Moon Climbing team

 

 

It looks like Santa is early this year. I got the best present just before Christmas - the sponsorship from Moon Climbing. I'm sure you all know the brand and the founder Ben Moon very well. I'm very happy and proud to be on the team with all the other strong climbers and I can't wait to try out my new crash pad and other stuff!
 
Merry Christmas everybody!

From Strongfinger productions

weekend in Cresciano from Gašper Bratina on Vimeo.

A weekend in Cresciano

The recent lack of dry rocks brought me to the point where I wasn't really motivated for anything. So this weekend in Cresciano was some kind of a therapy. It was great to climb outside again, getting lost between the blocs, trying hard, running out of skin... I really really missed that!

I didn't have any particular projects in mind except Hannibal Lecter which I couldn't do two years ago and now it felt much much easier. I was actually happier when I did Harry Spotter. It's only 7A, but that doesn't mean anything. It's this particular move that is so unique and it feels impossible at first.

Beside Harry and Hannibal, I did La Boulette, Pixel and flashed Toccami Tutta. 

Hannibal Lecter 7B+ (photo: Gašper Bratina)

I had a great time with my crew: G, Brecelj and Šeli. And for those two days we were like happy little kids on their favorite playground. Trying everything on the way. From Jungle Book (G did Jungle Book Variante 7C), La Pioche, Il Partner, La nave va, to La Rondella... and my lifetime long list got longer again :)

Weird beta for the first move in La pioche 7B+. It so hard not to hit the crash pad on the next move to the right. (photo: Gašper Bratina)

I wish we could stay for a few more days since we had such a good time. But the important thing is that I brought some psyche back home and that means that the granite therapy worked :) 

Plezalni dnevi Kranja

About 10 days ago we had a national competition in Kranj - PDK. I decided to go, just for fun. I didn't compete or train for comps for a while so my mind wasn't 100% there. For the last six months I really enjoyed climbing outside and I was thinking how important used to be for me to win a competition. Sometimes my world collapsed for a short time after a bad performance. And now when I look back I know it's not about the 1st or 2nd or last place. What stays is all the memories, the ups and downs the funny and sometimes stupid things that happened on the way.

Knowing that I went to the national comp last week. I came to the isolation zone, started the warming up and I felt the same old weird feeling in my stomach telling me that the competition is a serious and important thing. Funny, I thought. Even though I didn't really care about this comp my body responded as it was the finals of the world championship. My heart was beating, my hands were sweating, the stomach felt weird and when I was out to perform I felt the adrenalin rushing...

 

At the end I had a good time, I was happy with the way I was climbing and the second place was cool as well. For the next time I just have to figure out how to trick my body into having fun too! :)

All the pictures are from the Sunday evening finals taken by Maja with Anže's camera.

Brrr... it's cold!

The temperature is dropping degree by degree. Apparently it's going to snow tomorrow. Winter time is here!!!
Yesterday we had a short session on Yugoskala, it was freezing but luckily I had my new NIHIL beanie to keep me warm :)

Warming up... Izhod za Albija 7A (photo: Gašper Bratina)

Photo shoot

About a month ago Lifetrek hired me for a photo shoot. We went to Osp and an English couple took photos of me climbing. It was for a pharmaceutical company where they are promoting healthy lifestyle so they needed one climber and some other athletes for their idea of presenting that kind of lifestyle. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to do some easy routes there. You can see on the pictures how hard I had to work... just kidding... this could be my dream job :)

Cute climb :)

The best problems in Maltatal are the hard ones. But this little cute bloc is my favorite!
I first did it a few years ago and here is the video from last weekend.



Maltatal from Katja Vidmar on Vimeo.

A lifetime long list

This summer I started writing down the problems that I want to climb one day. Some are close to my home and some are on the other continent. Some are easier and more doable when others are more like lifetime projects and I'll be happy if I ever get any close of doing any of them.

The tricky thing about the list is that it's getting longer and longer and not the opposite. I have more and more ideas where I want to go and what I want to try someday. But to put one tick there takes some ''work'' and that's why it makes me really happy if I send a problem that I wrote down once. I come home and put a tick right there. It feels really good :).

