BloXplosion competition at Karbin

_MAL8787, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

On Saturday I went to Karbin to watch the “BloXplosion” climbing competition arranged by local climbing club BlocStar. I didn't get there early enough to see the qualifying rounds, but I did see the finals. It was quite exciting, and I met some nice folks too. Naturally, I took a bunch of photos. Maybe in a year or so I'll be good enough that I'll be ready to try a real competition. I'm sure it's a good way to motivate oneself!

Thursday night @ KC

_MAL8476, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Thursday I went bouldering at Klättercentret. It was fun climbing, even if it wasn't my best night. Here, new friend Linda tackles the fun green route on the tall wall.

_MAL8471, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Peter made some progress on this black-rated problem on the upstairs bouldering wall.

_MAL8455, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Leoni was there with her dad, sister, and brother. I had a nice chat with them. Here, she takes a stab at a very tricky problem on the D-wall downstairs.

Klättercentret on Friday

_MAL7705, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I had a nice climb on Friday night, and met several friends there. Here, Helena tackles a fun problem on the upstairs bouldering wall. Click the link for more photos!

KC on Tuesday

_MAL7322, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I went bouldering at Klättercentret on Tuesday. It wasn't my best night; I guess I'm still recovering from the cold I caught a couple of weeks ago. One good thing about having my camera with me is that if I'm not feeling up to climbing a lot, I can take photos instead. Or if I just need to rest between attempts at a particularly tricky problem, I can get some shots during that time. I managed to get some nice photos Tuesday night, including this shot of Peter's daughter Daneila. She's really brave!

A tough night at Karbin

_MAL5839, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I am still recovering from the cold I caught on Sunday, so Tuesday's bouldering session at Karbin was not nearly as successful as the boulder open on Friday. It's actually dramatic how stark the difference was. There were some red-rated routes that were easy for me on Friday, but that I couldn't even get started on this time.

Even so, I had a good time. I did well on the easier problems, and the ones that required more finesse than strength. I met Anna F. there, as well as a couple of her climbing buddies, Yvonne and Cissi. I also saw some folks that I first met at Klättercentret way back in August: Micke, Louise & Chrisian. Christian spent a lot of time working on a really tricky white-rated (very difficult) bouldering problem, and I got a few good shots of him. The photos are online.

Boulder Open #51 at Karbin

_MAL4749, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Tonight I went to Karbin for some bouldering. It was the fifty-first boulder open competition they've put on. It was my best boulder open to date, and I placed fourteenth. This time, I managed to complete 26 out of 40, including several really tricky black-rated ones. I was close to doing two more as well, nos. 3 and 8. My previous best had been 22 of 40 problems.

Here, Jenny tackles a fun problem of red-colored grips. I took lots more photos, so take a look.

Progress!

_MAL3886, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry. Photo by Paula L.

With Hung's expert advice, I conquered this fun bouldering problem at Klättercentret. I did it once last Thursday, and three times last night. The lovely and talented Paula took some photos of me doing the problem. Check out the photos from last night.

Saturday @ KC

_MAL3016, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Yesterday I spent a few hours at Klättercentret bouldering. I met some nice folks there including this girl, Isa. It was her first time climbing. She did really well! Go, Isa!

On the walk back from KC to the train station, I took a few photos of a fox trotting in the newfallen snow. Take a look at Saturday's photos for more from yesterday.

Karbin on Saturday

_MAL1507, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Lisa and Matt & I went to Karbin on Saturday. I had been there before for several Boulder Open competitions, but I had never climbed the tall roped routes. It was fun and the routes have a different character than the ones at Klättercentret.

I posted 95 photos form Saturday.

First climb of 2007

Last night, Lisa and I went to Klättercentret for the first climb of the year. I was still feeling a bit slow after a very festive New Year's Eve, so I had to take it a bit easy. Interestingly this made some problems easier to solve because I had to use my brain a bit more and take things more slowly and carefully.