to the last move. It took six years of falling at the last move on "Highlander, 8C" at Sustenpass, I still ask myself how I could fail for so long as I could climb big sequences pretty fast. However, there was a very insecure toe-hook at the very first move and also the next foot move troubled me a lot. I just

Looking back to the day of Dev Squad Selection, I felt confident that I had done well.

About three years ago I tried "The Dagger" for the first time. Back then, I thought I could do it pretty quick but practice showed me something different. It took me five sessions to find a beta that worked for me. Since I started to try it out in March and the conditions in Cresciano got warmer and warmer, it turned out to be a real physical and mental battle to finish it. Luckily two more sessions was enough to complete it.

At that moment, Dave Grahams sit start, "The Story of Two Worlds" (8c), seemed to be totally out of reach for me.

The next years I started to try the moves of "The Story of Two Worlds" once or twice a year just for fun, but "The Dagger" still felt really hard to me. The lower moves were possible but they felt really difficult.

At this seasons New Years Trip to Ticino, something was different and I found some crucial betas for "The Dagger". With the new tricks, my personal grade of the boulder switched from 8b+ to 8a+ and I was able to do it a few times a day.

Since the lower moves still felt pretty hard, I had to re-check my solution and found a really good lock-off heel hook for the move into the little Gaston jug from "The Dagger".

I had about five sessions this trip, two of them were really wet but I always learned something new. I was able to climb from three moves in to the top for a few times. On the last day of the trip, I was able to climb two times from the start to the last hard moves. I felt good about this, apart from being soaking wet. 

Due to this highpoint I came back for a little two day solo mission on the next weekend. Expectations were high, maybe too high. I had to fight hard to even climb "The Dagger” as coming from the sta