May 07

Switzerland Tour Hi everone, Im back from an amesome trip to Switzerland bouldering with Lucinda and Garry ( duty manager at The Works ). After a very busy Winter at the Climbing Works i was in need of a holiday. We arrived at Milan Bergamo airport at 7pm and drove straight to Magic wood, driving through various rain storms and showers we remained optomsitic. Our plan was to stay at the guest house in the small village of Ausserfeer. We arrived in the centre of the viallage at about 10 o'clock to find the place deserted! Damn it! I wished I had put the sleeping bags in! As you can imagine the night was cold and then to make things worse it started to snow! The next morning Magic Wood was covered in snow and we decided to head back to Belinzona and climb at Cresciano. After a rough drive back down the valley we climbed all afternoon at Cres. I swiftley despatched La Pioche 7c and some classic 7b's. We then headed up to nice area called 'sector Backgammon' (about an extra 20 mins walk). This area is at a slightly higher altitude and is a bit cooler than the main area's. Here I climbed one of the classics third go, called Backgammon 7c. We stayed the night in Bellinzona and enjoyed lots of pizza and Swiss/German beer. The next morning the weather looked more settled so we headed back up to Magic woods for the another week. The Guest House prices have gone up ( 49 swiss francs per person / night) as it is run by a nice couple trying to build a business. The place is very swarve and is definatly worth it if you are not on a budget. I would also recomend the dinner in the restaurant (awesome pasta and chocolate cake) and the coffee. We had a good couple of days warming up and getting to know where all the good problems were before we had to head back down the valley to pick up Big Garry from the airport. Garry arrived with our camping gear and stove and we set up camp back in the woods. The next 3 days were the dream holiday / bouldering trip, a long drawn out breakfast and lots of coffee followed by bread / cheese and cakes for lunch by the river. Then after a cold beer out of the river we went for more coffee and climbed hard in the evening when it was a bit cooler. I flashed a 7c called 'foo fighter', a few classic 7b+'s and then did Supernova 7c, 2nd go. Magic wood is set in a super nice valley surrounded by snowy caped peaks, its definatly a great spot for classic granite bouldering. Lu and Garry were also tearing it up by flasing some 7a+'s and then both of them swiftley despatched a roofy 7b+. After a welcomed restday picking up shopping suplies we were psyched for our last day at the woods. I went down to the Bruno block to try Cote de Sezquan, 8a. The previous day Garry had pointed this out as a classic and showed me where it went. I did the last move in my trainers and psyced up for the last day. Within 10 mins on the problem the rain had started to pour, it was lashing it down. I unlocked the sequence and found myself at the last move! Oh well the last jug was soaking and I had to jump off. A few days previous I had a few goes one of the classics on the Bruno block called Massive attack 8a+. It was too warm so i had left it for another day. Today was different because it was raining and the conditions were loads better as it was overhanging. After about 1 hour I was hanging from the finishing jug! Come On! The rain continued so we  headed back to Cresciano for our last day before flying out from Bergamo. It was super hot and the only place we could climb was back up at the 'sector backgammon'. Lu and Garry did this awesome 7b and i did Fredric Bricole 7c+, which involved this crazy move off a poor crimp. After a very stressfull journey through Milan at rush hour we just made checkin. So its back to blighty and i am well psyced to train at the Works and go back in the autumn. Cheers Sam