Euro Boulder Roadtrip : Magic Wood

Psyched !

... the trip just kept getting better. One of the most fun days for me was the rest day in Germany before we headed south to Switzerland. It was a scorcher of a day, we went for a hike to a lookout point and had an awesome view over the Pfalz landscape to behold. Afterwards we went to a couple of pubs nestled in the mountains, I proceeded to drink tasty weißbier in the sunshine all day long, I was flootered and spoke in the German toungue like a true native. We sampled the local cuisine too, Daragh and Adam tried schnitzel which was given two thumbs up and I tried traditional bratwurst and sauerkraut which was very tasty or 'sehr lecker' as they say in Deutschland. The nexy day held a great moment for me, the drive to Switzerland was beautiful and I got my first glimpse of the Alps and they were nothing short of magnificent. We drove past pleasant little villages clinging to the slopes of giant looming peaks and razor sharp ridges rising high above the tree line, I had a creak in me neck trying to take it all in and we were closing in on our destination, the forest known for great sorcery and the slaying of many hard boulder problems ... The Magic Wood !

Alpine Beauty

We arrived at The Magic Wood campsite, a sprawl of multi-colourd tents and multi-cultural people greeted us there, we threw our own tents into the mix and made a bee-line for the boulders. We crossed the bridge spanning the gorge above the pure, clear river water and into the giant rubble we went with exicited expectation. I was so psyched when I caught my first glimpse of the the Swiss gneiss, the fancy granite, the awesome blue blocks sculpted perfectly for sweet steep bouldering problems. I quickly limbered up and hopped on the nearest warm up and an amazing evenings bouldering ensued. The rock is similar to Glendalough granite but less abrassive to the skin, think Chillax, The Groove, The Fin Sit Start, Black Art, Barry's Problem, Leftism, Wonderland, imagine hundreds of problems like these in a great big jumble squeezed onto one little picturesque hillside in the Alps and you are getting close to the Magic Wood. After a few nice warm ups I hopped on a really fun 6C+ called Traumfanger and after a time figuring out the moves I topped it out, this would become the project of the trip for Daragh who was gunning to beast his first ever 6C.  He tried it for 3 days and couldn't do the first 2 moves even though he had the stand start dialled in, I knew he could get it if he could just get his arse in the air and keep it there, he tried and tried to no avail, I began to think he wasn't gonna get it but he pulled some sort of voodoo witchcraft shit out of the bag and nailed it, he had a look of shock on his face as he moved through the moves at the top and latched the jug, we were all surprised and impressed, it was a mighty effort, nice work lad :)

Daragh On Traumfanger His 1st 6C+

Next Marco showed me a classic line called Supercrack 6C, an awesome steep thing with twin cracks running out of a cave and into a 30 degree headwall with a single crack and precise dyno for the finish move, a pumpy little monster it was. I spent the rest of the evening on this climb until I got it, it was a memorable send due to how pumped I was at the end whilst going for the final jump. Adam worked on Supercrack for 3 days until he finally beat the pump got it too, it was his favourite problem he did at Magic Wood.

Adam Latching The Dyno On Supercrack 6C

On day two we all had a fun warm up on nice easy problems before hopping on a nice little squeeze prow called Panzer knacker 7A, we were psyched and Christian, Jamie, Adam and I all made short work of it, we all cheered and congratulated Adam for topping out his first 7A, sterling effort dude and a fine achievemnet for a lad who only started climbing 10 months ago.

Christian On Panzer Knacker 7A

Next on the agenda was more quality 7A's, I tried a sweet steep line called Scrubs 7a, a tricky slopey lip traverse called Enterprise 7A and my favourite of all was a beauty of a line called Schrotti 7a.  I only had 1 short session on Scrubs it was pure class but I never made it back to try it again, I tried Enterprise for 2 long sessions but I couldn't get it to go for me, Adam percevered and topped it out, it was a great fight and another 7A for the lad whose fingers grow stronger. I was most psyched on Schrotti however on my first try on it I found it very difficult to do the moves let alone to string them together, it was because I was knackered tired from a siege on Enterprise earlier in the day. After a rest day I found that all the moves seemed a little easier and I was ready to give it my best attempts, battle mode on ! I climbed furiously through the powerful crimpy sequence over and over again only to fall short of latching the last hard move, I tweaked my beta a little and found a foothold which made the last move easier, I was tired though and felt as though I may have found key too late. I gave it one more go, made it through the start, just, cutting loose by accident and carrying on anyways, I got in position for the final hard move and I just thrust myself up with the last remaining dregs of fuel I had ... I latched it ''Yessss'', the top out was high but easy climbing on jugs, I was delighted to have done it after falling off so many things so many times before hand :) There was a low start to this problem that was a 7B, I was up for trying it but it felt nails hard , Christain did a fine job of it which was great to see and Marco did a right exit of the problem which also went at 7a and looked like a gem of a climb.

Scrubs 7A

Schrotti 7A

Christian was in great form and really hitting his stride, 7As were mere warm ups and he was working a majestic problem called Supernova 7C. It's a vicious, long overhanging compression problem, a famous Magic Wood test piece. He was motivated and giving it all the energy he could muster. On one burn he made it right through the crux all the way to the easier climbing at the finish, he was caught by surprise and got a bit too excited, a small sequence error denied him glory and he fell to the ground psyched for getting so far through the problem, no doubt he'll return and send it very soon !

Christain Working Hard On Supernova 7C

                                                                             

 The last day in Magic Wood was a scorcher, Team Ireland were all tired, I chilled out all day taking photos and video, Adam tried Schrottee but was too tired to pull it off, he went off to the river for the afternoon with Jamie and Daragh and they had a great day sun bathing and swimming in the cool clear waters. It was a great, but all too short a visit to the Magic Wood, I would love to go back again for a 2 week trip to really explore the place and work some nice projects in the near future. We headed back to Germany just as the rains and a thunderstorm moved in over the valley, we still had 2 days of climbing left to go and the weather looked perfect back in Germany and we had T-Rex 7B on the brain ...