Swiss 3

Times are hard here in Swiss, nearly every day is good conditions, blue skies most days. Sprits remain high as the team embarks upon a ticking mission every day. Si and jackie arrived, they were so physched for world class bouldering after being starved of rock for months on end in Belfast. BRICK returned to NYC, Dave, Chad and Andre left the house and Sander arrived to join the crew. We have visited Brione a few times. Brione contains the best rock in the region and some of the nicest blocs too. My ticklist for Brione basically consisted of Molunk. I was also keen to try the 8a to the right of Ganymede. It turned out i couldn't do any of the moves so we headed up to the meadow to show Si Vecchia Lione, the premier Ticino 8b. I wanted to climb more so i tried one of the silly 7c+s in the area, after realising that they were very lame i thought i'd give the Vecch a blast. After all it is totally world class and i'm never normally put off trying a problem by the grade. It felt very hard at first but when i played around with body positions and the holds it started to click. The holds are surprisingly ample for the grade but the feet are poor and much subtle body postioning is required. I did the first move and basically the 3rd move. The 2nd move was a hard stab to a reasonable hold off poor feet. The crux of this problem revolves around a quartz pinch. I was buzzing, this was so much fun, the climbing was exquisite. I soon realised that with some work i could probably get to the pinch this trip and this would be a great achievement for me. I certainly think i will do this problem in my life, this will be a happy day.
Si working the crux:


The other thing on my mind has been the alphane moon. I have had 3 sessions on this now, i took Si and Ty and Sander to it and my assessment of the quality was confirmed. It is a very cool boulder problem. Ty flashed with ease and me and si did all the moves. Sander wrapped it up too. The crux is the second too last move a hard match off a terrible slopey crimp. Today i did the match 3 times but fell repeatedly on the last move because my foot slipped slightly off the foothold each time,frustrating. I will continue to try it till i do it, luckily it is dry in the rain too. I think it will be my hardest bloc to date, a spice 8a. Some pics: