I was awake. It was around 5-ish. “Marianne…” The voice next to me said. Yeah, I’m awake too I answered. And before we knew it we started discussing the routes for the upcoming day: Dutch Championships Iceclimbing. Two qualification routes (flash) and one Grande finale. Should I take my other axes I wondered? That wood…
Almost…almost made it to the finals. The worldcup series is a weird thing. A circus traveling around the world trying to perform, all do the best they can. There were high’s and low’s. Here a small summary; Bozeman – we couldn’t go. No money and we had to organise a competition in the Netherlands. So…
Drytooling Kamasutra Flash sounds like a ‘different’ thing. But no, it’s just ‘iceclimbing’. Really. How to kill a Nomic iceaxe/aka Kamasutra D13+ flash! Iseo, Italy just days after the Worldcup in Saas Fee. Before the last stage at Rabenstein we wanted to relax, climb and enjoy the Italian sun. We need to. I picked up the cold…
This week we flew all the way to South Korea for the second stage of the Iceclimbing Worldcup. We missed the first one (money/forced double events) in Bozeman, USA. So, this was our chance to do our ‘thing’. Dennis looking forward to the winter season at Schiphol airport. Beforehand we had quite some unfortunate…
For the last 5 years Verticallife has been organising the DDE (Duth Drytool Event). This way we create training facilities in the Netherlands and a bigger mixed climbing platform. This year the DDE at Monte Cervino was another succes with loads of new climbers joining the event and also new faces in the finals on…
This evening was a romantic Dennis and Marianne evening.As Dennis really struggles with all his bad luck and his injured leg, I thought it would be good to go out for dinner.We discussed all kinds of things, like how nice the route Tomahawk is, and I wanted to see a picture.Got on the internet and……
It’s Worldcup season. For a while already but I didn’t have the money to join the comps yet. But there was no excuse not to go the the biggest and most difficult comp of the year: Saas Fee, Swiss. Dennis, my boyfriend won the speed discipline last year so he had to defend his title. I’m more interested…
As usual. Nervous. Already.Sigh…But thats apparently how it works with me and competitions. The only way to solve it is, as far as I know, become just much stronger then I’d need to be to compensate for the weakness that comes with the nerves.We missed the first two competitions; the first which was in Korea…
It’s been a while ago now since we were in Canada with the whole team.We climbed in the huge land for a couple weeks with Canmore as basecamp.Being Dutch and being a climber is a fairly strange combo. As sports climber we have a gym in every city. Within 40km you can find a gym, wherever…
Met het Alpine Mentor Programme was ik de afgelopen 2 weken in Canada. Inmiddels zijn Steve House en de rest van het team weer naar huis. Scott Backes en ik zijn er nog. En Scott wist wel wat hij graag nog wilde klimmen hier. Het lawine-gevaar en de ijs condities zijn niet erg goed deze week. Het weer is…
As climber it’s always hard to find enough money within time.(Or enough time within the money)I was lucky enough to find a very very generous sponsor that could pay my ticket to Canada this Spring.And when everyone is hunkering for sun and flowers, I extended my iceclimbing Winter to the Rockies.With real Alpine boots and…
Kirov, the place to be (or not).The last worldcup of this season was in the Russian city Kirov.14 hours by train (Siberian Express) from Moscow.Great experience, but the worldcup itself wasn’t something to be proud of.Over 50% of the competitors was Russian. > I think something should change…Video impression here:↵ Use original playerMoscow – Kirov…
We were on the weirdest event ever.The Rabensteiner Bauernmeisterschaften.Where local farmers do a relay with hay-sledging and iceclimbing.And when you win, you get a sheep. What better price could you ever imagine! Just ‘priceless’ :)See here the result.(Oh, yes, that song is Dutch, about a yodel-boy, thats why…)↵ Use original playerBauernmeisterschaft Rabenstein 2013By Marianne van…
The story in moving images:↵ Use original playerVariante Babylon, Eisarena 270m WI7- M9By Marianne van der SteenVimeoSD← ReplayXiVariante Babylon, Eisarena 270m WI7- M9 from Marianne van der Steen on Vimeo.
Sort message:Urban Ice 2013 was awesome.Super generous, kind and helpful people, great audience, and nice performance by all the climbers!Dennis did great and won :)I was just as slow as usual but had the great honor to climb agains Sepp Inhöger and ended 16th.Great party b.t.w.↵ Use original playerUrban Ice 2013 in Bad GasteinBy gmgasteinYouTube1080p720p360p240p…
Restday work, sharpening our tools[Marianne] Okay, so we climbed the long ice thing in they valley. Now it’s time for our original objective. Actually, I was confused with what the objective was. We talked so much about freeclimbing an old aid line, that I for some reason thought that was our objective.Dennis seemed more aware on what to climb. As…
After three weeks of competition climbing we are on the road again.This time not with our beloved VW T3 Syncro campervan, but with a simple rental car. No warm home, kitchen, bookshelf full of climbing guidebooks, and our sweet little bed.Just before the start of the Rabenstein IWC the gearbox decided to bail on us.…
The very inventious mobile icewall used for the speedclimbing demo in the centre of Meran.Quick thought: can’t we use this to promote iceclimbing?Rabenstein didn’t really go as planned.After a nice break in Arco I thought I was ready for the comp.But I guess the stress of making it in time to Rabenstein with a broken…
You win some you loose some. For me it felt like loosing a little bit and failing incredibly.”But for a Dutch climber you did really well” “You looked pretty strong there” “You’ll do better next time” “The others are so strong too” “But if you don’t reach the finals, please don’t be too disappointed” “Did…
On this side of the world it’s all about ice, mixed and drytooling.Strange and funny, but on the other side of the world it’s almost the same thing at the Iceclimbing Worldchampionships in South-Korea.Dennis is now there to climb.You can follow all the climbers on the Korean Worldchampionships Facebook page here.I have a restday. Sleeping,…