Having just recently moved to Switzerland I’ve been looking to explore what the country has to offer from a bouldering perspective. One of the struggles here is the lack of official bouldering guides, many of which are out of print. Partly this seems to be related to the fact that bouldering areas can be fairly small and are geographically dispersed across the country, but also for a small country like Switzerland the demand is presumably low for dedicated guide books. Further, with three official languages it can be a challenge to find information on the web as well.
Enter bimano, an app developed in Switzerland that tries to capture the country's bouldering heritage in one easy to use format, as well as that of some other sites sprinkled across Europe. All this right on your phone and in your pocket. Read on for more details!
In case you missed it, last weekend saw the conclusion of the 2016 British Bouldering Championships in Sheffiled, UK. It was an exciting event, with great routes, strong climbers and with a few surprises in the final rounds.
Recent news that the Cobra Crack was climbed by two British Climbers had me pull up the old video of Sonnie Trotter's first ascent of the infamous Cobra Crack. Classic video, with some very inspired climbing, check it out.
Cobra Crack is a 5.14 traditional crack climb in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. Read here and here for further information about the region.
I notice time and again that most people either don’t spend enough time learning the basics around bouldering safety or are not taught this when they learn to climb.
On a recent trip I observed one person from another group fail on a rather patchy highball attempt and land hard on their crashpad. Bad spotting did not help, and the person managed to land on their back and took a knock. Suffice it to say he called it a day and probably suffered a splitting headache as a result.
A bit of physics helps explain why bouldering falls can be so dangerous. The key to understanding how much force is acting upon a fall is the braking distance.
Check out this video from Climbing.com with Chris Sharma and his latest routes in Spain. Catalunya is amazing for climbing, and I have such fond memories of the place. Adventure, good weather, tons and tons of routes... maybe it's time to go back on a holiday... or maybe it's just the snowy England winter blues making me feel nostalgic. Bring on some good weather and the next climbing season *disappears into climbing cellar*
