Norwegian Rockmaster

We arrived well in Oslo!

But there was still a long way to go. We had to wait 1,5h to get a rented car. At the airport we met Daila Ojeda and we drove 6 hours till we reached the meeting point which was only 290km away. Finally we arrived at 2 am and met the rest of the German team, Jule Wurm, Jan Hojer, Christian Popien and Jeremias Groß and got a very nice fishsoop.

Our accommodation in luxurious holiday-houses was a big contrast to our life in Céüse. It wasn’t easy to get up so early to compete. The next morning we also met the other competitors Andrea Cartas, Ekaitz Maiz, Gorka Kapapeto with friends and photographer from Spain and Basque, Malin Holmberg and Magnus Hogstrom from Sweden, Michelle Theisen from Denmark, Martina Cufar from Slovenia and Steve Mcclure from Britain.

It was very nice to met everybody and we had a lot of fun together!

The Isolation zone was around a new small crack which was bolted to have a warm-up area.

We had to climb on two qualification lines and one final line on a nice looking 30 to 40 m high granite wall. It was a very nice experience to climb a competition on real rock. Also the main wall was bolted just for this event, so the lines were new and because of that not really clean. You had to climb very carefully because a lot of footsteps broke. This was very pumpy, you couldn’t trust your feet, what makes climbing more exciting and funny. From the ground the lines looked very hard and it was mostly not possible to see any holds, sometimes you just had to guess where the easiest line was. The first line was only done by Steve Mcclure, most of the others fell on the crux which was difficult to read.

The Bolts in the beginning of the second route were set between two natural lines, so it was difficult to decide which way you should take. We think this was very nice, everybody could choose the way he preferred. For the first starters it was very hard, because there was no chalk on the wall and more lose stones. I was unlucky to be the second starter, I chose the direct way to clip the bolt. This was a very hard way and I slipped off.

Daniel was lucky to be one of the last starters. The chalk from the climbers before made it easier to see were the best line was. When Daniel reached the fourth bolt a crimp broke and he fell off. This was good luck, he was allowed to try this line again and could climb three bolts higher than before and become the leader of the ranking in qualification.

In the final Jan had bad luck and slipped off in a tricky part, me and the other climbers all fell at the same bolt. So the results of the qualification became important and Daniel was very lucky to became the Norwegian Rockmaster!! I got the 5. place.

The Rock Masters Jule and Daniel...

After the competition we had some time to jump into a nice lake and take a use of the whirlpool in our houses.

In the evening there was a nice party with two bands and nice salmon dinner.

On the whole it was a very nice competition on real rock. Borre Bergshaven organized a really good and funny event!