Saturday, December 10, 2016

Ice hunting at Tormäuer

Tormäuer is an ice climbing paradise, on the north/east side of Ötscher (1893 m). There are about 100 ice falls and also some mixed routes. We only checked out Hintere Tormäuer, which is the closest sector for us (120 km). The place is basically a 4 km long canyon filled with ice falls. Apparently it is possible to park on the both side of the canyon, so the approaches are about 5 -30 min on flat ground. 

 Ötscher


 Hintere Tormäuer. There are about 50 ice falls/sectors in this canyon.


 Blue Box


 An adventurous looking line


 Clarisma WI 4


Ein bisschen mehr Rotunde WI5-


Romantic Box


Rock Box. Potential for mixed climbing seems to be endless.


 An unknown ice fall


 Keinen Valium für Valentin WI5-


 Eiswiese


 Halfpipe WI4


Even the easiest ice falls look pretty nice


 It's still a bit too warm. The canyon is at 700 m from sea level, so for early season ice it's better to go somewhere else.


Altenberg an der Rax at 1200 m is a safer bet. There are five long ice falls between WI3 - M8, the approach is about 45 min.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Finnish Alpine Awards


A blog entry exceptionally in Finnish (koska massia jaetaan vaan suomalaisille). 

Keväällä ihmetystä kyselyillään herättänyt Finnish Alpine Awards-projekti julkaisi juuri uudet nettisivunsa http://alpineaward.fi. Samuli Mansikan muistolle perustettu projekti pyrkii kannustamaan ja tunnustamaan esimerkillistä suomalaista kiipeilytoimintaa jakamalla vuosittain yhdelle tai useammalle merkittävälle suomalaiselle kiipeilyhankkeelle xxxx euroa rahallista tukea ja antamaan sille ansaittua näkyvyyttä.

Tällä hetkellä xxxx tarkoittaa yli 2000 €, mikä saattaisi tehdä monen eräjorman unelmareissusta totta. Eli eipä muuta kuin lukekaa säännöt ja hakemusta vetämään.

Stipendiä haetaan täältä. Hakuaika alkoi viime lauantaina ja päättyy 15.11.2016 kello 23:59.

Onnea matkaan! Toivottavasti rahat ei mene Fontsun reissuun.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Life after Brazil

I was lying on a hospital bed, shaking and sweating. It was hard to breathe. My resting heart rate was 110. I couldn’t sleep. It was way too hot in the hospital but they refused to open the windows of my 7th floor room. At the time, I was diagnosed with depression, as they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.


When the nurse asked if a nun should come by to pray for me, I knew I was fucked.


Doctors were guessing between lung problems, virus infection, burn out, and depression. Apparently I had caught some kind of a virus in Brazil, but that wouldn't explain all the symptoms. It was pretty frustrating trying to convince them I was not depressed; maybe a bit pissed off because I couldn't climb. Later I have found out that most of the people with same diagnosis are usually first diagnosed with depression.

I had plenty of time in the hospital, so I googled what could be wrong with me. Surprisingly, my symptoms matched a number of different types of cancer. But also exactly with over-active thyroid. Despite numerous blood tests, the thyroid levels hadn’t been tested yet. I guess it’s better business to diagnose with depression and keep people in the hospital with 1000 € per day rates.

So I begged that they would test my thyroid levels, what they luckily did. They were 3x higher than than the maximum level for normal and finally I got medication for hyperthyroidism.

I still needed to stay in infusion for some days, which was a pain in the ass. They didn’t give me enough food, so Anu brought me pizza and snacks every day. My metabolism was super fast, so even when I was just eating and staying in the bed, I lost 8 kg in two weeks. Yes, hyperthyroidism is an excellent way to lose weight. Unfortunately it's not contagious so I can't help out any fatties.

Finally, after a week in the hospital I got out and went straight to see a thyroid specialist. That felt for the first time like someone actually knew what she was talking about. The dosage was at first doubled and then tripled. This of course led to nasty side effects and I had to change the medication.

This was a few weeks ago. The new medication seems to be working and my thyroid levels are lowering nicely. I’m not allowed to do anything physical though. So, at the moment I am on sick leave, and so is the blog.


Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Work trip in Brazil

Sunrise in Macae 


Our hotel was right next to the beach, which was only annoying as after the first day we didn't really have any free time 


No swimming, the sea is dangerous 


Locals having fun with the waves


I also got a board, but managed to break it in the first wave. 


Too bad, the waves only got better


 Locals playing volleyball in the evening


 Baywatch-running in the morning


After two days of medical tests we found out they didn't value our IRATA certs. We had to do a local "work at height” NR35-course. We did some hauling, climbed ladders and watched a video about a random guy committing suicide. Very informative, I had no idea what happens if you fall 30 meters to the ground.


 Macae-city


 Street art


 Street art with Johnny


 More street art without Johnny


 More street art with Johnny


Our crazy driver


Views from the road back to Rio 


Traffic on the sea


Rio is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, never leave your car in this neighborhood


I had a few hours before my flight so I decided to check out some tourist attractions 


 Jesus statue seen from Mirante Dona Marta


 A local animal


There are some stairs you need you climb to get to the statue. Of course there is a solution for fat people as well.


 No need to be alone at Christ the Redeemer. I have never seen as many selfie sticks in one place.


Copacabana beach 


 Sugarloaf Mountain


 There is some climbing at Sugarloaf Mountain as well


 Some rich people checking out the statue


 Christ the Redeemer

Monday, May 9, 2016

A sad day at Hohe Wand

 Anu on Mond und Sterne 7-


The first pitch was pretty nice, but the rest of the route was loose and shitty


 On the way back we saw a helicopter flying close to the wall


 Soon the parking lot started to fill up with police cars


 A rescue copter landed on the nearby field


 Rescuers on the way


 Unfortunately there was nothing to be rescued anymore so the rescue copter flew away


A 21-year old climber had fallen 130-140 meters to the ground. Apparently he was climbing on easy ground without protection when a hold broke.


 The place was right under a via ferrata called Blutspur, which is known to have a dangerous approach.


 A police copter with a rescuer hanging on the rope


The accident happened right below the Skywalk


 The copter picked up the casualty