Last week was spent skiing at Badgastein in Austria with my family.  We had perfect snow conditions and even at a few days with nice sunshine. Heidi and I had some great moments skiing ofpiste and putting new tracks in the fresh snow. The area around Sportgastein was closed due to avalance danger, but good safe off-piste was to be found in the woods at Graukogel and Badgastein. Have look in the gallery

Heidi Tracking Powder

I went to Dansk Bjergklub’s X-mas meet on Kullen last weekend. This involves climbing on very cold rock during the day and consuming insane amounts of Christmas food and alcohol at the club hut during the evening. The temperature was just above freezing and it is has a pretty masochistic feel to rock climb in conditions like this. We did however enjoy ourselves and had a good time on the rock and at the feast during the evening.

Leading the classic Svenskerruten in rather cold conditions (Photo: C. Hylleberg)

I have not previously told you about my running on this blog, but for the last couple of months I have made very good progress on the 10K distance. Each month I try to participate in Bagsværd Sø Løbet in order to test my current form. On Sunday I did my best time this year running at 0:44:57

Anders running at Bagsværd Sø

My progression at Bagsværd Sø this year:

02/06/08: 48:30
07/07/08: 47:11
01/09/08: 46:01
28/09/08: 44:57
02/11/08: 44:23
07/12/08: 45:36 - (I was recovering from a cold)

A very satisfying form curve that I hope to keep improving! The next race is on 02/11/08 and my aim is just to keep improving. It does not matter if it’s only by a few seconds as long a there is improvement, because improving is winning!

I am having a great time climbing all grade 7 routes on Kullen. If I keep up the pace I will run out of routes within a few years. This photo was taken by Camilla Hylleberg last weekend. We had a good time on one of the most impressive walls on Kullen ‘Vandflyvervæggen’ The route is ‘Harlekin, 7-’ and it’s bolted, but only just. There are some very scary run out sections and the top is close to unprotected. It’s a good route in any case!

Anders Strange climbing Harlekin, 7- on Kullen

On Thursday I discovered a fantastic probably unclimbed line on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. It was only 6½m high, but what a line! A clean thin finger crack came down the grey granite of Holkadalen. It had to be climbed by me.

Should I climb it as a Route or just try to do it as a scary highball boulder? It looked hard and I figured that I would have no chance of placing gear while climbing.I brought out the crash pad and recruited Heidi as my spotter. It was hard, my fingers could barely fit in the crack and brutal finger locks was the only way of progress.

It took me a few tries to condition myself to accept the pain while jamming my fingers. I was at the point of resigning, but all of a sudden it all came together. What a fantastic line, this will surely become a classic.

The first ascent of Holka Risset, 7a, Holkadalen, Bornholm, Denmark.

Me and my photos from Tenerife has made it to the frontpage on the May issue of ‘Klatring’. The frontpage photo was shot early in the morning with self-timer on the summit of El Teide, 3718m - The sun is just about to rise!

Inside the magazine there is a full featured story with more of my photography including the centerfold article about my Pico de Teide ascent.

(Click the picture to read the article in Danish)

This spring has turned out to be my best season on rock, ever. I feel solid climbing around grade 7 on our local crag Kullen. It’s amazing to be warming up on routes that only last year tested me sorely. It’s impressive what training and experience will do. My objective is to climb ten grade 7 routes within a year. So far my count is seven, so I seem to be getting there.

I am taking a few days of now since i feel a bit over-trained and lack motivation. I should be back training in about a week. Later this summer, the plan is to take my newly acquired rock climbing skills to the big mountain rock routes of the Alps.

A desperate unshaved wannabe rockstar sending Deja Vu (7) on Kullen.
Photo by Morten Johansen

I had a very good time on Tenerife with my small family! It was nice and warm and the climbing lived up to the expectation. I went to the summit of Pico de Teide (3718m) on the 7th of Feburary climbing via the Altavista Hut (3200m)

The temperature was about -10 on the summit, but it was a very beautiful sunrise though it smelled very bad of sulphur on the crater rim. The climb was non-technical and only a small amount of snow and ice on the crater-rim was encountered.

I did also manage to do some bouldering at ‘Arico Nuevo’ I worked and finally climbed a fun 7A called ‘Nave Esp.’

In February 2008 Heidi, Sif and I will be on the island Tenerife for a whole month. I am really looking forward to this since my plans on the island include an ascent of the highest mountain in Spain ‘Pico de Teide’ 3.718m - a marvellous snow covered extinct volcano.

Also in the plans are rock climbing and a good deal of relaxation together with Heidi and our young daughter Sif. Tenerife has several good areas for both bouldering and rock climbing. I really like going to the beach, but after a while I usually get bored and want to go climbing. Baby Sif is of course still to young to go climbing; hopefully she plans to sleep while I’m doing it.

I have just returned from a few days in Paris. I was visiting an old friend who lives outside Paris in the small city of Recloses near the forest of Fontainebleau. Fontainebleau is a bouldering mecca. I am not a hardcore boulder, but I did manage to do some nice 6th degree Bleau problems.

Anders executes a dyno (Photo by Bo Nortvig)

Bleau is a fine place with a very special relaxed atmosphere. The sandstone climbing is highly technical and you will be punished instantly if your technique is not up to the task. The climbing is very ‘family friendly’ and so you could easily bring your non-climbing friends. This is a perfect place to learn the first moves on the rocks.