Archiv für den Monat März 2017

Photos: Julien Nadiras, Mikey Schaefer and Alan Collins
Last year, I made a wonderful trip to Smith Rock. A voyage that brought back the taste for sport climbing and pushed me back into the athlete lifestyle. To Bolt or Not to Be carries an historic aura. It was love at first sight for me. A line of 40 meters in a perfectly smooth and vertical wall. The route has over one hundred moves, all on tiny crimps.

To climb in it, you need both cold temperatures and really hard skin on the tip of your fingers.

There is not one really hard move but foot positioning is very delicate and varied. If you are slightly off, you are out!

I was able to climb in the route for two days last October, without getting anywhere close to putting it all together. But the route put me in a trance! I loved it’s beauty, complexity, and it’s atypical old-school style.

All winter, the line was floating around my mind and I spend quite some time trying to figure out the best way to showcase this demanding project.

So I went back to the U.S. at the end of February, bringing along my good friend and old time working partner Julian Nadiras. Julien has had a hand in all of my video projects. He was with me in the Argentinian desert back when I was a young 22 year old trying to beat the Tuzgle boulders. He documented my success in Silbergeier, and was also there behind me when I faced Orbayu.

This time, he tagged along for this North American trip and we have shared climbing and everyday life in Smith Rocks. He witnesses how climbing shapes my life, he sees how I operate, always in the present: either all out when motivation hits me, or quite unable to move when I am not feeling it. I lead a particular life and it is sometimes hard to understand. You have to be there to get it…and Julien manages to capture it all in pictures.

The day I sent To Bolt or Not to Be, it was exactly freezing temperature. I only had spent one day in the route since our arrival there, but that is all that was needed. My friend Ian Yurdin made for a perfect companion. I had no expectations on that day because it had been snowing when we entered the park. But as soon as the sun came out a little, my hunger for climbing surged. The first try without warm up was a promising one and on the second, I was dancing on it like I have done only a handful of times on a climbing route.

Climbing is a sport like no other. It is much more than a form of exercise. It is an art, a way of moving and a way of live. I am delighted to have the opportunity to express it in a movie to come.

After that successful climb, I felt very motivated to climb a bunch of other routes I had spotted since my arrival. But I was tired. My fingers were sore from all the crimping and deep inside I felt empty and lost somehow. I hadn’t experienced this kind of « big hole » for a while. It had happened after some of my bigger climbs, like Silbergeier for example.

In the end, To bolt has only been a simple sportclimb, but I was able to express myself in the way I wanted and Julien captured that in images, so that I could share what I felt and did with everyone : The perfect run after a long period of physical and mental preparation. The run when it all comes together and you are simply in the present, focused on nothing else than the next hold. The perfect danse in symbiosis with the rock.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure whether my sportclimbing will ever go much further than that. I have the impression that my climb in To Bolt expressed something I was eager to do and that I can now turn the page and focus on other types of climbing. But who knows, I change mind very often!!

Another very beautiful and demanding line I climbed in Smith Rocks is the famous « Viscious fish », a very tricky 13.d.

I also had the opportunity to climb in the sector « Upper Gorge ». A must see if you ever visit Smith Rocks!!! The rock texture is so distinctive and the climbing unique. Lots of stemming and compressing on very smooth and black rock. Perfect if you’re out of skin and ready for a challenge away from crimps.

My feelings about the U.S. are a little mixed up so far. I’m here for 5 weeks and I’m struggling with the cultural differences. It’s very fun to experience when you share it with a friend from Europe, like I did with Julien. But when I’m alone, I often get homesick and miss those little “European” things.

Language-wise, I am slowly starting to speak and understand English for real. Everyday, I’m learning new ways to express myself and ways of talking, second degree meanings etc.

I guess, I just have to admit that this trip is forcing me to have an open mind and I can feel that it will be an important one in hindsight. I feel very fortunate, even if though homesick sometimes.

