Spain to Spain in half a year

 

This year I was preparing for climbing road trip in april and may, the goal to be ready at june to climb new hard (for me) in Rodellar Spain.

 

Hard training, working and little resting don't work together apparently, and as a physiotherapist I should know it.

I started to develop finger injury at the start of May, and the pain just got worse and worse.

At  the end of May I could not hang on the finger any more so I stopped training  and climbing at all, except to general conditioning-TRX and running.

 

 

I didn't cancelled my planed trip to Spain because I needed it for the motivation, as climbing in Israel during summer time, when its 35 Celsius  can be a little bit demotivated

 

This summer I will be  climbing for 13 years, I have  learned in those years that you cannot be at the top of your game all year, I been in peak shape for long time from December till April which were good months with a lot of motivation.

 

At December/January I was in peak performance climbing in the world famous “Santa linya” trying to red point “Fabela pa la Emeinda”(9a) although I didn't red point it this time, on the process i red pointed Rolito Sharma (8b+) rolito sharma extension (8c 2nd Go) I also came close to onsight 8b which i did at the second go, and onsighted couple of 8a.

 

 

 

 

 

Coming back to Israel in January I had the pleasure  working with climbing photographer Claudia Ziegler. We were photo shooting all over the North part of Israel at crags: K cave, Gita, Yonim, and Nezer cave. Claudia is an amazing photographer and her shots are beautiful.

 

 

 

In April our joined work came to a nice result we got the cover photo in “Klettern” Magazine, April issue, and another photo and article on May issue of “Climbing” magazine.

 

 

It was super cool to see the photos at an international climbing magazine and I think it's the first time an israeli climber appears in cover photo of a big climbing magazine, and that made me proud of our work.

 

 

In April I also managed to red-point my project “Neo” (8b+/c) which was hard for me, with very athletics and long moves, the crux move required a dyno to a shallow pocket, and I was keep falling at that specific move, a lot, but finally I did the first ascent in april, and was a good experience, and the route is super good.

 

 

Earlier in april I went down with my partners Valeri Frumkin and Itay Merlis, to Wadi Rum Jordan.

I alway wanted to climbed Wadi rum classics, and this time I had the opportunity to climb “Edge of Zarnuk el Dabar” , Prechet classic. It is a magnificent route. A mixed of hiking,scrabbling, climbing and route finding skills bring you to the summit of Jabel Um Ejil and magnificent view of Wadi Rum.

 

 

Later on the trip I joined my long time friend great guide and  climber Elad Omer.

Elad has the habit to reserve some unknown, unrepeated, unclimbed routes around the Wadi, This time wasn't different and he came with a list of weird topos he found around the rest house in climbers blogs or some other unknown source.

 

He and I did some really cool new lines, Elad found around the wadi I specially remember “Tira el Diablo per la coda” (7c).

The route On the Northeast Jabel Bara west face (outside Bara canyon) it has 12 pitches long and climb for 420 meters. The route has mixed (trad and bolts) climbing that requires all abilities of climbing: slab, face,over hanging, crack and off width, the Italian alpinist that opened the route did an amazing job, and the route is worth repeating. I believe we did the second or third ascent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming back to Israel from Jordan I went back up north and bolted two more projects in Nezer cave, which i still need to try this summer.

 

 

I flew to Spain on start on june, although my finger was still hurting, I climbed there for a 10 days, manage to on-sight “Coliseum” 8a, a beautiful long  and climb 8b+, but couldn't pull harder then that, so for personal reasons and my finger injury I decided to end my trip a month earlier and come back to Israel and the rest of June-July, kind of let my body heal,relax and take some time off climbing, it was a busy half a year.