Mountaing rescue in South Tirol: my introduction

 Despite I didn't climb this weekend at all, it was dedicated to climbing, a climbing instructor career, to be exact. I took a 2-day-long First Aid training, which is obligatory for climbing instructors.

On the first day, we were at South Tyrol Alpine Association Mountain Rescue Service in Vilpian. It's a learning center for all rescue workers in South Tirol and it's actually unique for the entire Italy. There are different stations to train firefighters and rescuers in various situations, such as in pictures and many more.

The second day, we spent in Tramin at the small climbing area of Altenburg with an astonishing view, where we trained rescue works at crags, as well as different bandaging techniques.

Some key moments of first aid training:

• They try to go minimalistic and do everything possible with just a bandage and a rescue blanket. The last one is really useful and has a wide range of applications, from actually keeping warm (for an injured person, it's important even when it's hot) to transporting and replacing sunglasses. 
• The number of allergy cases is constantly increasing, and they could be really dangerous and life-threatening without proper medication. In our study case, we met a guy who was sitting on the ground because of dizziness, scratching himself all around. He also said his teeth felt weird. It is a situation to call for rescue, despite it does not seem so dangerous. It's all the symptoms of angioedema or allergic edema. When things are getting really bad, epinephrine autoinjection could be life-saving. Also, only a person themself, a doctor or a nurse are allowed to give a shot.
• Israeli bandage is the most convenient way of applying pressure to a wound. It also goes one-handed.

I am a fighter

 This weekend was homely and cozy. We climbed at our local facilities. First day, it was bouldering in our hard-core long-term-projecting boulder gym in Wiesen. The second day we climbed in Stange for the first time. It's a rather small wall for climbing mostly toprope. And I remembered why I love climbing routes so much. I can often really give it all on a go. It becomes a real fight and I like this state of mind the most.

I'm just a fighter, a f*cking fighter. 

That's all.

And we stocked up on firewood last week.

Austria freind trip

 This weekend, climbing was something special for us because of our friend, Natalka from Kyiv, whom we took with us. Furthermore, we finally found those picturesque mellows with blocks and cows, which are associated with climbing in Zillertal.

This weekend we bouldered in Zillergrund and Sundergrund.

The road through the narrow and somewhat cozy valley to the right of Mayhofer costs 10 euros. But parking is free there. And there is a nice Gasthof Au where one can sleep in a car or in a tent for only 10 euros, and kids are free of charge. It's very nice in the reality of Austria. 

In Gasthof Au

Zillergrund is located on a steep hill in a forest. There is my favorite project for now: Krokodil 6c, the very classics of the area.

Kostya has a pretty hard project there as well - the beginning of this: Hole Run 7b

The approach to first blocks of Zillgrund is very short - just across the road from one of two parking. However, it's steep.

The approach to Sundergrund is about 25 minutes of hiking up. It offers lots of air, views, and cows, as well as many very popular boulders. And it's really kids-freindly. It is one of them: Sweatheart 6a+

Another one: Richis Luder - a very long 6b. I just hadn't enough power to get through the middle and the most sloppery part of it.

The road to Sundergrund

Val di Sadole, Ziano di Fiemme: first meeting

We discovered another interesting and actually much more kids-friendly boulder area in less than two hours of driving from us. It has two names: Val di Sadole or Ziano di Fiemme. There are two free guidebooks for the area: in German and Italian. It's more summer area, so we were freezing cold there and the session was very shot; however, the friction was excellent.

It is mostly bouldering on holes of different sizes. We stopped at the 3 and 4 boulders in the sector Malga. There were plenty of warming-up routes without an exact grade. We climbed a couple and decided that they were somewhat about 5b. 

Then it was 6a with a controversial and not-so-easy start. I did the start first but then fell. 

I tried another 6a several times, but then Kostya discovered in the guidebook new lines on boulder 4, which we'd missed and so I tried the start of nice 7a. Then I tried another 6a and it was time to hurry up to our van because of the school tomorrow. 

It was charming day after a night almost without sleeping. There were so many fellings inside me boiling. And I was angry and disappointed that I couldn't sleep before a day of bouldering outside. That I wouldn't be able to do anything and to enjoy our climbing day. But everything was put together and I did enjoyed the day. We even played with snow a little bit.

Once upon a time, I used to create chaos in my life on my own

There actually was a time I used to create chaos in my life on my own. And I was good at it. I am not alone now. I love climbing and I love my children and that increases the degree of chaos significantly. Every visit to a gym or a climbing area has become a quest. Our nearest gym isn't a modern venue but rather is a kind of Tyrolean keller with an astonishing mountain view. One has to be really psyched to train there. And I like it. I like its long-term projects and the loneliness of climbing alone, but now there are at least two of us in the gym every time I climb. 

Once upon a time during holidays, I came there with two kids being already tired and hungry, trying to calm them both down. At this point, it seems to me that I am not able to want anything. But once I start climbing I get that feeling that outweighs all efforts to get there. Even if in the end it is not so much of climbing. 

And it also happens that I can come early in the morning only with the baby who calmly plays or stays on the soft mat near a soft cube. And I have all time in the world for climbing but I am almost blacking out due to the lack of sleep. So I climb, a little bit, just to move around and get on going. Just to not injure myself, which is my priority.

