“Psychotherapie” 8c and “Lactate Extension” FB 8b+ (trav.)
A few weeks have passed since my last little trip to the Zillertal with the Blockhelden. There, I was able to fulfill another little bouldering dream and finally repeat “Unterholz 8” FB 8a. A boulder that had been on my TO DO list for years.
After everything had been dragging on for the past few weeks, finally golden autumn arrived in Franconia. The temperatures became cooler and the conditions significantly better. This led me back to Angerstein, more precisely to the route “Psychotherapie” 8c. I had already checked it out two years ago and thought it was really awesome. 24 moves without a rest point on small edges and pockets. So really good climbing! On the first day of this year, all the individual moves and a few halfway decent links were already done. But really land was still not in sight. A few days later, I was back on site with my colleague Dani. Short warm UP and GO! After the first few meters, past the crux and a fight at the top later, I had probably ticked one of my hardest routes ever.
For me, that was not just a really great feeling, but also an incentive to find myself a new project. My choice fell on the boulder “Laktat” FB 8a+. The boulder consists of a short sit start, followed by a traverse on small edges that guarantee the pump. At the end, it’s back to business with 2 wide moves. Here too, not much land was in sight on the first day. But in the second session, everything went smoothly here too, just like before with Psychotherapie, and I was able to tick “Laktat”. After the first part of the boulder had worked out so well, I set about looking at the moves of “Laktat Extension” FB 8b+ trav. This variant combines the hardest moves of Laktat and extends them by a passage that is probably just as hard. The whole thing was first climbed by Moritz Welt last year. On the third day, I was finally able to climb the moves of the Extension quite well and decided to start a first real attempt from the beginning. BOOM! First go and I had my first 8b+ boulder in the bag. Really awesome. Certainly not the hardest boulder in this grade, but whatever, it’s fun anyway ????.
Two days later, it was back to the rope, and specifically to the Hängenden Stein. In addition to looking for a new project, I was also able to get a flash of “Das Dach” 8a, as well as secure myself a repeat of “Perpetuum Mobile” 8a+ (2 go) the next day.
Let’s see how long the conditions last. Winter can come.
Pictures © Steffen Brehm
