- Back to Ticino

Winter has come back again! After a warm summer mainly spent sport and trad climbing, as soon as temperatures dropped it was time to get back on bouldering...

I still have many projects to try down in Tuscany, but after all the sport and trad climbing I felt quite weak and wanted to test myself and get back in a good shape first, so I went to Chironico were there were still lots of new problems for me to try. (Being quite tired to mess around the Dreamtime boulder in Cresciano)

There was a problem in Chironico I've always wanted to try: "The Crack Line", a nice 8b that requires a couple of strange finger locks... I thought it was time to see if all the crack jamming payed off ;-)
In fact I was able to feel the finger locks quite good but what I struggled with most was the middle section that took me quite a long time to understand... it all turned out to be a long siege against the problem as usual!

Apart from the Crack Line I climbed a few other problems around, the most beautiful of them being: "Walk the Line" a nice 8a+ added by Giuliano Cameroni in Lavorgo. So here it is: back to bouldering, back to Ticino, back to my small self made videos with single static camera... but this one is special... it has a "vintage" look... enjoy!

- the Swiss Recipes

Hi everybody, you probably didn't hear many news recently, cause I've been mainly training indoor (at the Pareti Sportcenter in Parma where I've recently started working) to prepare the Italian bouldering championship. Unluckily I've managed to get ill just before the competition and had to climb with the fever all the way to the finals where I could do nothing more than trying to get to the end... it has been fun anyway, just a pity to see all your hard training vanish. No worries, I can always try again next year.

Soon after the competition I moved to Switzerland together with several friends from England who came for an holiday dreaming about Cresciano and all the classics that Malc and Jerry were climbing in Stone Love... what better of some granite and sunshine to recover and get back in shape?

Together with James, Leo, Tim and Anna we had a lot of fun: hard bouldering during the day and good meals at night to feed your body and your mind. At the end of the holiday everybody got some brilliant problems done: including La Boule, La Pelle, Kirk Windstain, Frank's Wild Years and Il Partner. As for myself I went mainly climbing to Chironico where I still had several problems I missed to check out.

I did a few classics like Souvenir and Teamwork, and was really pleased to climb Delusion of Grandeur, Einfisch Kleinfisch and Conquistador, which I also did in it's new direct version (maybe half a grade harder... 8b?). Especially Delusion and Conquistador (both versions) were among the best ones I climbed in Chironico so far, and probably among the best all over Switzerland. I'll leave you with this stupid video that gives a good idea of what our holiday was... anyway Bouldering Recipes is what this kind of short "beta" videos we keep posting on the internet is all about, so why not make it clear and add some proper recipes? ;-)

Happy climbing, and keep it for fun. Michele.

- Boogalagga "numero uno".

Tornato a casa da una tre giorni di raduno della nazionale, da cui mi sono parzialmente assentato per far visita agli amici di La Sportiva, non rimaneva molto del ponte di pasqua per organizzare un viaggio lungo, così lunedì decido di aggregarmi all' ormai collaudata squadra di Sheffield (Gabry,Niki e Marco) alla quale si aggiunge il mitico Simo (agli onori della cronaca Simone Raina) per andare a vedere se i sassi di Chironico sono completamente sotto la neve o se si può sfruttare al meglio la frizzante giornata primaverile.

Arrivati al parcheggio troviamo fortunatamente solo una spruzzata di neve che si sta rapidamente sciogliendo, i sassi sono quasi tutti asciutti e la giornata promette molto bene, così ci avviamo tra i sassi canticchiando una canzoncina tanto seria quanto noi e i nostri discorsi... Numero Uno !!!

In effetti la giornata è una di quelle da ricordare: non starò a fare l'elenco dei vari blocchi provati e flashati, siano essi veri o falsi 8a. (per questo c'è un accurata descrizione sul blog di Gabry) Comunque tutte linee imponenti e magnifiche, che non penso mi sarei azzardato a provare come al solito solo, senza un po' d' incitamento e una buona parata.