Sometimes it feels like climbing. You leisurely have breakfast and get ready. Then you convince your primary schooler that today is your turn to have fun and you want to go to the gym. When you get there, he goes to the playground. The baby falls asleep for a while, and you climb your 6c project, which actually is a big deal in the gym with a year-long lasting route setting. 

The long story short, the focus is the key that helps navigate in this chaos. As well as, avoiding unnecessary pressure. I failed the last with the first baby. I felt like I had to train whenever I had a free minute. Then I felt like I didn’t want anything at all. Then I got tired, injured, sick and didn’t want anything even more. I drank a lot of coffee with treats to replenish my battery but it didn’t work. I need something more complicated and fulfilling in order to do so. Now I try to find my balance in a greater degree of chaos. And I’ve become better at it.

Here are some tips on how to climb with kids:

1. Keep the main focus, which should shrink to one thing, climbing a little bit and seeing how it goes.

2. Have a plan for what to do, especially for warming up. It’s tempting to skip this part, but you can also consider it as a part of training with some specific focus and some exercises. The key is to stay injury-free as best as you can. It’s easy to follow some structure when you get constantly distracted and your inner voice is overwhelmed with all the screams and cries from the outside.

3. It’s better to pack your things beforehand. It’s better to pack your things at all. You can climb without chalk because there are plenty of it on holds. You can climb even without your climbing shoes, turning it into the practice of arm-climbing or mastering your technique.

4. Don’t forget to pack snacks and toys for kids. It’s even more important. However, you can turn anything into a toy: a chalk bag, a climbing shoe, some training equipment etc.

5. You can go on with whatever you haven’t forgotten to pack. 

6. Choose a time when there is no one in the gym or cooperate with your friends or other parents. 

7. Don’t be upset when nothing is going according to your plan. Maybe you just need a little more rest. Don’t  push yourself, Actually, it is the time when we become stronger!

Katie Brown has run away

What ever happened to Katie Brown. One can find an answer to this question in her book Unreveled: A Climber's Journey Through Darkness and Back.

In short, she has run away from her demons (her mother and faith) and their dwelling place (climbing).

The book is really sincere. Yes, it is repetitive as our patterns truly are. It's hard to read, but it is also therapeutic. It illustrates double standards regarding women as well as the indifference of medics who never mentioned her apparent underweight as a possible cause of health problems.

The way out of that was tricky, but she is strong enough to cope with all that shit on her own.

Some quotes:

• My tongue refused to move and my mind was fuzzy with the confusion between what I wanted to say and what I felt like I should say and whether either of those things were the right thing to say.
• Onsighting was a world where I felt completely, wholly at home. It’s just see how far you can get before you fall, and give it your all. No do-overs.
• I didn’t like the feeling of wanting things. Wanting things meant dealing with the inevitability of loss, and I needed to shut that down before its tidal wave consumed me. It was safer to not want anything, to be more dead than alive.
• To go through life feeling like you belonged, rather than feeling like you were taking up space meant for someone else.
• ...see how far I could get before I fell—my usual approach to onsighting.

Rock Athlete by Ron Fawcett and Ed Douglas

 

This book is especially valuable for at least 2 reasons. First, there is so little data about Ron Fawcett on the internet or elsewhere, nevertheless he is a true climbing legend. Second, this book was awarded with the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 2010. And it’s about rock climbing, not about mountaineering. 

It is about the epoch era, when “heads were stronger than arms”. He became one of the first pro-climbers. Whilst it is hard nowadays, it was unimaginable back then. 

It’s about dedication and passion. It was unthinkable that they could live off climbing, but they gave it all without any expectations. It’s about self-drive. The story begins from the end (or almost the end) when an already very experienced author challenges himself with one hundred ‘Extreme’ routes climbed solo in a day just to push himself to the limits again. Just to feel where these limits were. Sometimes, it was a rush, sometimes, it was a disappointment, sometimes, it was an inner piece, and sometimes, it was satisfaction, tiredness, and peacefulness. Like all his climbing life… which had begun in

a farm and made a sudden turn to unknown, vertical, terranean. He became a climbing film star, a sponsored athlete, and a father, and he became… But the most interesting aren’t endpoints, but the way to them, his thoughts and feelings, doubts and triumphs about endless challenges, and he and his co-author managed to show it clearly and entertainingly. 

Taking into account the tiny bits of data that are available about Ron Fawcett, the book is worth reading for all climbing fans. We can learn a lot about commitment and courage from such people.

Quotes:

• 'Your favorite new routes are a bit like your kids; they don’t belong to you, but you want people to think well of them.'

• 'I'd do a couple of thousand press-ups before breakfast to keep in shape'

• 'Nothing else mattered beyond climbing. I was obsessed. Looking back, I don’t regret any of it.'

• 'If the weather was bad, we’d hole up in the Beck Hall Café. They were always kind to me there. I’d sit watching the rain, getting endless top-ups of hot water for my teapot. I think my record from the same bag stood at sixteen.'

• 'We knew that if you fell off there was a good chance you’d hit the ground.'

• 'Without access to modern climbing walls, it took longer to become strong. That saved me from overtraining injuries, which climbers would begin to suffer from as walls were built.'

• 'In those days, heads were stronger than arms.'