Ordinary life – Page 3

Statistics: 2018

By isazi | December 31, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Another year, another post. Looks like I only find time to write something during holidays.
Sometimes I actually feel like I have something interesting to write, but this feeling does not last enough, and I do not start writing soon enough, so I end up not writing.
But enough with this, and let’s write something.

The plan for today was to go climb outside, but the weather changed and it did rain the whole day, with some loud thunderstorms too.
I also thought of going out for a run, but looking outside the window made me very lazy.
So, instead of doing something, I decided to look at some statistics for the year that ends today; sport related statistics, that’s it.
And now, without further ado, the statistics:

Total distance: 2221.78 km
Total time: 378h 42m 39s
Elevation gain: 27788 m

Compared with 2017, I covered ~60% more distance on foot/biking/swimming, but had less altitude gain.
The addition of biking to my training schedule must have had an impact on the total distance, as must have had training (slightly more seriously than in the past) for a half marathon, while the reduced time in the mountains meant less vertical gain.
Time comparison with the past would not be fair, though, because 2018 has been the first year in which I kept track of all activities, also indoor.

I am happy of the results I achieved running, with 4 races in the calendar year.
If I exclude the first one, the Egmond half marathon, in which I got injured and felt very bad, in every other race I performed better than expected, and managed to score a PR every single time.
For next year, I am still considering if I want to race or not, and which distance; I must admit that I am fancying the idea of running a full marathon, maybe in the fall, but I have not decided yet.

Climbing took a hit this year.
The focus was mostly on bouldering indoor, and I trained seriously during the first half of the year, which included a great bouldering trip (visiting Varazze and Sassofortino) with Mauro.
After that, I had other goals and did not train as much, and a sport/multipitch climbing trip never materialized.
Gladly, I managed to lead a couple of short sport routes last week, to end the year on a positive note.

I also wanted, in my original planning, to spend more time at altitude.
I tried to summit (unguided) the Gran Paradiso, but my partner did not feel well during our acclimatization days and bailed after reaching the Chabod hut.
At that point I did not have the time, nor the budget, to participate in a mountaineering course of some sort, or to plan for some guided trips.
A main goal for next year is to get back into the alpine, and get more technical mountaineering training.

In 2018 I had less short hiking trips, and instead had three longer ones.
The first was a mixed hiking and canoeing trip in Sweden, during which I even experimented with using a hammock for sleeping in camp.
The second trip was the Tour du Mont Blanc, that I completed in 7 days traveling alone and experiencing almost everything that the weather had to offer.
The last trip was a multi-day ascent of Triglav that included hiking and via ferrata.

Well, enough writing for today.
See you next year!

Bouldering trip in May

By isazi | August 23, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

I should probably write more often. I do actually think about posting something after every trip, but then time passes and I forget what I wanted to say, or believe it’s not that important anymore. Anyway, even if months after, and even after the videos have been on YouTube for a while, I decided to post them here.

In May I went on a climbing trip with Mauro. We decided to mainly do some bouldering (although we brought ropes, quickdraws, and harnesses just in case) and to follow the weather.
As you may remember, usually our trips are plagued by rain and floods and we barely climb anything, so this time we rented a car in Milano and drove South, first to Varazze in Liguria, and then even more South to Sassofortino in Toscana, to stay ahead of a stormy front that was coming down from the North.

We managed to climb some, and got our fingers shredded into pieces by the rocks. I guess we both thought we could climb harder and send at least a 6b, but we stayed true to ourselves and ended up climbing up to 6a+ (i.e. our usual ground).
As usual I got scared more than once, screamed, cried, and all the usual, but you will not see that in the videos.
Actually, you’ll only see few climbs in the videos because we were busy climbing and did remember to position (or turn on) my camera only few times.

So, without further ado, the videos of myself and Mauro bouldering in Varazze and Sassofortino.

What did I learn from this trip?
I did learn that if you want to have a successful climbing trip you have to be flexible and follow weather and conditions, and to do so you need to have time.
Previous trips were always too short, leaving not enough time to either enjoy the climbing, or avoid the inclemency of weather.

A year of training

By isazi | January 3, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

After reading “Training for the New Alpinism” by Steve House and Scott Johnston in 2016, I decided that 2017 would be my first year of proper training. No more running and climbing randomly, but trying to peak at the right moment, and plan all training in advance.
If you are curious about how it went, the following figure contains all the training hours of 2017, per week, and categorized in 5 different areas: running, strength training, climbing, walking, and cycling.

