Emi and Korni Battle the Freeze in Switzerland
2010-01-09 08:03:10
Ben MOON

Received this from MOON's Austrian friend, Emi Moosburger:

Saturday, the 2nd of January has been the first day of bouldering for me and Korni in 2010, and the year started out well! We were able to climb a really amazing problem despite the absolutely freezing conditions that day. The year started cold! It was a windy day in Ticino's Chironico: wind at minus 5°C means that it actually felt like minus 20°C (we're talking minus 4°F here)! A "warm up" was pretty senseless. No way to get "warmed up". So this meant we started without one, trying Boogalagga, an amazing line established by Bernd Zangerl, around 8B (v13), technical, powerful with really cool holds and pockets. We've been working the problem lately and made good progress but this day, because of the cold, we felt really bad! With a massive lack of coordination or feeling for the moves, we felt our chances of succeeding were dissolving fast. We kept trying though, and all of a sudden I stuck the first (the crux) move for the very first time. Out of nowhere it seemed. Both, Korni, and I were confused. It took maybe two seconds before I realized I had stuck the hold and was still on, so time to move on! I kept it together through the sequence, stuck the last hard move to a crimp and topped out. Nice! Psyche was high, I came down… high five! Korni chalked, pulled on (I still had my shoes on) and sent it right after me! We were both more than glad for the decision to freeze our asses off here rather than head to Cresciano. The positive attitude paid off and we got the candy... Let's hope it gets a bit warmer soon so bouldering outdoors will feel a bit more like fun!

Check out the photo gallery for a couple of nice photos of the classic Boogalagga