09 / 06 / 2024
With the last heatwave it looks like the season 2011/2012 in Algund finally comes to an end. This season was, like the last one, superb. Almost every time good, dry weather with top conditions. The problem with a small home crag, where you are the main developer, is that at one point you cant just go bouldering anymore. If you want to try new problems, you have to clean them before as well. No problem as long as there are still blocks around. At the start of the season I could repeat two 7c problems that I hadn't completed yet, then it was time for the cleaning tools. My wishlist consisted mainly of three items: a small roof I had already cleaned last year, clean loads of new boulders, and a 20plus moves power problem through a roof I still had to finish cleaning, probably my favorite problem in Algund.
To my surprise the first wish already came true at my second visit in Algund. The problem is called Echoes (tribute to Pink Floyd) has a hard start and a very awkward jump move into a gaston hold. Simply a brilliant and brilliantly brute climb! The grade should be somewhere around 8a+, maybe a bit harder as the problem high hopes, 8a which is easier but shares the same finishing moves is still unrepeated.
The second wish lots of new problems - proved to be the most cumbersome one. It didn't quit fulfill, as although I was able to open around 20 problems up to 6b (which isn't that bad) I still had hoped for more.
The third wish was the big roof. Already last year I had started to play around on it a bit with my friend Martin. Now it was time to finish cleaning it and full throttle. The single moves came along quite nicely and I was able to do them kind of fast, but as you can imagine in a 24 moves problem (with my solution) linking those moves is the real issue, especially if the crux comes at the end.
Actually I started working on the problem more intensely in the springtime, when it already got warmer and I had some stress with University and at work as well. Maybe these were the reasons I hat such fluctuations in my motivation for this thing, the very rise and fall.
On the day before leaving to Font it was time, and I finally could link all the moves. Very nice!
Now the only things remaining for the new season are my wire brush and a lot of moss for brushing!
Photos: Juri on "Power rangers" Reintal in North of Italy