I was strict in training, but not excessively. I rarely skipped a session, but sometimes I rearranged things to better fit in my overall life. I tried to progress in a four weeks fashion, with three weeks of increasing effort followed by one week of reduced effort, but I could not always manage to do that.
From this figure I also excluded all non training activities, so climbing and hiking trips are not included, as well as running races and organized events.

Now, time to start planning for 2018, both training and activities.

Melloblocco 2017

By isazi | June 4, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

In May I went to Melloblocco and enjoyed some good bouldering on the granite of Val Masino and Val di Mello, together with the usual suspects: Mauro, Andrea, Marta, and Jonathan.
As usual, there was no time to record the successful ascents because of us being too stocked and busy, so the video contains mostly our failures 🙂

Falling

By isazi | May 2, 2017 | Comments 1 comment

It is not that easy to begin this post. I am not even sure anyone reads this anyway, but writing as always been something I enjoyed. Thus, I am writing. Last week I took advantage of Koningsdag being on a Thursday to travel to Chamonix.

The plan of the trip down to Cham was to hike three days, and enjoy the Alps. Simple.
I checked the weather forecasts for a while, until they converged into what we can consider a mixed forecast: rain and snow the first days, and sun the remaining ones.
I brought all the clothes and gear that I thought were enough for winter hiking, but decided to leave home mountain boots, crampons, and ice axe. I was not going to push that hard, and was ready to back off if conditions were nasty enough to require proper mountaineering gears. However, I brought microspikes and trekking poles, just to be on the safe side.

Friday the 28th of April I was hiking on the Aiguilles Rouges, at low altitude because of the snowfall that was going on since the night before. I hiked from Chamonix to the slopes below the Flegere, and was feeling good. I went up and down to put meters on my legs, and had a pretty good time. I could feel all these months of training were giving fruits as I felt in a really good shape.
At some point I lost the trail because the snow was completely covering it. I checked the map, and knowing where I was I decided to keep moving to find the trail again, and then get down. At some point I realized I was walking over a sloped boulder field, but there were trees and the risk of avalanches seemed pretty low, so I kept looking for the trail. I could always retrace my steps and go back the way I came, but it was early and my turnaround time was still few hours in the future. I was proceeding real slow, though, because I didn’t want to step on a hole and hurt myself, or get stuck.

Then I felt. I was traversing a slope, when my feet slipped below me, and I found myself lying horizontally, prone, sliding down the mountain. The only thought I had was that it was over. I was going to die on that mountain, and rest under the snow in Chamonix.
Clearly that is not what happened, as I am here writing this right now. What happened is that, after few meters, I just stopped. I stood up, moved to a tree nearby, and took the trekking poles that I wasn’t using until then.
I thought “well, that was close” but wasn’t scared, wasn’t in panic. Sure my heart was slightly faster than before when I stood up after the fall, but not that fast. Kept looking for a way down, but after few more minutes of exploration simply decided to trace my steps back. Going back I kept hiking, and was still in a pretty good mood.

Actually, I am still in a pretty good mood. What happened was that I stepped on a rocky slab that was hidden under the snow, and slipped on the wet rock. I walked more carefully going back. But I wasn’t being careless before. There were things I could have done better, e.g. use my trekking poles to check what was under the snow while moving off-trail, but I was well prepared and equipped, and I made only one mistake. Lesson learned. This is what contributes to what we call “experience”.

What surprised me, what really surprised me, is that in a split second I accepted my death. Sliding down the slab I didn’t have any doubt about that being my last moments in life, and I was OK with that. I wasn’t really scared, I wasn’t trashing, I wasn’t screaming, I wasn’t crying. I was just looking at the world moving below me, at the snow, at the trees. I was worried of the speed, there was a voice inside me saying “you are going to accelerate until you stop, then it’ll be over“. I didn’t see my life being replayed in front of me, but I acknowledge that the time was flowing slower than usual.

I don’t know why I wasn’t scared, but I am so glad I wasn’t. If that had to be the end, I certainly didn’t want to spend the last moments of my life being scared of death. Being in peace was such a better feeling.
After the fact, I didn’t think to stop wander and enjoy the beauty that this world has to offer. I didn’t think to stop hiking, climbing, exploring. I didn’t question my choices. I was happy to be there, I was happy to be who I am.

I am happy outdoor.

Category: Ordinary life