motlut&baktakt

fredag 20 augusti 2010

Cracks of Hopiavuori

[caption id="attachment_232" align="aligncenter" width="408" caption="Thin jams on Astronautunto, Hopiavuori, Kustavi. Photo: Heikki"]

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[caption id="attachment_233" align="aligncenter" width="614" caption="Coming off Dead Ringers Chang Variation, Hopiavuori."]

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[caption id="attachment_235" align="aligncenter" width="408" caption="Hilde"]

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söndag 15 augusti 2010

Finnish Splitters

[caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Sofia racking up."]

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[caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Anita Rostén on one of Kräkiniemis small splittergems."]

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[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Bomber! Anita Rostén finds comfort."]

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[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="336" caption="Sof playing on yet another gem."]

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Gullvivan

[caption id="attachment_216" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sunset arete. FA. Gullvivan, Brändö"]

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[caption id="attachment_217" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tuulitulos"]

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A quick stop at a beautiful little solitary boulder in the Brändö archipelago, NW Åland. A few good lines remain to cleaned and climbed. Lunch, mini golf, bouldering and a swim.

tisdag 10 augusti 2010

So, I was abruptly taken away from my summer paradise in the Åland archipelago to go the Outdoor tradeshow in Fredrichshafven to do work for the brands I work with, Arcteryx, 5.10, Sterling and BD. The whole thing is kind of crazy and has basicly nothing to do with climbing or outdoor life. Heaps of people together with incridible amounts of brands and gear, all with the ambition to grow with 20% or at least make it into the market. This, all topped with bad air and noise stacked into 14!? huge hangars. CRAZY! So why do I go. It's work and even though it's dirty, some one has got to do it. Actually one part of me likes it even if I feel like I've totally given myself to Babylon. But as the great prophet once said, we're all a part of Babylon. The good part is, I get to meet heaps of fun people both professionally and socially. I get to meet collegues, old and new friends and other athletes, exchange experiences and of course, plainly just to hang out, drink coffee and beer. I also meet lot of retailers from Sweden and have a great opportunity to show our products for them. On the whole the whole show was really inspiring, at least from a work perspective. 5.10 presented yet some more styles which look awesome. Having said that, I must say that I was totally psyched to go home to Stockholm.

Check out the vid at ca 2.40

Now I'm working at the office for a few days and then I'm off back to Åland where I hope it's abit cooler than here and maybee one can wish for a strong breeze.

måndag 28 juni 2010

Hard work

[caption id="attachment_199" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Magnus Råström at work"]

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Well, back home from my combined work and climbing trip to France and Switzerland which by the way was great, who says you shouldn't combine buisness and pleasure. First sales meeting with Five Ten in Chamonix and then a week of climbing i the Briancon area. After that it was time for the next meeting in Dornach in Switzerland, this time with BD. Now back in Stockholm and have been working for a few days and had a few days of holiday in between when we went over to Åland to celebrate midsummer. Bouldering at Geta and cragging at Skålberget, a crag developed quite a few years ago by Rickard Hedman. Now back home for a few (2) days for work and then back over to Åland again. And at last i figured out how to change the blogging page from the default front page. Now I should be ready to launch this blog thing in to the public.

/erik

[caption id="attachment_200" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="David Chambre"]

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[caption id="attachment_202" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="When I grow up, I will have a garden like this one"]

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fredag 11 juni 2010

France

Things have been pretty hectic for the last couple of weeks. Åland was great, checked out a a few new areas and had a brushing session on Sunday. Cleaned up this beautiful hanging arete. Have to come to a decision weather to put in some bolts or to maintain the bolt free character of the area and keep it bold. I'll deal with that later. Last weekend I headed down to Chamonix for 5.10s european sales meeting. So psyched to work with this company. The climbing shoe line for 2011 looks wicked, nice new models and updates of already existing ones. The colours could be better but they're still a work in progress. Got a nice run in the hills outside Cham in the morning, the had some meetings, went bouldering among the granite blocks in La Bossons, got pumped, got scared, got up, met an old friend, had a good laugh and just made it back to our hotel, les Aiglons in time for a great dinner with all the guys and gals at 5.10.
After the meeting I hooked up with an old friend of my wife, David who's been living in Swizzy and now in Briancon for the last couple of years. Driving down from cham was a sprayfest with David giving his point of wiew on everybody that climbs mountains with fixed ropes and supplementary oxygen. Somewhere on the way he lost his voice. I have no idea how that could have happened but i could have something to do with alcohol and smoke. Anyway, I'm staying with him and his hospitable wife Camilla and their son Milton.

[caption id="attachment_176" align="alignleft" width="460" caption="DaVid Fält slabbing in Aillefroid"]

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Sports climbing down here i awesome. Small areas but all different and really nice. My finger is working OK even though I'm trying, not very well though, to be careful. Last day on out of four we went to Ceuse, a not so small and rather well known area. Climbing the previous three days and little sleep lot had taken it's toll and by the end of the day I was getting pumped after three moves and wasn't recovering even on the biggest jugs. Resting today is a blessing.