And now off to more adventures in Indian Creek with my friend and Petzl Team member Said Belhaj. YEAH !

Little Nina in big America, a funny thing to imagine, if you know me in person. I had always been a little critical of the mindset of Americans, even disturbed by some of the huge differences in culture and tradition. My travel last year to Smith Rocks changed that a lot. I realized how bign this country is how diverse people are. My mind started to open more and more and the differences became something I wanted to experience more of.

So I headed out for this 3-months climbing trip mid february, making the best of opportunities ahead. I flew into Reno and from there to South Lake Tahoe. It has been a real winter there, like the onces I had the chanche to live during my childhood in Switzerland. Huge amounts of snow everywhere, big storms rolling in one after the other. These winter are always outstanding to live and to witness .

The storms brought lots of light and deep powder, time for skiing. Although I haven’t been skiing much this last years, it’s a sport that kids in my Swiss valley do from 3 on, and so the connection I have to this incredible feeling of sliding is big. Like all of us out there, I ate lots of powder on the way down with this overwhelming wave of gratefulness. Skiing is so much fun.

From the breathtaking powder descents in Lake Tahoe, my path went down south to Bishop. I’m not the biggest boulderer of the word, but it was important for me to see this outstanding climbing area.

With my friends Sean Haverstock from the U.S. and French legend Julien Nadiras we went for the full outdoor experience in the Sierra. The previous few months of my life before the trip, I wasn’t able to be outside much and I realized how much that impacts my simple feeling of freedom and wellbeeing.

We lived out of a van, feet the cold night of the desert and the violent sunshine during day.

The Buttermilks represented exactely what I’m looking for in climbing. Obvious lines on high boulder balls in the middle of the snow covered eastern Sierras. The climbing is demanding and the holds are very small and sharp.

My goal was to climb as efficiently as possible. I only put in a few tries on a problem. That feeling of giving everything in a flash try felt crazy good !!! I climbed in the flow, directed by my intuition.

It was a great feeling to bewell spotted by Julien and Sean, they are both strong and experienced boulderers. They know the buisness of bouldering.

Bishop is a funny little town, very charming with a good hospital. Injury number one in Bishop are twisted or broken ankles. On our second climbing day I was part of a big accident on a high ball. Sierra Knots, fell down from a 7 meter high bouder problem. Her foot slept and so she felt a little twisted. My first reaction was to catch her. Not a good idea. I hit her right foot and so she landed only on her left leg. The force of the fall was such that she broke her ankle and leg multiple times. It’s been since a while that I havent heard someone yell so loud. She was full of pain. We carried her down to the car on a crashpad and drove straight to the hospital. I felt really bad and responsible for her injury.

That event was a strong experience. I realized yet again how big the commitement is in climbing, even on bouder problem. I know that feeling of commitment from alpine climbing when the moment comes where you’re not allowed to fall anymore. It’s somehow the same. You go because you feel like. There is no room for doubts, negative feelings and you can’t count on your partners anymore. You go for the free soloing with this big feeling of selfcontrol due to your climbing skills and strong mindset.

I spent seven days up in Bittermilks. Some days, I felt a big attraction to high boulder problems and I climbed them. And on some days I was unable to imagine to climb high so I played on problems where it’s allowed to fall.

I finished my trip with plenty of pure problems in my pocket, up to V9 in grade flashing them sometimes but always only in a few tries, a good strategy to save.

The outdoor experince up there made me feel alive ! We were dirty, lived in the cold and somehow it felt rough. But I like that. I don’t wanna be too much of a princess and I need to be outdoors to feel the balance in my body. Well, stil thanks a lot to our friends for the hot shower from time to time … 😉

I visited Sierra in the hospital two days after her accident She did not blame me, she simply owned her commitment to the dangerous game of climbing high balls. Since then, I have learned to be a better spotter and to let it go when you have to. All my best wishes to her for a quick recovery !

And now my trail goes north. Leaving for Smith Rocks now to deal with some tabs I still have there from last year ! Stay tuned.