By Jorg, on March 8th, 2013
By Jorg, on March 4th, 2013
Ticino – Part 1 HD from jorg verhoeven on Vimeo.
Our two week trip to Switzerland’s bouldering Mecca is over. A short bad weather spell left us with quite a bit of snow, but armed with broom and brush nothing could stop us from ticking a few projects on the last sunny days. After Katha setting the bar quite high with her flash of ‘Tricky’ 8A, I managed to rebound that by flashing the ultra classic ‘La Proue’ 8B…
Katha showed some more biceps on ‘Frank’s Wild Years’ 8A+ and the not to be underestimated classic ‘Arcadia sit’ 7C+, and I ticked off an old nemesis of mine: ‘The Dagger’ 8B/+. This problem has been in the media lately with quite a few ascents, and a proposed lower grade (not only by climbers but internet voices as well…), I still found it hard, especially to figure out a beta that suited me.
The video I’ve posted above is the first of two parts, and as you will see, we still have some problems filming with our new lens :)
By Jorg, on February 25th, 2013
 Katha and I have been in Ticino for a bit more than a week now, and have had both splendid weather in the beginning of our trip, and a couple of snowy days just now. We’ve got another week left, and it looks like it’ll be sunny, so our efforts to clean the boulders from snow were not in vain.
Conditions have been nearly perfect before, which resulted in a lot of hard problems for the both of us, e.g. Katha flashing ‘Tricky’ 8A, and some 8B boulders for me, one of which a FA.
I was a bit sceptic about coming here for a longer period (it’s only 4 hours from home), but I couldn’t be more motivated, if only those 10 cm of snow would melt…
I’ll keep up to date with some pictures and some not so professional video footage.
By Jorg, on January 11th, 2013
Another year has gone by, and like I previously wrote 2012 was climbing wise not much different from the years before. I did a lot of competitions, a bit too many, but I only realized this towards the end of the season. I travelled even more, with an all-time-record of 14 inter-continental flights, hence a lot of jetlags and a Star Alliance Frequent Traveller status…
All those competitions stole most of my time to climb outside, and I will definitely change this in 2013. I’m catching up with my studies again, which is far from easy when you miss 50% of the courses, but I’m quite used to this, and so are my professors.
After a two week trip to Spain around new year’s eve, which was exactly what I needed (nice weather and good rock) I’ve already started my training for the next season. I will mainly do bouldering, and fewer lead cups, since that means a summer and fall with time to do other stuff. It keeps surprising me how high my motivation is, especially since lately a lot of things actually tempt me to quit competition climbing for good. I really hope that this motivation will stay with me, since it’s the only thing that’s keeping me going… Continue reading 2012 – 2013
By Jorg, on December 3rd, 2012
 It isn’t called the Pampa for nothing. Endless steppes of volcanic wastelands offer nothing but dust and (chossy) rock. Only the clear blue water of the Chubut river creates a little change by chiseling its way through the desert, accompanied by some lone trees and plants. In the middle of this scenery a giant monolith, the solidified vent of an ancient volcano, stands 250 meter tall, ready to be attacked by a 1300 climbers attending the tenth Petzl Rocktrip. Also the Buitrera Canyon – visible on the background of the picture above – is the playground for all these people, armed with mate cups and helmets against the loose rock.
A couple of hard sports routes were bolted by the Petzl team, but I was more tempted by the endless 200 meter high faces the canyon has to offer, especially a route called Balroc bolted in good style by belgian Sean Villenueva in sector Mordor. Six pitches up to 8b+ varying in good to pretty bad rock with incredible movements and features were just begging to be freed, so I spent most of my time working on this fantastic route, eventually freeing it on my very last day. Major thanks to Sean to letting my play on this masterwork, getting so close himself already, I’m quite sure he’s playing a victory song on his flute at the top as I’m typing this.
Now winterbreak has finally come…
By Jorg, on November 13th, 2012
Oh my, I almost forgot how to log in to this blog :) Let’s see if this old thing still worked.
To be honest, I’ve had no inspiration whatsoever to write anything for a long time now. What should I write about? Constantly writing about yourself is not that fun at all, especially when not much new stuff is going down. I’ve been climbing comps for over ten years, and now, and big surprise: I’m still in the game! Good old university is still asking for some hours learning how rocks form deep down below surface and then beg to be climbed. My life, except for a slight quarter life crisis that is of no interest to the world wide web, is kind of what it used to be.
Then one fine day I was surfing around, trying to regain a bit of motivation to train for the last comps – that keep on coming in spite of a feeling that my season ’12 has already ended – and was quite surprised what the climbing websites had to offer. Of course a lot of it was about numbers – and superlatives as always – which logically involves the great Wizard (mr Ondra that is), and then the casual people screaming around in loud electronical voices, to let everybody know their opinions, often based on very thick air.
So, training motivation had te be found elsewhere (on a snowy mountain, where else), but it got me in a mood to put in my tuppence worth to several themes swirling around the planet in bits and bytes, maybe more terabytes thesedays… Continue reading Test test test
By Jorg, on April 20th, 2012
As some might have guessed, due to my increased activities in bouldering the last couple of months – in other words flashpump after ten moves – I will start some boulder worldcups this year. First to come is Dragomer (SLO), which starts tomorrow, and to my big suprise, my name is on the wrong end of the starting list for the nth time in a row. Next up will be Vienna (AUT) the week after, and Innsbruck (AUT) in three weeks. I might participate in Vail (USA), but since Katah and I are moving to another flat, this might be a little too stressful at that time.
Then of course the lead season will start, for which my plans will still have to be made. All I know is that I will do some, and not all :) Continue reading Upcoming worldcups
By Jorg, on April 12th, 2012
‘Take your weapons of mass destruction and get the hell outta here’, to quote Team America. My blog will probably be on a black list from now on.
Some might have guessed: We’ve left the States about a week ago, to go back home. The 180 days of our visa have expired over and we were kindly asked to clear out of the country, with a shotgun in the back :)
I couldn’t have expected more of trip. Of course it had its ups and downs (like Katha’s knee, the many split tips and the four flat tires) but all’s well that ends well, and since especially the end of the trip felt like a holiday, I’m feeling fresh and psyched to be home, to all that awaits me here… Continue reading America fuck yeah!
By Jorg, on March 30th, 2012
Yep, another video. don’t worry, it’ll be the last of our trip :)
Although our stay in Joe’s Valley was ended after a week, because of Katha hurting her knee pretty bad, we had a good time in this area, which was totally different than the other places we went. Both Katha and me got a little tired of trying hard boulders, and were more into a little holiday time, but we could still do some classic problems like ‘Masterpiece’ 8B, ‘The Worm Turns’ 8A, ‘Fingerhut’ 7C+, ‘Nerve Extension’ 7C+ etc…
Continue reading Joe’s Valley
By Jorg, on March 19th, 2012
No we’re not back in hueco, although I do miss El Pasito, Krispy Kreme and the one dollar movie theaters. This is just a small post on the Esperanza video, that has become really oversized, because its producer didn’t think of flipping his Iphone :)
Continue reading Esperanza interlude
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About Jorg Sportclimber Jorg Verhoeven won the Overall Lead Worldcup in 2008 and was World Youth Champion twice. From his new hometown Innsbruck he's pushing his limits on real rock too, in (alpine style) routes, and boulders. read more >>
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