So it's like a never ending story. And it should stay that way. What would happen if I had a list full of ticks and no more ideas what to write down?

School holidays

The kids that I'm coaching usually spend all the time training indoor in a small gym. So I decided to take them on a short trip to Osp for their school holidays. We had some bad weather, but rain and cold didn't stop us from climbing all 3 days. This time my biggest project wasn't a boulder problem or a route but to drive a huge van full of kids through very narrow streets in Osp and to cook something that everybody likes for dinner :).

Climbing hard, playing games, making pasta and pancakes, watching climbing movies, joking around all day... and they were still having a hard time falling asleep in the late evening! The trip was a great success. We had a lot of fun and everybody climbed their hardest routes ever (from 6b to 8b!).

Our last day in Mišja peč. The girls (Zala, Nika and Nataša) happy that the sun finally came out, are waiting for the guys, warming up in the back (Timo belaying, Domen and Milan climbing).

        Luka and Blaž with his lucky socks :) 

They should spend more days climbing outside. There's no better way to learn how to move on the rock and to realize that climbing is much more than winning competitions!

Resting is hard

Sleeping for hours and hours and then doing nothing but waiting for the rain to stop... I realized I can get really tired from all that resting, eating bad food and thinking about all the places I'd rather be than home. Those days can be hard. But enough of whining!!! The rain stopped, things are drying off, the skin grew back and the muscles are fresh. Go out and play!

I'm planning to spend some more days bouldering close to my home and then the one week holidays are almost here! Wiiii :) After I come back from a short trip to Osp where I'm taking the kids that I'm coaching, I hope the weather will be good to spend a few days in Swiss or Maltatal.

Here is the video (the uncut version) of me climbing Walking in the desert, a beautiful 7B problem in Chironico.



I visited Ticino in march and it's been almost 2 months since my last trip so I think it's time to spend a few days away from home. I wouldn't mind taking a walk in the desert :)

Beautiful fall

The fall brought us beautiful colors and good conditions. So we drove to Maltatal again, just me and G this time, listening to The Strokes (they are pretty cool) and thinking about our projects on the way.

It seems like everything's in the right place at the moment. I haven't felt that strong and psyched for a while, which feels really great. On Saturday, I had another good session working on Petting with an alligator. I hope the pieces will slowly start to come together.

Working on the moves

(photo: Gašper Bratina)

While we were waiting for the sun to go over the hill and the rock to cool down, we did some cool easier problems which have no name. I think that's too bad.

G in a nice little tricky thing (7B) behind Alligator

(photo: Katja Vidmar)

A perfect combination...

...is definitely bouldering hard and having fun with friends at the same time. And that's what the last weekend was all about. Finally, we had no rain. It was about time! The sun came out and we hit the blocs.

On Saturday we had a nice session on Vitovlje, the local spot near Ajdovščina, where we were just having fun bouldering and saved some skin for the next day when we visited Maltatal. The conditions weren't perfect but I had some progress working on my projects Air direct and Petting with an alligator. I'm pretty psyched for it so I hope the following weekend will give us some crispy weather.

I need to buy my own camera one day :) Suzana, thanks for the pictures!!!

Playing around on Vitovlje with friends

(photo: Suzana Uršič)

Season 2010 so far...

This year everything changed. I moved from plastic to rock and stopped traveling from one competition to another. Instead I packed my bags and visited some of the best bouldering spots. I decided it was time to rock some blocs!!!

Here are some pics:

 Sunset in Hueco Tanks 

(photo: David Stepanjan)

 Confessions of a crap artist in Chironico 

(photo: Luka Fonda)

 Xeni Styler in Maltatal 

(photo: Tomaž Bradeško)

 Team Slovenia in Fontainebleau 

(photo: Suzana Uršič)

Beautiful setting in Mt. Evans Colorado

(photo: Klemen Bečan)

G in our project - Astronautenfieber, Magic Wood (photo: Suzana Uršič)